DC-Dubai

There's nothing like a transatlantic flight to clear the mind and roil the stomach. In the thirteen hours and 15 minutes it took me to get from Washington, DC to Dubai, UAE, I slept (fitfully), ate (miserably), and remapped my future. (Note to United Airlines: the hot turkey and cheese [the consistency and temperature of hot lava] sandwich you serve for breakfast in Economy upsets the stomach, scorches the tongue, and insults even the most desensitized palate.) Who was the man with the somewhere-in-Europe-but-I-can't-quite-place-it accent named John who sat next to me and initiated a short-lived (my side) conversation? Did he have any idea HOW VERY LOUD those potato chips he ate, one by one by one, sounded to the travel-weary ear at 2:00 AM? Who selects the movie "Flight" to show on an extended flight? Who am I and what am I doing? The good thing about jet lag is that it obscures those existential moments, and so I am no closer to answering the "who" and "what" questions or remapping the future than I was before I boarded Flight 976 to Dubai.

And now there is Dubai. Dusty, smoggy, murky: whatever has run amok in the elements has rendered this desert oasis for the very rich, the very mercenary, and the very disadvantaged plain old beige on this my first day here. The bling is invisible to the naked eye today. The surprise of disembarking in Dubai's international airport is not so great as it was four, three, and two years ago. Even seeing a V.I.B. (Very Important Begum) and her six co-Begums -- each dressed in the traditional black chador, hijab, and face veil, and carrying designer bags --  jump to the front of the line at Passport Control didn't take my breath away as it might have previously. It's not that I am so worldly. Hardly! It's that I have a newfound sense of this part of the world.

Dubai is a stopover on my way to Kabul, and there I have no idea what to expect. It has been a year and a half since I've traveled to Afghanistan. The military is drawing down, Karzai is finishing up (although rumors persist that another Karzai will run for the presidency in 2014), and Afghanistan's future is advancing. I am passionate about Afghanistan -- my friends, my work, what I have yet to discover -- but I can't help but wonder how I will find it and how it will find me in 2013.