Thanksgiving come and gone

Well,
Turkey day has come and gone here in Afghanistan. Lunch was awesome, although not served by any surprise guest servers of political persuasion. The meal included: Turkey, ham, crab legs, gumbo, steamship round, vegetables, mashed potatoes, yams, salad, shrimp cocktail and was topped of with a pile of deserts including pumpkin pie, apple pie, and my personal favorite...Baskin Robbins Mint Chocolate chip ice cream. They even had sparkling fruit juice in bottles for us to drink!

Needless to say, after lunch most of us went into our triptophan (misspelled I'm sure) coma and didn't accomplish a whole lot (including my daily trip to the gym). But I did wind up just snacking my way through the rest of the day on cookies, nuts and other goodies sent to me and my hooch mates from home. Thanks for all the snacks.

The weather has moved in for the last two days, with rain and plummeting temperatures. Once the clouds clear I hope to grab some pix of the mountains covered in snow, so expect a posting early next week.

I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving; enjoy the family and friendships.

Monty

Mountain village

Mountain village
Originally uploaded by Pandora and Bacchus.

This mountain village is in the river Darya-ye Konar valley between Jalalabad and Asadabad Afghanistan. The town reminded me of a small town in the Dolomite Mtns of northern Italy. Green terraced fields in a river wash down from the mountains.

Jalalabad

Jalalabad
Originally uploaded by Pandora and Bacchus.

Downtown Jalalabad Afghanistan. Jalalabad (J-Bad) is on the main valley and river between Kabul and Peshawar Pakistan. J-bad is in the river valley created by the river Darya-ye Kabul as it runs into Pakistan.

Selseleh-Ye Spin Ghar

Selseleh-Ye Spin Ghar
Originally uploaded by Pandora and Bacchus.

Afghanistan is an amazing country, and it reminds me of Arizona. There were high pine forests on the sides of mountains along the Pakistan border, wide river valleys that were ribbons of green surrounded by brown desert, and moonlike craterscapes. One of the rivers east of Bagram looks like the Colorado river south of Hoover Dam. Here are some photos from a flight from Khowst to Jalalabad. The first is in the Selseleh-Ye Spin Ghar mountain range. It reminds me of Northern Arizona.