Painted Afghan Babies: It's a Country Thing

The sun rose in clear skies for the third day in a row here, which so far in 2010 is some kind of record. The photo is actually the moon at about 5:15 a.m. from the bedroom window. The camera exposure makes the sky seem brighter than it appears to the naked eye.

The Drover prepares today for a weekend excursion to the north of England, Hadrian's Wall, specifically. The goal is to pitch a tent in a campground about a half mile from the wall and photograph the landscape for a couple of days, then meander home. Hopefully there will be photographs to post here come Monday or Tuesday. Stay tuned.

Toddlers in Mascara
 
As previously mentioned, Kelley is working in an area of Afghanistan inhabited by the Kuchi tribe, whose members are ethnically Pashtun. Unlike most other Pashtun, however, the Kuchi are nomads who until recently, at least, lived in the here and now, with little knowledge of events in the wider world, as this 2002 article from the Christian Science Monitor suggests. They are much more familiar now with Americans, judging from this 2008 blog post from a US military physician, who apparently worked on a PRT just as Kelley is, and who recounts his attendance at a Kuchi assembly.

Kelley at her last outing noticed that the Kuchi like to paint their children with cosmetics. She writes:

"I was pretty weirded out by how many children I saw with heavy makeup on at the village medical outreach the other day.

 "This one brood came in, led by a boy no older than 9 or so. He and his younger sister -- maybe 7 or so -- were the oldest of this group of six kids, and they had no parents with them. The older girl held the baby in the photo here. Four of them had the heavy makeup. I asked a translator about it later, and he said it's sort of a hillbilly thing. The 'country people and Kuchis' are the ones who tend to do that.

"This little girl's hair was dyed that crazy red, and she had the makeup on, too."

Here's redhead's baby brother.












That's Good Bug

This edition of "Bug Hunt! The Obsessive Quest to Photographic Every Stinking Feline on the Block" goes international! Gaze upon this orange tabby living in the compound at FOB Gardez.

Kelley relates that the animal has been dubbed "Morris." He is curious, demanding and has but one friend, Abdullah, the man who feeds him. Morris otherwise is not a friendly cat.

Closer to home, "Bug Hunt!" scored a couple of choice shots of an animal who lives down the street. She was captured as the Drover passed on a bike ride. The animal boldly trotted into the street and into a neighbor's shrubbery to do its dirty business. Unfortunately, its compromising position left the feline prey to the "Bug Hunt!" camera.

Behold.







In Other News...

Back in February Kelley passed through Manas, a base in Kyrgyzstan. The US lease on that facility is now in question, due to a revolution there that has ousted the unpopular president. The Washington Post reports it here. This another of those situations where we appear to appease the kind of people -- anti-democratic strongmen -- we're at odds with elsewhere.

'Til next time, keep the outhouse door secure.