The Subjective Beauty of Afghanistan

If you can describe where Tom is as beautiful, be my guest. He sent me pictures of the compound where he is, and beautiful was not the first word that came to mind. I was thinking desolate, dingy, grey from the gravel and dusty, very dusty!! The two pictures show in detail the conditions in which Tom is living. The first picture, shown left, details the work compound in which all of the vehicles that Tom is responsible for. His guys, or troops, also fix vehicles in this location. What I noticed primarily from this picture was the amount of dust that is in the air. Everything seems to be covered by a fine layer of dust. It looks very far away. Definitely another world away.

The second picture that Tom sent to me was of the sunset his first evening at the Kandahar Airfield (KAF). You can see the swirling dust in the picture as the sun is setting. If you click on the pictures, it will open up a larger version, so you can see the detail.

But Tom was right. Even though the situation over there is so dangerous and the living conditions are not what we could imagine over here, he has stepped outside of that world and has found something beautiful. It creates a slightly surreal image that I can only imagine from the picture what it is like.

I don't think there is anything over here that can compare to this type of environment, especially with the sound of rockets and rounds going off in the distance. Conflict is so foreign to people in Canada, it seems as though it doesn't actually exist except in movies, books or on television. I guess this is the one time when we can actually peer into the everyday real lives of the people in Afghanistan that are being aided by this mission.

I guess beauty is subjective. And I agree with Tom, that even though there is a terrible conflict going on and he has restricted himself to the base, which is prison-esque in his mind, there is still beauty around him that he can take a minute or two to enjoy. That's a very happy thought.