Volleyball in Fayzabad

Early flight to Fayzabad on the Afghan airline. Ragging on the state-owned airlines is oh so kabul but it got us there comfortably enough. Only the seats were made of that wrinkly school bus seat foam and the engine sounded like a dustbuster vaccuum trying to swallow a whole GI Joe. Fayzabad is up in the mountains to the northeast; it's where a lot of afghan fled the Taliban, since it's completely mountainous and rather inaccessible. The Northern alliance started here.

I ran into a rather amazing young Brit who has been living here 3 months and not changed a lick. We joined a pickup volleyball game in a pretty empty park. The little boys beat us then mocked us. In other words, no different than 11 year olds everywhere.

Here's a picture of volleyball, and another picture of a boy on the street who begged me to take his photo, but didn't understand the concept of an action shot. I was trying to get him to walk with the cows but whenever I picked up the camera he'd stop and smile while the cows carried on out of the frame.