Travel to Char Bulak (8-10)

August 10th 2011

Good morning, (my evening).... I hope all is going well for you. I'd love to hear about what is happening in your world.

Thought I'd give you another of my journal entries.. or travel log... Hopefully you find these of interest. I will follow up with some pictures. I haven't figured out how to inset the pictures in the letters. I tried to inset them but ......

Well, I'm on my way to Char Bulak (district) if you want to look it up it is Balkh, Afghanistan ... It's a smaller project that I have the responsibility for also.. Total I have three different projects that I oversee ... This project is a new district headquarters for the Afghanistan Army.
To get to Char Bulak we have to get off the main paved road and go about 10 miles on a dirt road or path...as we get on this path two men om a moped carrying AK -47's join us as "local" security ... They become our lead vehicle .... As we go through the small village, mostly mud huts, I notice that the shops are closed.. I am told that they are only opened two days a week due to security concerns and problems... I am told that the Taliban are very active in this area... we paid the locals to provide us safe passage...as we drove in we passed many groups of men sitting on the side of the road, with AK-47's, just sitting and watching, now the site its self has been very safe, we have had no problems on site. I think one of the reasons is that right across the street from our site is the old existing Afghanistan Army base, but between the paved highway and the jobs site is a no-mans area.

As we were going to the site we had to pull over and stop due to a local funeral... Very interesting... They carried the body on a bed frame, she was wrapped in burial clothes, bright purple, very beautiful clothes, no women, just men were In the burial party... they were just walking down the road carrying this bed with her body on it, I didn't feel right and it was to obvious to take any picture.

If fact as we drove through town the security team in the car asked me not to take pictures as we drove on the dirt road, to not cause problems. I took a few and I will share with you but not many.

I don't think I will go back often, but I will need to go back. My input is needed, while I was there I discovered three different problems that would have come back and bit us and cost us some money and time if I hadn't of seen it and Identified the problem and the fix.

From there we went to Hazrate Sultan in Samangan, Afghanistan. It was a busy day lots of driving. This area is very nice and considered friendly. It is near some mountains, a very beautiful drive, kind of reminded me of the drive through Arizona from Vegas to Saint George.

This is another smaller project, it is going to be the District headquarters for that district.

I will send some pictures of both these areas. It was an interesting day. It was a nice way to break up the week.

Oh, on both projects we are building a water storage tank, this tank sits up on a support platform, this platform is 21 meters high, it is that high so to provide the proper pressure needed below at the buildings. Anyways I climbed to the top of the platform, the Afghans were surprised that I would do this, as you can see by the picture it was scaffolding that I was climbing, no I am not to old to be doing this. I think you are as young as you feel and I'm not feeling old.

Some good news, I am going to see the dentist on Base, he happens to be a member and on Friday he is going to fill two cavities that I have and on Saturday he is going to extract one tooth in the far back part of my mouth. I'm excited to get this problem taken care of.

Other than that, all is going well.

I'm a little sad knowing that on Sunday I will have a birthday and will be celebrating it alone. At least I get to go to Church. That will be a great gift, I am really appreciating just receiving the Sacrament. Truly I'm looking forward to Church on Sunday. My favorite day.