lone rider

Posted by Sojourner (Aqcha, Afghanistan) on 21 June 2007 in People & Portrait.

We were out surveying some of the villages at the edge of the desert beyond Aqcha when we saw a little dot appear in the distance. We decided to wait and after a while the dot appeared to be this man and his donkey. He had just come back to his homeland after more than 20 years as a refugee in Pakistan. We talked for a while and it was really encouraging to hear some of his ideas for rebuilding his life in Afghanistan. He talked about the possibility of small kitchen gardens to grow vegetables for the family - just the kind of thing we are thinking about for our Community Development programme later this year. We have already selected his village to be part of the Water and Sanitation project that we are running now. It's just good to meet people that want to take initiative, however small, to improve their living situation. It's something we can build our development work upon and gives hope for ownership within the communities from the very beginning.

We arrived safely in Kabul yesterday after a long ride, we're tired, but enjoy staying with our friends and look forward to our holiday starting next week.

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