Sylvia's Journal

After a wonderful lunch in a guesthouse that caters to tourists who come to walk or ride the Wakhan Corridor (“are there really tourists here?” I asked incredulously) we had a brief tour of the provincial hospital that is being renovated by the Germans. Things are improving here: new roads are being built, the hospital is nearly done, a new women’s ward; there is lots of construction going on and things are looking up.

The new town consists of small shops lining the smoothly paved new road. The old town consists of small ancient wooden shops that sell mysterious spices and teas, traditional medicine right next to heavy chemicals that kill aphids and other creatures that can damage crops.

Our host stopped at the market and bought a 5 kilo white melon and a 10 kg water melon and then we drove over rough tracks to the outskirts of town, to a Concern Worldwide environmental and forestry project that included demonstration gardens and pleasure gardens, one for women and one for men. The latter had the more attractive real estate, right by the river. That’s where the melons were ‘killed,’ right by a half submerged skeleton of a Russian tank. The two giant melons became supper and were gone in no time, the rinds feeding the fish in the fast moving river.

On our way out we were asked to please write in the new guestbook of the project. We got the very first page of the very first guestbook. We praised the place, the beauty and the peacefulness of the place. This too is Afghanistan, a vision of what could be.