In Kabul: December 2008

Very last note

As you might suspect from all these "last" in my recent updates, I am not intending to continue writing on this blog. I have actually just finalized quite a long piece, a somewhat collection of some final thoughts, which you can find below the pictures. You guess rightly, that I have left Afghanistan, mainly due to some personal reasons which I might share another time. So much far now: they are of entirely positive nature!

Thanks to all of you around the world for following this blog, and stay safe whereever you are :)

Johanna

Kabul - kids and the kites - this one still has to find its way up into the air

My favorite carpet seller. I don't remember one single time when I left his shop wihtout a carpet

Spring time also brought some rain. Here few of us during a weekend walk around Lake Qarghai

And one of my favorite pics, the girl of a colleague of mine on one of these super funny swans that you can rent on lake Qarghai

Last pictures - spring time

Something that astonished me in Afghanistan was how harsh winter can be, and yet how surprisingly fast it is forgotten by the millions of flowers that flower everywhere in Kabul from March onwards..

Last pictures - Hirat

I guess Hirat is the place which I enjoyed most in Afghanistan, for a number of reasons. The above and below picture was taken in a community not far from Hirat.

I guess one reason why I liked Hirat are the many historical sites. Among others the Friday mosque which is a puzzle of millions of hand painted tiles

Last pictures - Jalalabad

There are two cities in Afghanistan which I visited quite often, and both of which I enjoyed a lot spending time in: Jalalabad and Hirat. They are completely different from each other, one being in the east, the other in the far west of the country. But they both have their individual charm. Above two kids a little bid outside Jalalabad

Afghan men during a closing ceremony of one of the training activities which we implemented

Women and girls during a meeting in a camp close to Jalalabad

My colleagues and I during dinner in the most famous restaurant of Jalalabad, the restaurant next to the river. It serves excellent fish, but be aware of the bones...

Last pictures - the beginning

My first couple of months in Afghanistan were marked by a urge for discovering the city and the country. Though discovery tours of course were limited from the beginning by security restrictions, I was at least able to visit some places in Kabul such as the old soviet swimming pool above and below...