Up and Down

The water container is still not working properly. The problem now is the well in the compound: It produced only about 900 litres of water before it ran dry. Not much of a well, even if it is nearly 100 metres deep. We will have to work out a different solution. One platoon from the Swedish rifle company came to visit us. They were towing one of their APC's (armoured personnel carriers), which had engine trouble. The problem was easily solved once it was located (it was the fuel filter) and they could continue. But not before looting MOT D's reserve of canned food - Felix Köttbullar, Ny potatis, Ravioli and, of course, Bullens Pilsnerkorv. (This was done by permission of MOT D - we contacted them over the radio and asked if it was ok to give some "fresh" food to the rifle company boys.)

In the afternoon we took off to visit a village by the name of Khvaja Sang Bur, which is located about 10 kilometres north-east and about one kilometre above Aybak city. A delegation of people from there had been at our gate a few weeks ago asking for support of any kind, and complaning about the quality of drinking water in the village. We packed some RBI's (relationship building items) such as clothes, shoes and blankets and went to look for a road up there. There was no road, really - just a very slow-go 4WD track. It was steep and narrow - and fortunately dry, or else we had had no chance at all to make the trip. The people of the village were really happy to see us and we were well met. They offered us home made youghurt, but we kindly declined the offer. The village had two natural springs. I didn't realise there were natural springs here. Despite the fresh water supply, the sheep and cows were already suffering and dying from what the villagers called "shluk". At the spring one boy dug up some "shluks" from the mud to show us what they actually were - leeches. I didn't realise there were leeches in tiny springs at over 2000 metres altitude. There were ordinary black leeches but also greenish ones with a red stripe. We might consider a project to build a water pipe directly from the well to a water tank in the village to help them avoid the leeches.


Aybak city from a distance of approximately 10 kilometres and a height of about 500 metres. From here we continued up, almost two times higher.


Here is where the village's water reservoir used to be, but it was destroyed in the war.


"Shluk's".