One of the American vehicles broke down en route. Unknown to us, the agents were inside and decided to cancel the trip and beat an unseemly retreat to the airport.
It actually took two hours of bone-crunching, off-road driving to get to the village. By the time we arrived, the whole district had gathered on either side of a long cordon to greet the Americans who had funded their new school.
Unfortunately, I and the BBC’s cameraman, Sanjay, were the only foreigners to turn up.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7991937.stm
Understandably, he seems rather peeved.
I finally hobbled into bed at three in the morning. My back was sore, my neck seized-up and I could barely move my head.
We had been on the road for 21 hours and were only home thanks to the good grace, generosity and ingenuity of our new Afghan friends – and no thanks to our US hosts.