Fieldtrip off the Compound

So after a week of pleading, we somehow talked the boys into taking us on a fieldtrip to the mountains. We loaded up the car with two cases of water and lots of guns, the two necessities for a car trip in Afghanistan. Our first stop was an isolated village about an hour outside of Jalalabad. The area saw a lot of fighting during the Afghan civil war and many of the villagers have not returned after fleeing to Pakistan 20 years ago. Shem had met the village doctor on a previous trip and so we tried to track him down. Unfortunately he wasn't around, but Shem woke up a couple villagers and we had a brief chat. The picture below is of the village clinic, two bed racks underneath a bamboo cover.

There were at least three graveyards in the village, filled with large blocks of stone marking all of the lives lost. I would guess that there were about 100 graves for every villager.

The closest village to the one we visited had been completely abondoned during the civil war. The mud buildings were pockmarked with bullet and rocket holes.

On our way back to the main road (and to the firing range!) we followed a canal that served as the only source of drinking water and irrigation for the area. It was a hot, hot afternoon so men, women, kids, goats and cows were all lounging under the trees by the canal. The road also went by an old UN refugee camp that is still being used by some families. Several of the kids dove into the canal as we drove by, I don't know if they were showing off or trying to hide.