Winter is coming, so we've heard.
The snow first appeared on the mountains surrounding us, but Kabul stayed dry as a bone. As the temperature dropped, people started burning coal, wood, rubbish, tires, even nastier things to stay warm, and the air got worse than Shanghai and Beijing. But one day recently the sky cleared and we remembered the beauty around us:
The first real snow came yesterday, thick flakes that aren't melting any time soon as the temperature hasn't gotten above the freezing point since. Yesterday also happened to be my first real exciting site visit since the EOD demolition up in Mazar - a trip to one of our implementing partners to meet some US-funded mine detection dogs (MDDs).
35 MDDs (German Shepherd and Malinois) have been helping the Afghan de-mining NGOs sniff out landmines for several years now, and the dogs have reached retirement age. The plan is to repatriate them to loving homes, since adoption is less likely here in Afghanistan. But in order to repatriate, they need medical records showing they don't have rabies. And in order to do that, they need blood samples to be processed by a reputable organization. And in order to do that, we had to call in Nowzad Dogs, a very cool animal charity founded by a former British soldier who'd served in Nowzad District, Helmand Province. It's the only thing of it's kind here.
Two very impressive people in the photo below: Pen Farthing, center, founder of Nowzad Dogs; and Dr. Malia, left, one of only two female veterinarians in Afghanistan.
The main point of my being there, besides making contact with our NGO partners and personally being very excited to meet the Nowzad team, was to check on the MDDs - they are a US-funded asset, you see. A report went in the grant file that the dogs had gained weight in the last month and that they were generally improving in health as they prepare for repatriation. All in a day's work.
