Bors Blog

Just checking in to let you know that I still exist. Sketchbook pages will slow down as I turn my focus over to syndicated cartoons and some longer pieces in the next few weeks and months. The trip is nearing the end and it won’t be long until I’m back in Portland, where I’m actually looking forward to the rain (and beer).

A comment about my recent Afghanistan cartoon caught my eye.

Their construction industry isn’t hampered by union thieves and outrageous, unreasonable environmental regulations.

Yes, no corruption in Afghanistan! And let me tell you, staying in buildings that were erected in the last few years, this place could use some building codes. Environmental regulations? Not any that I’m aware of. Shit and piss run in the gutter next to the trash and flies swarming the dead dog carcass. No one is in charge of cleaning it up so no one does. No free market solution seems to have popped up.

Obama drastically increased the number of boots on the ground and the use of predator drone attacks. What a liberal.

David Axe leaves for the Congo this week to report from one of the most troubled places on Earth. There are plans to do some work together from this trip and Bors Blog wishes him him well from Herat, Afghanistan.

You can follow his reportiong at warisboring.com.

Our original plan had us staying out of Kabul, but we took a detour there due to the Taliban’s infiltration of the formerly calm north. After five days of trying to line up a driver, we realized no one would take us trough the Hindu Kush to Herat. We briefly considered buying dirt bikes and doing it ourselves, but didn’t want our obits written just yet.

So we flew to Herat.

When we travel outside of the city, we go local: shalwar kamiz, scarves and our beards on display. On a ride back from the Turkmenistan border searching for the gas pipeline, police pulled us over and hopped out of their truck brandishing AKs. They demanded to know if we spoke Pashto and what we were doing there. They were confused when they found out we were American journalists–they had seen us driving and thought we were Taliban. Our disguises were working too well.

When we got back in town we got trimmed up at a barber near our hotel, putting my beard back to its normal size. It was relaxing to sit in a chair and get a haircut after the stresses of travel. Then a barber suddenly dropped to the floor in convulsions, blood streaming from his mouth. Everyone jumped up in a panic. I thought someone shot him, but it turned out it was just an epileptic seizure.

Things here are very boring. Until they are not.

Here’s one I had in the can for a while to use while I went on “vacation.”