Trip to Ghulab Kheil

This entry is from Jeremy, but posted by Masha because Jeremy's Internet was too slow to upload the photos.

These photos are from our late September trip to Gulab Kheil village in Dara district. Getting there involved a two-hour drive off-road, followed by a 30-minute walk. I went up with the USDA, military and our two implementing partners, to introduce the new USAID project: a tree farm where farmers grow fruit trees, sell the cuttings and saplings to other farmers for income, and then in 4-5 years, start selling the fruit. This village sits on top of a mountain, between two rivers that converge at the bottom of the valley. There is a lot of terracing going on.

Mud house on the side of the hill in Gulab Kheil:



Terraced farmland on the side of the mountain. You can see where it starts and stops. This tells you where they have been able to build irrigation canals and where they haven't. This land is irrigated by snow-melt-fed springs. The mountains are already dusted with snow. Winter is coming ...



Village leaders:



Looking south into the valley. We traveled from the north.



These are the stoves in which the locals bake bread. They put wood in the bottom, heat up the mud stove and cook bread inside. These are the fanciest I've seen.



Local scale. Wonder how they calibrate it?



And of course, cute kids from the village: