Some Pictures from Trip to Aryu Village

Cute baby huh? She is a Kuchi, a nomadic tribe in Afghanistan that comes up in the early summer to northern Panjshir for the grazing lands and will return to the south of Afghanistan for the winter. They wear extremely colorful clothing and you won't see the conservative covering up that you normally see for the resident Panjshiri (although you still can't talk directly to the Kuchi women if you are male).


Notice the house on the lower left to give you an idea of scale. This is up toward the northern half of Panjshir. The valley starts to narrow and farm land begins to disappear.


On a 13-mile round-trip school visit up a mountain, my donkey let me know you who was driving the bus. Apparently, he wasn't quite ready to go. I had to walk the rest of the way.


A meeting at the mountain village that my donkey was supposed to take me to. The village leader (fourth from left) welcomed us into his house's sitting/visitors room. We ate lunch and had chai on carpets. Beautiful spread for such a remote village. Wonder if Masha will let us have a little sitting room for guests where we just lay out a bunch of cushions and carpets. Just need the hookah and we are all set.


At the same meeting in the mountain, one of our local guards (his trusty AK-47 behind him) and I have a laugh.