Travelling around Balkh province

I am back from the trip to Balkh region. My job there is to compile eight photo reportages of schools. Those reportages will be shared between four countries: Estonia, Slovakia, Britain and Sweden. It was quite tricky to give agree because it is impossible to know if there is a possibility to take photos and what kind of stories one will find.
For example on one day we had to travel for four hours (and four hours back) to a remote village called Keshendi. There was no warm welcome – we were met by really mistrusting male teachers. There is a mixed school there, just the first shift is for girls. No pictures of female students or even of our village, the teachers stated. All female students were sent out of the school, under the shadow of the nearby foothill. One can imagine how it is to interview one hundred ladies when six male teachers are around, trying to answer all the questions themselves? At least I was able to talk to one boy and I took some photos of boys in classes…
This trip has been most exhausting I have ever experienced in Afghanistan - up to eight hours of driving per day on bumpy roads. But there were beautiful landscapes around: lush green areas on the bank of Balkh river and (every kind of green) hills near Keshendi. There has been a lot of rain this year, so the poppies and other small flowers color grasslands. For the first time here I saw a fox and I also got a glimpse of my favorite bird in Afghanistan - bright blue beauty named kabutar in Dari.
I was lucky to be accompanied to these villages by experts from Swedish Committee for Afghanistan. The committee has an excellent reputation among Afghans because of the splendid work they have done for education and health during the last 30 years. No doubt, their reputation is deserved.
After every workday, back in Mazar-e Sharif, I walked to Hazrat Ali shrine. I think that is the most peaceful place in this country: I have not seen any other place where the men pray in front of the medrese, females enjoying a gossip while sitting together and children running around at the same time. And everybody likes beautiful white doves at the courtyard of the shrine (have a look at my Kabul Diary archive from December 2006)