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Published: February 8th 2009
In December I travelling to Afghanistan to meet with Senior staff recently recruited for our Water and Sanitation projects, and to visit some of the project sites. Afghanistan is a spectacularly beautiful country which for many years has been ravaged by war. The presence of international military forces was evident immediately on arrival, and the security situation was palpably tense. Military hardware from past battles is evident everywhere. Soviet tanks are littered along the road sides, broken tank tracks are often laid across the road as speed humps, and shell casings are used as road cones. Mine clearance operations were visible in many places. But despite this backdrop the local communities were surprisingly friendly and welcoming. I spent a few days in Kabul and then travelled north through a snow covered mountain pass. The road passed through the middle of the mountain in a 7km long tunnel to reach the town Mazar-i-Sharif which is famous for its blue mosque. In this dry dessert area we are involved with Water supply projects. We then travelled to Kapisa, a beautiful district in the mountains north of Kabul. A contrast from the desert with beautiful green valleys cultivated in terraces. Here we have some
successful sanitation and hygiene promotion programmes. The remaining time was spent in Kabul in meetings with government, UN, other agencies and staff. In Kabul it was necessary to keep a very low profile for security. Every office or restaurant I visited was protected by blast walls, high fences and armed guards.
(Murray)
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Kez
non-member comment
Yo !
Hey Murray, great to see ya pics again... am a bit disappointed the child with 'hardcore' makeup didn't make it to your blog!! ha ha.. see you in the big N