Sunlight

Here I am in the lovely, garden-like campus of Kabul University. Within the trees is the Faculty of Agriculture, and the field in the foreground will be used as a demonstration/laboratory field once the irrigation system is restored. In the background is Deh Naw (new village), on the south flank of Kuh-e Ali Abad.

The house on the left is the same one pictured on the Week 1 page; in the background are houses marching up the slopes of Kuh-e Asmayi. At night they look very much like houses in the Mission/Diamond Heights area of San Francisco viewed from Potrero Hill. I run the risk of romanticizing and aestheticizing these hillside settlements, because I do think they are at least as attractive as Italian hill-towns. So as a countermeasure, I should point out that clay-brick construction perched on bare mountainsides in a major seismic zone is a recipe for major human disaster. Just ask the Iranians and Pakistanis. Somehow these buildings need to be stabilized. Hopefully with the help of Abohassan Asteneh-Asl and the Middle East Earthquake Hazard Reduction initiative (MEHR), something can be done.

The prodigious dust in the air makes for some pretty intense sunset colors!

A day in the life of Kabul. So much construction is going on in this block debris and materials cover what few sidewalks there were. Also, the Municipality has not delivered garbage bins to this part of the city, so you can see the designated trash-dumping area at left.

Images and text (c) 2006 Pietro Calogero.

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