2-26-07

One of my friends just emailed some questions that I thought I'd answer quickly before turning in for the night. She said that our villa looks huge. Well, it kinda is! It's a 4 story place, one level just below ground with three others above ground. Our offices are on the below ground floor, along with two bedrooms and a storage room. Our security guys double up in the bedrooms down there. The security guys' main office is on our main floor with the living room, dining room, kitchen, 1 bath, and 1 bedroom. The 2nd floor, where we're at, has 5 bedrooms and the room I'm in sleeps two so 6 of us are here on the 2nd. There are 3 bathrooms on this floor as well. The 3rd floor I've only seen once, but I think there may be 2 bedrooms with baths, and 3 security guys.

In all, I believe there are at least 14 people that sleep in the villa, and we have three more coming in next week for a short time. There's a guard shack manned 24-7 outside the gate you see in the snowy picture, and to the left inside the wall is another security hut where a couple guys stay. Needless to say, we're well covered with guards!

Now, the area of town we're in is obviously not the same as what you see in the pictures I've posted. The villas around us are pretty similar to ours in size. The Spanish Embassy is just around the corner, and the house being built next to us is valued at like $500k - $1M USD. Definitely NOT par for the course in Kabul, but at least there is money coming into the economy, which bodes well for the city and country.

From here on, I'll likely refer to our security force as Blue H to make it easier, at least for me. Okay, off to bed. 8:00 am meeting with the Army and ya can't be late to those things!

Cheers!