Day 5

Da last day in Afghanistan. This is where we got to visit the Alamo of the Taliban - their last stand at the airport.

This is where they said Bin Laden was when the US dropped a bomb on the airport. The bomb didn't explode but there was a HUGE hole in the ceiling obviously and although it didn't go off - I'm pretty sure it still hurt a couple of people.


Nice picture to have. There probably used to be a "falling bombs" one.

From there we got our group pic - and I got one with the fighters.


The pic to the right is of Gavin and Louise - the faboulous people that set up the trip.

After we finished up at the airport we moved on to the hospital on the base - run by mainly Canadians and Americans. Below is a pic of the chief surgeon - he's a Washington Capitals fan (as you can see by the hat) - poor guy.



From there we went on to our hockey game. We were playing against the troops in this match....and it wasn't really a match. We got our butts handed to us. In the tv clip they said we lost 6-2 - they were being nice to us. I know they AT LEAST had 11 goals.

I've never been more exhausted than when I played in that game. Because we are at a high altitude, breathing in sand and playing in 40 degree weather - I thought I was going to vomit. No joke - when we watched a game on Monday with Canada vs Slovakia in ball hockey - 2 Canadian guys went over to the garbage can, threw up, and hopped back on the bench. Apparently it was common but I was really hoping not to join that elite group. I got to play on the same line as Guy Lafleur - not too many common folk get to say that.


And here is a link from the Canadian Press about the game:
http://www.lethbridgeherald.com/hockey-night-in-kandahar/2/241/1.html

After the game we got packed up to leave Kandahar. The week REALLY flew by. Before we left they took us to the memorial to commemorate all of the Fallen Soldiers in Afghanistan.

They will be taking the Memorial back to Canada when the troops pull out. This is a beautiful memorial and the best piece of architecture in Afghanistan.

We had our last dinner with the crew at KAF and then we flew off to just outside of Dubai.



We took a Herc out - and if you have been on one of those planes before - you know how loud it can be. This flight was only 3 hours - I took a Herc to Hawaii one time and it was 10 hours. That may have been the longest 10 hours of my life - but it was only $15 to fly from Winnipeg to Hawaii so you can't really argue about the price.

We arrived and I think everyone crashed immediately as we were off to Dubai in the morning.