Well after 6 weeks in Afghanistan and seeing all the troops and entourages, going to parties full of journalists, do-gooders, and spies the real writing is finally on the wall. Hamid Karzai, the so-called mayor of Kabul couldn't get in an armored truck and take a short drive through the capitol yesterday. The checkpoint cops are still showing up, the guards are still around with their guns but the black flags are flying all over town and all the nationalist colors can't drown em out. Not when the junkie president is a no-show to his multi-million dollar parade. This is pretty close to anarchy.

The skating's  been good, snowboarded the Salang pass last week, it's always good to get out of the smog here in Kabul. I guess I should start from the beginning, I'm here volunteering with Skateistan. We teach art, English and Skateboarding to about 300 Kabuli kids. Many of them kids that don't get to go to standard schools since they work on the streets. The street kids or working kids have been the most obvious example of high-dollar education programs' shortfalls. One hour in the classroom, one hour in the skatepark and the kids come every chance they get whether they're scheduled to be here or not they get through the gates and try to get into the classroom. Did I mention how incredibly tough these kids are? Every skate session I'm amazed at the progression and the ambition. Check out Skateistan.org for more of the story and maybe I'll get around to posting more about the trip thus far. Second day in the country we road tripped to Bamiyan for the Nowroz or New Year Celebration. It happens that my birthday is New Years over here and the festival in Bamiyan was beautiful. I'll try to link photos, we got to skate an incredible hill, an old Soviet dumptruck and every piece of pavement in town. We watched the sunset from the top of the big buddha niche, visited the most amazing ruins I've seen anywhere and partied like it's 1253, which is the year it turned, I think. All I know is we partied and the road went on until the truck got stuck so we didn't make it to Band e Amir lake. Well, sorry to people who thought I might be posting on Facebook as they're known over there, over here we call them the CIA and either way they won't let me post anything. Boo Hoo I've been rocking the Banana bread and Brobocop our neighbors love that track. Hope all's good in the zones over there I miss you all. Peace

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