This vista is the Panjshir River in Kapisa.
Our vehicles traveling on a road we’re building.
Here is that same contractor again. He’s Pashtun and VERY jovial.
We stopped for a very quick meeting to say hello, but he insisted we have a bite to eat. He pays his 1000+ employees about $4/day (a very reasonable Afghan wage), but the big benefits are two meals a day and transportation to the mosque for prayers. Have I mentioned that Afghan food is tasty? Well, this image shows one of my favorite meals: dry bread with rice, dipped in a meat sauce.
Here is another view of Parwan Province.
These boys are in a market in the city of Charikar.
The contrast is stark here.
The next set of pictures is from our Christmas Eve party (and we repeated the event on New Year’s Eve). Jon (our Doc) wanted to share his family’s tradition with our team. So, we all enjoyed a cigar together on a cool Christmas Eve.
This is Patrick.
The George.
Cindy.
Daniel, who is gifted with languages and computers.
Todd, one of the other civil engineers, who does a great job, no matter what he’s doing.
Yes, I enjoyed a cigar too (sorry, Mom).
We have many meetings with the Afghans.
The Afghans also have many meetings with us. This particular one is to gain support from the leaders of the area around a proposed project. The idea is that we present project proposals that are technically viable and sufficiently planned to a board of Afghans. They then have a voice in the process to recommend a contractor. With that process, we gain buy-in and they can help ensure a quality project is produced. Although we (the US govt) retain final authority to choose a contractor, the Afghans help us choose the best contractor for every project.
I know I look a little funny in this picture, but I was emphatically indicating where we needed to go.
These gentlemen were in a meeting with us. I love the lighting in this image and the Chief added a great filter. Now, I think this image could be from an Afghan Van Gogh.
I’m not sure if this color is natural or not, but it’s certainly colorful.
More interesting contrasts: the new and old, the water and desert and reflection and reality.
Those images depict our second month here. My time here remains a very rewarding and exciting experience.
I look forward to the summer when construction can resume in earnest.
Until the next post…
–Jim
Month: January 2009
Afghanistan — Month Two (Part 1)
OK, now that we’ve been in Afghanistan for about 2 months, I thought it was about time to sort through all the pictures we’ve taken and show you a few. As was the case with the last post, most are my pictures, but not all. In the age of digital media, every time we doing anything, we photo-document the event.
These boys are from a small village in northern Kapisa.
These goats and their herder are from the same area.
I love this girl’s expression. When we move through towns and villages, we tend to attract attention. So, we also get a range of expressions: From awe and wonder, to apprehension, to fear, to joy, to resentment. It really covers the whole spectrum.
Spice is a very important part of Afghan cooking. I’ve had the pleasure of tasting some very delightful meals. In fact, I would say that the food here is some of my favorite. Although I stay away from dairy products now, pretty much everything else is delicious. I highly recommend going to your local Afghan restaurant to try for yourself.
This khana (house) is very typical Afghan construction. It’s from a trip we took in Parwan Province.
When we went down to the embassy in Kabul, this colorful balloon seller was walking down the road.
Although you can tell this image has been through Photoshop, it’s a good representation of taking a building from conception to design and finally to completion. It is also from Parwan Province.
A great view over Kapisa Province.
This is during a collection of contractor proposals. I think I was getting a little anxious and was ready to go…
This is one of our contractors. You’ll see him again in the next post.
Here we are out inspecting a small bridge we built in Parwan.
Taking notes to inspect the quality.
I even had a little help taking the measurements.
Here are some of the workers. The stone masons here can do incredible work.
The Afghan government (with our help) puts on women’s capacity building training on a regular basis. Often, it’s in the form of successful Afghan women (elected leaders, judges, doctors, ect) who come and speak to other Afghan women to educate them on ways to improve their station in life. The idea is that if women know more about their rights and have a greater voice in society, then the more moderating influence they have. Although there are parts of our area that too conservative (read: women’s rights repressed), most areas are very receptive to this type of training.
The Afghan constitution also stipulates that there will be a certain number of women representatives (30%). She is an example of that and is a member of the provincial council, which is part of the elected leadership of the province.
Many were lined up, waiting to come in.
This image is from the recent visit by President Bush. Although I didn’t get a chance to meet him, it was a nice gesture that he stopped to say hello. Fortunately, no one here threw their shoes at him.
So, that concludes this post. I will have another one shortly.
Until then….
–Jim