May 15th, 2013 at 2:00PM: Troop Rewards provides recovery vacations to returning U.S. soldiers and their families who served overseas. To do that, Troop Rewards relies on hotels and private vacation property owners to donate unused inventory, sort of like a hotel might release a number of rooms to Priceline for bidding.
This year, Florida's Sandpearl resort is teaming up with Troop Rewards to provide recovery vacations ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Afghanistan posts
Recovery Vacations A Hit With Soldiers Returning From War
May 15th, 2013 at 2:00PM: Troop Rewards provides recovery vacations to returning U.S. soldiers and their families who served overseas. To do that, Troop Rewards relies on hotels and private vacation property owners to donate unused inventory, sort of like a hotel might release a number of rooms to Priceline for bidding.
This year, Florida's Sandpearl resort is teaming up with Troop Rewards to provide recovery vacations ...A Traveler In The Foreign Service: Tribute To Slain Diplomat Anne Smedinghoff
Apr 9th, 2013 at 9:00AM: The Foreign Service lost one of its own on Saturday when a suicide bomber detonated explosives that killed 25-year-old Foreign Service Officer Anne Smedinghoff and four other Americans, three soldiers and one civilian Department of Defense employee in Afghanistan. Smedinghoff was a second-tour public diplomacy officer who was part of a convoy that was delivering donated books to a new school in ...Half The Sky Launches Facebook Game To Provide Funding For Women And Girls Worldwide
Feb 20th, 2013 at 3:00PM: About 300 million people play social games on Facebook per month. Now imagine if even a fraction of their time was spent playing games that could trigger funding for positive causes.
That's the concept behind "Half the Sky Movement: The Game," a new Facebook game that engages players in a series of stories and adventures related to the challenges facing women and girls worldwide. The journey ...Biking In Afghanistan: The Power Of Two Wheels To Change Perspective
Jan 4th, 2013 at 1:00PM:
"Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of riding a bike." John F. Kennedy
Bikes have long been a simple mode of transportation, getting us from point A to point B. But riding a bike doesn't just get you somewhere; the process is fun. There is joy in riding a bicycle.
When I travel I am always on the lookout for bikes and what the local bike culture is. In my hometown of Portland, ...Faces Of Afghanistan: Why A Personal Connection Is The Most Important Part Of Travel
Dec 13th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
"The people are sweet, the country's a mess."
I had asked an NGO worker with a teaching and military background about his perspective of Afghanistan.
It's always hard to sum up a place in a sentence, be it Australia or Afghanistan, but this one kind of said it all, in a particularly heartbreaking way.
Read a newspaper article and you get to know a place. Have an exchange with an ...What Does Kabul Really Look Like? Exploring The Streets Of Afghanistan's Capital
Dec 10th, 2012 at 2:00PM:
The first time I sat in a car in Kabul I was tense. This was the place of car bombs and terrorists after all, wasn't it? My eyes darted back and forth between the driver, the road and all that was taking place around me. It was sensory overload.
The security situation is ever present in Kabul, there's no denying that something could happen at any point in time. Then again, the same thing ...For The Intrepid Traveler: The Top 5 Destinations In Kabul
Dec 8th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
Kabul might not be the world's number one tourist destination, but there's plenty to see in and around the busy capital that boasts 5 million residents. Hire a driver and check out some of the city's top destinations. ...More Cow's Head: Eating Local In Afghanistan
Dec 7th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
"Chaay?" Tea?
"Balay lotfaan." Yes, please.
Yet another glass of tea was being served. Tea is the social lubricant of Afghanistan, the thing that brings people together, fuels meetings and provides for an afternoon excuse for a break.
There are no pints of beer or glasses of wine or whiskey gingers, but in a dry country, there's always tea. That's the thing about food and drink, we can ...Moments Of Serendipity: Daily Life In Afghanistan
Dec 6th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
Good travel pushes you to let go of control, and Afghanistan is certainly one of those places. Here, daily life is dictated by security decisions, which roads are safe to travel on and which ones are not, and if you are trying to stick to a concrete plan, something will surely get in the way. Afghanistan is the place for serendipity, a place that when you come to understand that you have ...Mountain2Mountain: Advocating For Voice And Women's Empowerment In Afghanistan
Dec 5th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
Three years ago I was in Telluride, Colorado attending Mountainfilm festival. I was particularly blown away by a series of huge photographs that depicted life in Afghanistan. I remember being particularly moved by one of a beggar woman in a burqa, sitting in the middle of a dusty street with a boy sitting in her lap. I had read, and even written about the Streets of Afghanistan photo exhibit, in ...A Trip Through The Kabul Airport - With A Few Extra Security Checks
Dec 4th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
"You go to Afghanistan for holiday?"
I was trying to explain why I was spending a couple of weeks in Kabul to the Afghan man sitting next to me on the airplane, attempting to be as vague as possible so as to not give away too many personal details about what I was doing and who I was. Better to err on the side of too little information than too much. He was, on the other hand, highly ...To Afghanistan And Back: The Process Of Getting A Visa
Dec 3rd, 2012 at 11:00AM:
"I need to include a prepaid, self-addressed Priority envelope to get my passport sent back," I said to the young man at the mail counter.
"Oh, are you sending this to the passport processing center?" he asked looking up from his computer.
"Um, no ... the Embassy of Afghanistan."
His response to my answer was silence, but I could see the wheels turning in his head, wondering why in ...Why Would Anyone Ever Go To Afghanistan?
Nov 30th, 2012 at 9:00AM:
"I got asked to go to Afghanistan."
The parents obviously weren't excited with that statement and what ensued was a "we support you but this is going to be difficult for us" conversation. When you pitch your parents on traveling to a conflict zone, this conversation is inevitable.
I would have that same conversation with lots of people in the weeks before taking off to a country that ...Traveler Visits Every Country In The World Without Boarding A Plane
Nov 30th, 2012 at 8:00AM: A British man has accomplished what many world travelers have only dreamed of. Over the course of the past four years, he has managed to visit every country on the planet, which is a very impressive feat considering some of the places he had to go to in order to earn this unique distinction. But perhaps most impressive of all is that he traveled to all of those places without ever stepping foot on ...Mes Aynak, One Of The World's Great Archaeological Treasures, Is About To Be Destroyed
Nov 28th, 2012 at 3:00PM: Time is running out to save one of the world's great archeological sites. On Christmas Day, archeologists who have been working to preserve Mes Aynak, a stunning archeological site in Afghanistan with more than 5,000 years of history, will be forced off the site to make way for a Chinese mining company that plans to extract copper from beneath the site.
The Chinese government owned company, ...A Traveler In The Foreign Service: The Petraeus Fallout - Keep Your Pants On And Watch Out For Honorary Consuls
Nov 17th, 2012 at 10:00AM: In the wake of the David Petraeus-Paula Broadwell-Jill Kelley scandal, many Americans are wondering why General Petraeus felt compelled to resign. Shouldn't consenting adults be allowed to cheat on their spouses, so long as it doesn't impact their job performance? The most recommended comment on a New York Times story in the immediate aftermath of Petraeus' resignation follows this line of ...Introducing The 2013 National Geographic Adventurers Of The Year
Nov 3rd, 2012 at 8:00AM: Yesterday National Geographic introduced their selections for the 2013 Adventurers of the Year, doling out the honor to some of the most daring – not to mention fascinating – people on the planet. As always with these awards, the recipients are people who routinely push themselves to the limit while attempting things that most of us would never even dream of.
Probably the best-known ...National Museum Of Afghanistan Struggles To Rebuild
Sep 10th, 2012 at 1:30PM:
Afghanistan has a rich heritage. As a crossroads of trade it spawned numerous civilizations that were influenced by cultures as far away as Macedonia. There was even a thriving Buddhist culture in Afghanistan that created art inspired by Classical Greek models.
It's also been rocked by decades of war that saw the destruction of many of its ancient sites and museums. The National Museum of ...
Traveling Photo Exhibit Shows A Different Side Of Afghanistan
Aug 28th, 2012 at 12:00PM: Beauty often isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Afghanistan. However, a new traveling photo exhibit from non-profit organization Mountain2Mountain aims to change that.
"Streets of Afghanistan" features life-size images from both Afghan and Western photographers that challenge the perceptions most people hold about this complex country. The intention is not only to ...A Traveler In The Foreign Service: A Globetrotting USAID FSO Serving in Afghanistan
Aug 2nd, 2012 at 10:00AM: USAID Foreign Service Officer David Thompson has lived in eight countries in the last 15 years and has visited countless others, but at 46, his adventures are far from over. He helped reconstruct homes in the immediate aftermath of the war in Bosnia, worked to restore democracy in Honduras after a coup, and has lived through attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul while serving there as the head of ...
