Dari Noor

A little while ago we took a trip to Dari Noor, the most northern part of Nangarhar. The people there are not Pashtun, they are Pashai and they take care of their own. It is one of the safest areas in Nangarhar and it is extremely beautiful. Life up there seems simple and uncomplicated. The people are friendly but reserved. I hope you can feel like you were there from the pictures.

Ladies Night

Wednesday night is ladies night in Jalalabad. We wouldn't have it any other way. So the ladies of the PRT got out and mingled with the ladies of Afghanistan. Some of them spoke English, but since there was no translator with me I was stuck with my three phrases of Pashto and my camera. The children were very receptive, crowded around us and gave us flowers and food. It was very tiring and of course it was hot outside. The kids here are adorable but all of them are attention starved and the Americans are the show in town whenever we roll up.

The Khyber Pass

A couple weeks ago we went to Torkham Gate, Afghanistan's second largest border crossing. This border crossing area is the backside of the Khyber Pass, which has a long and infamous history. I must admit that it was pretty cool to be walking on the same ground as Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan.

There was a purpose to our trip. We have a project there--a footbridge to alleviate some of the traffic through the border crossing area. The border crossing is extremely busy, with lots of people and trucks coming and going. Work is progressing well, but I think every one was more interested in getting pictures taken at the Afghan-Pak border. We technically stepped a foot or two inside Pakistan, but don't tell anyone! While I was there on the border area, I received a marriage proposal from one of the Afghan Border Police. He has his arm around me in one of the pictures below.

The Engineers

A couple weeks ago we had a "green bean" BBQ with our Afghan engineers. JB, one of our civilians, has the connections with KBR and got us some juicy steaks and vegetables on the grill. A couple of our engineers did not eat the beef because they will only eat the meat if they personally know the butcher. But we still had fun and got to know each other better. They are good guys and know their stuff when it comes to construction. JB cooking us some juicy steaks

The engineering crew