We started off our day with a smile and a solid "Thumbs Up" from this young fella on his way to school.
In parts of town you may find garden plots like this one. This plot is situated close to the Kabul River which runs through town and thanks to steady rains and snow melt actually has a considerable amount of water flowing through it.
In contrast to the mostly brown landscapes and smog that I see from my camp, most of the young girls and women are dressed in very bright and beautiful clothes. Note the ever present dust kicked up off the road.
On each trip into town we see fruit and vegetable merchants by the side of the road. This man is selling lettuce today. We've seen a number of strawberry merchants as well using carts similar to these. They arrange the strawberries with the pointed ends facing up and it looks very nice. They splash water on them to keep their produce moist. You can see some water flying onto the lettuce in this photo. They look fresh and healthy but we don't eat them. The gastronomical consequences are too severe.
Water is drawn from communal pumps like this one located on the side of roads. Communal dumpsters also dot the streets but make for lousy pictures. Those bins fill up quickly and overflow. Goat herders bring their flocks to pick through the garbage piles and eat up any scraps of food.
This little man was pushing this wheelbarrow down the street backwards at a very quick pace. In fact he was running with it.
Its not all pleasure trips through Kabul. I actually do have to work. Here I'm giving a seminar on money laundering to a group of Afghan police officers. My PowerPoint needed to be translated into Dari and I instructed through a translator.
Thanks for checking in.
Ken.
