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Randy Dixon -> Re: any aggressive athletes out there? (March 7, 2006 10:17:00 AM)
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Long story. Back in 1986 I went to Pakistan to visit friends, while I was there I decided to go see the Frontier Provinces in the north. So my friend's friend's cousin told me he had relatives there I could stay with, he wrote me a note, half in Urdu, half in Pashtu, neither of which I read (though I can read a little now), put me on a bus with some instructions to the bus driver to let me off when we got there. Well, the bus drive was an adventure in itself, up in the mountains, and opposing buses constantly playing chicken. Whenever we stopped to stretch, I could see the crashed cars and buses at the bottom of the hills. The bus driver as a gesture of courtesy, or perhaps to protect me, had me sit right next to him, thanks. After driving all day, the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere, next to a little shack and the driver informed me I had arrived. I got out, he drove away and I stood there. After only 10 minutes or so a jeep and a small Toyota pickup with two guys in the back with automatic weapons pulled up. Six guys, all armed with automatic weapons got out, I stood there with a change of clothes, my toothbrush and an $9.99 camera from Walgreens. The guy who was the leader came up, I gave my best smile and handed him the note. He just glanced at it, and told me, gestured actually to get in the Jeep. No one pointed their guns at me, they didn't have to. I got in, not knowing if I had been kidnapped or what was going to happen. I was 21 and too stupid to be scared, it was just surreal. We drove about an hour and then we pulled up to a large compound, most houses are like compounds there, and a guy came out, they handed him my note, he looked puzzled then he ripped it up. I got a little nervous at that point. But then he came over and introduced himself in English, bad English but English.
I stayed with him 3 days, he showed me around his village and the mountains, they sent little boys running ahead to tell all the women to hide, I would just see them like ghosts flitting into their houses. I was a big hit, I had an entourage of a dozen men everywhere I went and more kids. They gave me an SKS to hold, and explained that their rival tribes might try to kidnap me or shoot me just to gain some points. That night they had a celebration because one of them had kidnapped a car. He showed me some opium fields and a small warehouse with small bricks of heroin.
They took me on a road trip, of sorts, there was no road. It was high in the mountains, pretty although barren. I mentioned something about Afghanistan, they told me we were standing in Afghanistan. This scared me, the Russians were there at the time, I had just finished ROTC, had been commissioned a second lieutenant, even though I hadn't been called to active duty yet. I could just see an international incident over me wanting to look at some mountains.
Anyway, when it came time to leave they drove me back to the "bus station", insisted on paying, and sent me on my way. They were real nice people. When I got back to Karachi, my friends were close to panic, the friend's friend's cousin had contacted them and said I hadn't shown up.
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