We made our first trip to Barek Aub today, delivering the school supplies that we had bundled up yesterday.

The drive wasn't long in distance, but in time because of the terrain we had to cover. Driving through Kabul, Ron B., who had been to Kabul three or four times before, commented on how big everything had gotten. We took a paved highway much of the distance, and Ron B. talked about how the last time he was here, the whole area was barren - destroyed and flattened by the Taliban. Now, gas stations, small markets, homes and crops had sprung up along the highway. I couldn't help but think about I-25 north of Denver, and how the stretch between Fort Collins and Thornton where it's becoming one long development.

We turned off the highway and onto a dirt road that would have been a off-roader's dream. The road didn't seem wider than a narrow one-way street and it was filled with bumps, crevices and even a stream or two to drive over. Along much of the sides were ancient trees, thicker than most of the trees we're used to in Denver. Also, thick, sturdy and tall mud walls lined the path to denote people's property. The only thing that looked new was a school with opaque blue glass walls, with children who ran over and waved as we drove by.

Further up we saw Kuchi (spelling?) people - nomads who work as herders. They had plenty of lambs and donkeys, but we also spotted a couple pair of camels as well.

We saw Barek Aub from the dirt road, but I didn't recognize it at first. I had heard stories of the people there suffering through an awful winter living in tents, so I was expecting a tent city with a few mud brick houses scattered about. It was exactly the opposite, with a burgeoning city of mud brick houses with a few tents, used as the school. You could tell that many of the elders on the grounds were happy to see us, waving, shaking hands, and even getting a few smiles.

They led the younger children out of the tent so that the Flatirons teams could hand out the school supplies.

We were allowed into the clinic - which for right now is just an elder's house that he allows to be used as a clinic - and I noticed that it was very small - no larger than a cheap hotel room, and there was a sticker pointing out the contribution of Flatirons to have a clinic built. We visited the future site of the clinic, which was only a few feet away.

Later on in the afternoon we were given a tour of the city. We were told that basically all of Kabul, whether it looked new or not, had been rebuilt after the fall of the Taliban. Afghanistan's past 30 years have been inundated with war, either with the Soviet Union, in Civil War amongst the Muhjadeen, who are tribal war lords, and into the current engagement with Taliban forces. A more in-depth history can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan#Republic.

Our tour guide said about 90 percent of the people in Afghanistan like Americans, which I thought was a pretty good ratio. He also said the Taliban has no chance of ever ruling the country again, because people remember how bad things became under its regime.

We went out to eat at night, going to a local Thai restaurant. I read a Wall Street Journal story about the woman who owns the restaurant. Apparently, she moves her restaurant to wherever an area is in war or recovering from it. Before coming to Afghanistan, she was in Kosovo. The list goes on and on. She likes going to these areas because there's no competition and all the foreign officials still need some place to eat. I had some pad noodles with beef. I liked it.