Landslide!

Landslide!
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

This was one of the field adventures I had while heading out to one of the field offices. It had apparently rained somewhere (certainly not in Kabul) which caused a few landslides. Our driver made it through some spots I really didn’t think we’d make it through but this part he was not willing to try unless we nudged the odds a bit (that is digging). Despite the fact that I am holding the camera I did help quite a bit (actually the driver and I were the ones to ask one of the villagers for some shovels) and got props for it from some of the staff. We might have been able to make it over this hump but it was actually viscous mud mixed with rock so not totally solid and a bigger problem (that is not apparent from this picture) was that if we flipped we would roll down a 20 foot embankment (we do have a roll-cage in the truck but why risk it?). Our options were to turn around and take a 8 hour detour (we had already been driving since 5am it it was now mid afternoon) which the driver was not keen on.

Normally I have thought of Afghans as pretty hard working but these kids were certainly the exception. One of the staff had asked if they could help and they said they had to go somewhere (that was at least 15 minutes before this picture was taken, after they said they had to go they promptly sat down and started to gawk at us). I even offered them $2 apiece (two days salary for some families) and they still didn’t want to help (apparently not the most fiscally savvy of children). Anyway, we shoveled away and tossed small rocks out of the way and put large rocks on the soft spots and after about an hour of work or so Nasurla (driver) locked the hubs, made it over the hump, and gunned it through the 2 foot deep 20 yard long pool of mud and to safety on the other side no problem! dude you rock! (He is probably the most careful of the drivers, the other drivers give him a hard time because he is "slow" [euphamism for safe?])