Dear friends and supporters: Last night was a bit intense for the boys, and I didn’t want to post anything until I knew they were ok…
Here’s a recap of their trip so far:
They flew from Portland to Washington D.C. and had a few hour layover in D.C., so they took the train to go have lunch somewhere in town.
Sleeping on the flight to DC…
Then they boarded a plane for their 14 hour flight to Dubai.
They spent about another 14 hours in Dubai. Armen said they went out of the airport and saw the city a little. “We went to a HUGE mall that was about a mile long and never saw the end of it.” (one of the attached pictures show a giant fountain wall with the statue-divers. Pretty incredible!). Two Shiekhs looking at the tallest building in the world in Dubai
Two Shiekhs looking at the tallest building in the world in Dubai
Armen also this about the mall: “At some places it was 4 stories high. Inside there was a semi-pro hockey game being played, an aquarium and an outside shopping area that wasn’t actually outside.”
From Dubai, it was a few hour flight to Kabul. Armen said the man they sat next to on the plane from Dubai to Kabul works for the UN in Libya.
View of Kabul from the plane
They landed in Kabul last night (about 8:00pm PST our time and 7:30am their time). We couldn’t reach their hosts, so they made their way to a small hotel/bunker in a very short, but intense, cab ride.
At the bunker/hotel they waited while I tried to reach their hosts. Armen says the part of the city they drove through to get to the hotel was really messed up and their hotel was essentially in a compound, where he said, “No slum or shanty I’ve ever seen matches. There are at least 2 dudes at the hotel with AK47’s and several at the gate leading into the compound. There’s an Italian restaurant across the street/ally from the hotel and when we pulled up in the taxi a dude stepped out with an AK47.”
After trying to call the hosts on Skype AND Facebook messaging AND emailing for a few hours, I was finally able to reach their hosts who picked them up very quickly after, thankfully!
Armen said, “It’s a totally different world over here, but the countryside is breathtaking.”
Hopefully we’ll be getting some great pics of that soon and some less intense news. It was a few stressful hours for me as mom and wife while trying to reach their hosts, knowing that Armen and Mikai were holed up in a little “bunker” in what sounded like a pretty charged up area. Everything was resolved around 1am my time so I was finally able to go to sleep! We also heard from them this morning, and all is well.
Attached are a few pictures from their trip so far. They will be there until April 29th and fully intend to take lots of video and photos to highlight the GOOD things about this place — which are plentiful.
Thank you ALL for your support so far! It has made a huge difference. More updates coming soon…
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Rachel Karl