Life you just can’t make up…

In addition to meetings and surveys and project analysis and set-up, we’ve also had quite a few adventures in the past 24 hours. Politics have stalled the bridge building process across the Kabul River to the Kuchi village that Sister City/Rotary/Mindtel have been assisting for the past few years, and so makeshift rafts (inner tubes with rope and some wood) are still the way to get across. The plan was to donate some rubber rafts to replace these and then head over for a visit. Reality, on the other hand… presented quite a different experience…

First, we got hung up on a rock in our SUV in the middle of the river. After 10 minutes of attempting to get the car off the rock, and realizing it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, Dave decided to inflate the raft – on the roof of the car through the sunroof using the foot pump with his hands. Part of the crowd gathered on the near shore of the river came out to assist and try to push us off again – no luck so we got into the raft. (I have to say chivalry is not dead as Meggin and I were the first in, and we were oh-so-carefully handed into the raft – actually quite charming and we were grateful as the water temperature is near freezing.) With Dave and I paddling and Meggin carefully photo documenting we pushed ourselves off and over the rocks and through the rapids – trying to maintain some semblance of control and not tip over. I can only imagine what the picture of this looked like to the villagers! Thankfully, they are friends, and were just excited to have us make it over rather than laughing at us – although I REALLY need to learn Pashto because there was quite a lot of smiling and pointing as we climbed out of the raft – particularly by the boys. (They did, however, immediately jump into the raft (way more than it should really hold) and started paddling around. Albeit, one boy asked Dave – why’d you bring us this cheap thing? We need a wood bottom one. LOL. Point taken and sorry was the best luggage would allow!)

Due to the elapsed time and the pure spectacle we created, there was now quite a crowd gathered to welcome us. The kids know one word in English – “Picture”. With multiple cameras and willing “shooters” – they were in absolute heaven. They’ve become quite the little posers, I must say. Finally we had to begin the hike up to the village, and we did so to the chant of “Picture, Picture” the entire way. The kids are endearing and the parade up the hill with all their brightly colored clothes and beautiful, dirty faces was full of laughter.

Upon arrival at the village there were more pictures (naturally), and then Dave went to go talk to the elders about the situation with the wells. Meggin and I were surrounded as the women came out to talk to us (again, gotta learn Pashto…) and we were invited into one of the huts. While we sat on their carpet, we were surrounded by more than 30 women in children in a semi-circle around us (in a not large space I might add) they asked for our socks. After handing them over, however, a fight broke out among some of the children over the INDIVIDUAL socks, so the eldest woman gestured for us to take them back. So, now we are of course on a sock mission – among other things… For starters, the village has never seen a doctor or dentist. There seems to be some sort of spreading fungus on the kids and lice were literally jumping off their heads.

As we rejoined Dave and the men, and were invited in for chai, we learned that due to flooding they had lost their access to fresh water several months ago. As I drank my second cup of tea, not wanting to be rude as they generously gave us the only gift they had to offer – sugar, I was gently reminded by others in our party that the water we were drinking was the contaminated, barely filtered river water. I needed a stronger immune system anyway… As for them, it is just unacceptable and a complete travesty that they don’t have access to clean water. We found out that it is $500 to put in a new bore hole and give them access. Needless to say this WILL happen in the next couple of days.

This morning, our adventures continued as we made our way to the Public Health Hospital to add a more reliable relay for the sat comms hosted at the Taj and providing access to the hospital. Ryan is of course our comms/sat/tech guru (who is my hero as well after fixing my computer twice in as many days), but no way us non-techies (e.g. Meggin and I) were going to be left behind as we climbed to the top of the water tower. After admiring the FabFi antennas (Google it) at the top that have been providing the link to date, we stopped to look out at the view from this incredible vantage point – snow capped mountains surrounding the valley, bustling activity on the streets below… Tomorrow morning Pete and Ryan will return to complete the last step to get the antenna up and running. For now, as I sit at the Taj writing this, I am just thankful beyond words to be back here, for our friends new and old, for all we have accomplished, and simply for the day.