Landscape

A friend asked for some pictures of the landscape and I have just now had the chance to take a few. We don't travel outside of our part of the city very much. But the other day I went to the American base again and here is a picture I would have shown you about the way this country seems.



Barren, dry, dusty, brown. Unforgiving. Those are the main adjectives that would stick in your mind if you visited here. And it doesn't even include the filth you usually see all over the regular streets. This is what I thought all the pictures of the landscape were going to look like.

But then, as we were driving home, we took a back road, and I saw a completely different southern Afghanistan. Before that day, I had never seen a field here, or anything that in the slightest way looked fresh and green. But then we saw this...




There were all these green fields. And clouds! There are rarely clouds here. And it was the biggest holiday of the year, so everyone was wearing brand new, fresh-looking clothes. And instead of everything being dirty and brown and depressing... for the first time, it seemed like the city had hope. It was just so beautiful. And I had to remind myself that it wasn't something we want for the future of Afghanistan... this was something we really saw! And so it was an encouraging day.



Here are the camels! Also, forgive me, all the pictures were taken while driving about forty mph.