Afghanistan Report #5 - Inside Governors Headquarters - (PICS)

Had a great experience over the past couple of days visiting the
Governors headquarters in downtown Kandahar. I have to be honest, when
my good friend John Craemer invited me to spend a couple of days there,
I had visions of a guest suite at the Goveners mansion in Madison or any
other U.S. capital. Well...not exactly...anyway, the Governor was
awesome. How's this for a small world, he used to live in Wausau, said
it was one of the most beautiful cities he's ever been in and he
attneded the University of Wisconsin. In fact he mentioned the name of a
place in Sussex that he used to go to for a few refreshments...in the
form of Budweiser...in his younger days. Check it out.....

John Craemer is the tall one

Home sweet home, I'm thinking of starting a bread and breakfast
for Afghanistan vets, plywood rooms with canvas cots...it will bring
back fond memories for them:

Security is very high here, this guard post was right outside
of our room and the entire area is surrounded by towers.

Grounds of Governor mansion. Beautiful place, manicured with
precision...couldn't get the snake under the latrine out of my head
though...

I told the guard to take a break and I manned the post for

awhile...needless to say nothing got through.

I'm not sure a machine gun would be enough to stop this bug
outside our room. It was about the size of a fat mouse...

Have to be honest, I don't think downtown Kandahar would be a
great place for a guy like myself to go jogging:

Invited for an authentic Afghan lunch:

deep fried chicken and rice.

I hope the guys in the kitchen didn't mind...I did give them a
few tips during the process. I'm not positive as to what they were
saying, but I believe they were discussing how much they appreciated my input!