Farah

We travelled out to the western Province of Farah and visited the City of Farah in Mid-February. While it was about 25 degrees in Kabul, it was about 75-80 in Farah. The province sits on the border with Iran and is a fairly strategic region. The people obviously have more of a Persian influence, yet most are Sunni opposed to the dominant Shia in Iran. Flying into Farah was quite the adventure. The C-130 had to make a stop in Kandahar first and we ran out of day light. The Farah airstrip has no landing lights, so the crew got out their night vision and drove on.

Some local kids looking for candy or water. The contraption to the right, is the communal well.

Another street scene in the city. Notice the domed roofs of the houses. This helps keep their homes relatively cool in the 120 degree summers.

This is looing across the airstrip. The dots in the background are burned out and destroyed Soviet APCs (Armored personnel carriers).

Here I am with some NDS (National Directorate of Security, dudes in green) and the 1st Deputy Minister of the Interiors PSD (guys in blue).

This little guy belonged to one of the Afghan airport workers. He would break my heart a month later when I re-visited Farah. I saw him barely walking and obviously not eating.