Wayward: Buzkashi

In the morning, the ground was frozen and the footpaths in CNL were icy. I chose not to go running, but instead I spent 40 minutes on the crosstrainer. After breakfast MOT X's second in command said that they were going to go out to have a look at a game of Buzkashi and asked if I wanted to come along. Of course I wouldn't miss a chance to experience something - or anything - after 3 full days of boredom in the camp. Unfortunately, when we came to the playing field the people there told us that the game wouldn't begin until one o'clock. After lunch it was time for the Suomi-brief, but then we set off again with MOT X, and this time we were joined by 4 more Finns who were interested in a little military tourism.

The game was a complete chaos. In a field were about 200 riders on horses, and the field was surrounded by at least 3000 people and about a hundred cars. Somewhere in the middle there was the black, headless body of a sheep, which the riders tried to grab hold of. Sometimes the riders would gallop out of the playing field and though the audience, and then back to the field from a different direction. The sheep was most of the time surrounded by a thick wall of horses and men. Every now and then a horse would rise up on its hind legs and its front hooves would land on another horse and rider. It looked very violent and dangerous. There were children selling food and sweets, and also some armed policemen and army troops present.

Quite unexpectedly an opportunity to get back to Aybak presented itself, when the Finnish soldiers who were returining from leave suddenly appeared in camp Marmal. They were almost three days behind schedule, but everyone had expected them to be even more delayed, so their arrival was a nice surprise. Without wasting another minute, they came to CNL to collect me, and we drove to Aybak, arriving a few minutes past 2100.