De-mining activities throughout Afghanistan

All:  A few weeks ago I took a trip to visit our victims assistance programs and de-mining organizations with my good friend Bertie.  The largest de-mining program in the world is in Afghanistan.  Between 40-80 individuals are injured by landmines every month here - yes, every month.  We saw an orthopedic hospital that has developed prosthetics for mine victims, and trains them how to walk again.  The hospital is run by women and even has an on-site day care center.  We also visited a factory where former de-miners, who were injured on the job, now work to create better tools for de-miners (got that?). 
I saved the best for last - the training facility for dogs!   They are training dogs to detect mines to make it safer for the de-miners.  And since this particular facility started training dogs in 1989, they have only lost six to mines.  It really was pretty amazing.  Check out a very short video below on it. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OboiTaT3No0

Panjshir

 We had a guest on Wednesday night at the Embassy - a National Geographic photographer, Reva, who showed his movie about Afghanistan and talked about the Lion of Panjshir, Ahmad Shah Massoud.  Panjshir is the home of Massoud a national hero of Afghanistan.  He was an engineering student turned military leader who helped drive the Soviets out of Afghanistan.   An ethnic Tajik, he was Defense Minister in the government after the Soviets withdrew, but when the Taliban rose four years later in 1996, he fought as leader of the Northern Alliance.  On September 9, 2001, he was assassinated in Takhar Province by al-Qaeda agents, possibly in exchange for a guarantee of protection for Bin Laden by the Taliban, important before the September 11 terrorist attacks.  But enough of a history lesson. 
Panjshir is a valley more than 75 kilometers long.  It is totally beautiful.  We went by helicopter again but there is a very important road that has been built with USG funds and has allowed the region to flourish because all of the agriculture that grows there naturally can be sold (thanks to the road!).

So on this trip I was more confident in the role of press officer.  I traveled with two Afghan journalists and Josh Partlow from the Washington Post.   At the govenrment complex, we held a press conference with Ambassador Eikenberry, the Governor of Panjshir, and the Ministers of the Interior (on left) and Public Works (second from left). We also visited a bottle factory (which later ran a commercial using footage from our visit saying Ambassador Eikenberry "endorsed" their water.  We did get them to stop airing it on national television,  eventually).  The best part of the trip was sitting down for a real Afghan meal, with pumpkin, and lamb legs, spinach, chicken and goat kabobs, fish from the river, and naan bread as big as two placemats stitched together.  Of course, there was bottled water for everyone.  I will leave it to you to guess what I did not eat...We went for a hike on the factory grounds and then, after green tea and a converation about the situation of women in Afghanistan with a local female parliamentarian, we flew home.  The helo landing zone was in a soccer field across a rickety metal bridge extending the Panjshir river, but it was so beautiful, I barely noticed.  

The owners of the factory gave several of the members of the traveling party the traditional hat and scarf worn by Massoud.  He was very handsome in the garb, I looked ridiculous.  But I wanted you to see what it looked like when worn by him - that's the Lion!