Damn crooked police...

We just got back from a remote part of the north - 21 village in total - people living like the Flintstones...man, what an adventure that was!! Four hours to drive
100 km one way. We got stopped at a police check point and they
detained us for an hour and half, till we finally paid $100 US to pass
through...typical. But it sure beats dealing with road bandits and car
jackings. Got to the villages and there is a great need for food and water, but they
were not exactly starving, but this are getting bad there. We did an
assessment for water and it's going to be very difficult to do
anything, other than maybe extending a pipeline for 3 km to another
village from an existing spring. Can't really drill anything here,
due to the difficulty of getting equipment in the fact that the ground
water, if we can find it is too salty. We can however try and get
some food (bags of wheat, rice and some oil), so a food assessment will be done nect, but that is not me. Last night we were invited to a big traditional feast, 20 people (all men, except for Anne), as the women cannot eat with us. We all sat on
the floor and eat rice, goat, yogurt, potatoes, beets, radish, spinach
and a tapioca thing for desert. Very nice!!

Also yesterday, we got to visit an ancient Buddhist temple of sorts,
that was buried into a mountains. amazing photos, once I download them.
Also got to hold my first AK47 riffle.. wait for the photo.

Tomorrow, we drive back to Mazsar- Sharif for the day and then fly
back to Kabul on Saturday morning.

Again, so much to say!!