We travelled to Helmand province, the roads ruined by IEDs. The place was completely fucked. Hundreds of homes were destroyed in the fighting over the so many years but I finally got a chance to ride the roads and see it for myself.
I dressed local and tried wearing a lungi, the wrap the Pashtuns generally wear and what the Taliban generally sport. Shafiq knew how to put it on properly.
Building and vehicles lay destroyed on the way to Lashkar Gar because we had to get permission to from the Minister of Information Culture to go to Sangin where most of the Brits fought and where the opium field flourished.
The Minister was an asshole, you could see he wanted money out of us to go to these places. Money for Taliban minders and petrol for their cars. In the end he gave us one guy who crammed in our car and off we went and it would cost us $50.
The guide was somewhat nice enough though and pleased to get out of the ministry. He grabbed his AK47 and jumped in. He was amazed by Lashkar Gar, he never got to see the city because he spent most of his life in the Taliban. He told us he used to set up IEDs on the road and was very good at setting up bombs on the road. I laughed, cause now the Taliban are responsible for repairing the roads now that they are in power.
Despite the dryness of Sangin, it is amazingly beautiful with its red dirt. The blood of thousands of Afghans spilt here. Plenty of farmlands that was fought over. Back in day the poppy was everywhere. It wasn’t the season but the guide found us a small crop growing. Part time to make cash, our Talib guide used to cultivate the opium. When it was time to fight the Brits we dug up his AK to go fight and when he needed to run away, he buried it in the ground. Anyway he knew something about cultivation and so he got into the field and started showing us how to do it.
Some villagers came out and we interviewed them about poppy cultivation. They had been doing it for decades. The eldest had been doing it his whole life, only cutting down during the first Taliban. This time around they seem to not think the Taliban would stop them. It was their income, if they can find them something better they would.
The Taliban mindset though was if you sold heroin in Afghanistan you were a criminal but if you exported it out to kill the kuffar (the foreigners) that seem totally acceptable.
Many of the villagers lost family through the years of fighting, they were glad it was finally over. None of their children had ever been to school as the fighting hadn’t stopped here and no one, government or NGOs would build anything because of the instability.
The day was getting late and we headed back to Kandahar. We dropped our guide to get a lift back to Lashkar Gar giving him a few extra for a ride. Helmand would take years till the place seem normal again.
This is grouse