Thurs May 20th 2010
3:15am
We left the hotel in Dubai at 12am local time to catch our 3:30am flight to Kabul.
Looking around the gate, the people waiting to board reminded me of the crowd I’d gotten used to seeing on the flight from Amman to Baghdad: about half locals… the rest western journalists, contractors and private security.
On the bus that took us to our plane, a young woman struck up a conversation with me.
“First time to Kabul?” she asked, and guessed I was “with the news.”
31-year-old Rona is an Afghanistan native who is now living in Sydney, Australia. She and her mother, who spoke no English but flashed me wide smiles, told me they were eager to see their family, especially after the car bomb that killed 18 people in Kabul just a couple of days ago.
On the plane, Rona came to visit me at my seat, and told me more about her past, present, and hopes for the future.
Her family fled Kabul in 1998 because of the Taliban.
She told me about the day her mother and father packed up their nine children and ran from the country, taking the family first to Iran.
Rona left Kabul with just the clothes on her back. Her parents locked up the house with everything they owned inside. Rona says her mother cried as they shut the door, and didn’t stop crying for their first six months in Tehran. The family moved to Australia 5 years ago after the Red Cross helped them get visas.
Rona and her family have come back to Afghanistan to visit several times since leaving 12 years ago. Rona remarked upon how dangerous her home country is right now, saying she expects it to become more dangerous over the next year. But she’s not sticking around to find out.
After this brief visit, Rona is going back to Australia where her fiance will soon join her.
Her fiance is her 20-year-old first cousin, but the marriage was not arranged. He pursued her on one of her previous visits home. But Rona fears all he wants is an Australian visa. She has friends who she says were wooed into marriage, only to be left by their husbands a few days after the wedding. Despite this, Rona did her hair and make-up on the plane in preparation of seeing her fiance at the airport. Her family is encouraging her to marry him because it would get another member of the family out of Afghanistan. In Australia, Rona is studying to be a nurse but isn’t sure if she will ever work as one. She mainly hopes to settle down with her husband and start a family.
On the ground, I saw several men approach Rona and her mother, but I couldn’t tell which one was her fiance.
I caught Rona’s eye so I walked over, hugged her and gave her my email. As I was walking away, I heard her yell something about two weddings and coming to Australia. I think I might just get an invitation.
Tuesday, May 19th 2010
6:30am local Dubai
11:30pm eastern
I’ve been traveling 12 hours so far. But the journey has just begun.
It could take us 4 days to get to final destination: a forward operating base outside a Taliban held town in the southern part of Helmand Province.
That’s where the marines we met at Twenty-nine Palms, the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion are set up.
Right now I am flying from JFK to Dubai, experiencing a sort a decadence I don’t experience in my day to day life and certainly will not experience once on the ground in Afghanistan.
We have hot food, fruit, champagne and coffee… And widescreen TVs overloaded with movies, music and television choices. I’m listening to calming sounds of whales and dolphins as I read up on the situation in Afghanistan.