So every thing that needs to be done, is done. All the paperwork, the visa, the medical and evacuation insurance. Even the flight is booked.
It's Thursday and I leave next Monday. Four days to do all those little things that need to be done. Four days to keep busy so the days don't drag while I wait for that day of departure.
I posted on Face Book. Friends tell me to keep my head down, to be safe and not take chances. All those things that people say when they think someone is heading into harm's way. It reminded me of my first tour in Bosnia.
I was in Zagreb, Croatia waiting for a flight south. To Mostar, the city in Bosnia where I would be stationed along with another RCMP member. But we couldn't get a flight for three days. So we scammed a room at the military officers hotel at PLESSO, the UN airbase in Zagreb. We wandered around PLESSO meeting many interesting people who all uttered a similar opinion. "You guys are going to Mostar! You poor bastards." By the third day, both of us believed we would be dead by the end of our first day in Mostar. When we finally got there, it was bad. But not as bad as everyone thought because although we worked in Mostar, we lived about 30 km away in a relatively safe location.
So, I've been through this before and while I very much appreciate their concern, experience has shown me that perception and reality are often distant cousins.
But Mostar is another story about another planet in another life.
My new reality will see me board a flight from Calgary to Toronto followed by a flight to Dubai and then onto Kabul. Once in Kabul I expect to be processed, provided UNODC identification and if I'm lucky some sort of familiarization process before being whisked off to the city or Herat where I'm told I will spend most of my time in country. At this point it is all so abstract.
Thursday is almost over. Four sleeps and a wake up and then the adventure will begin.
