beauty and progress in the mountains

in contrast to yesterday's post, today i will let the photos do most of the talking. :) we went up to the mountain town of istalif, the "estes park" of kabul province. this is the first area where this NGO started working and the population is gradually working its way back up the level it was before the taliban decimated it.

on our way out of town, we had many views of kabul. mountainside homes, kids playing... a great contrast to just five years ago.

up in istalif, we toured the clinic funded by this NGO and heard from the staff about their success with combating varying diseases, improving family planning, and advances in infant birth weight. super exciting to hear about the improvements since my last visit, particularly in getting the men of the community on board with family planning (i.e. contraceptive use). hooray!

this shot, of yours truly, is at the incredible outlook over the shomali plains from the remains of the hotel which the taliban bombed after using it as a fortress...

it's absolutely breathtaking!

we had lunch at a kebab stand with the NGO staff. lamb kebabs next to the river = a piece of heaven. do you agree?