Sayed Kharam

We supervise the construction of schools and health  facilities just after Sayed Kharam, in Paktya Province,  Afghanistan, not too far from the Pakistan border. On a spring day I go to visit the site, this time not taking any military protection as is usually required, on the theory that its safer to go without them, attracting less attention.

There is a military plane above us going back and forth the whole length of the valley for a long time. But otherwise it’s a beautiful spring day, the weather cool, nothing seems to disturb what seems to be a beautiful pastoral scene, quiet and peaceful, after the plane disappears.

Along the road and the area next to the school, the terrain is covered by spring flowers of a bright yellow color, and standing next to the car after arriving there I can not help gazing at them, entranced by the beauty of the whole scene, and then I imagine, not with fear but with some kind of strange fascination, what it would be to die there, lying on the ground, the last thing I see, a camel grazing all the time unperturbed, and those beautiful yellow flowers.