We are pleased to share an article from the wellcare Well Owners Network published by an organization that provides free resource to domestic well owners, the Water Systems Council:  www.watersystemscouncil.org.

It’s that time of year again, January is National Radon Action Month!

There is good news though! Radon exposure is completely preventable! Click here to learn more about radon. Find a certified lab in your area for both air and water radon testing.

In a real estate transaction, the document transferring the real estate interest, describes that property in the deed or easement.  Many times, we find that metes and bounds descriptions use “chains” rather than the section lines familiar under the public land survey system (PLSS). While we heavily rely on the geographic information system (GIS), GIS locations are not always accurate. The GIS is a computer system for capturing, storing, checking and displaying data related to positions on the earth’s surface. In a boundary dispute, we require the services of surveyors to locate property lines, especially if the descriptions involve very difficult to interpret descriptions in chains.

What is a surveyor’s chain?  It is a measuring device used for land survey.  One chain is 66 feet in length and contains 100 links. One link, then, is 1/100 of a chain. This odd length assisted in calculating the area of a tract of land.  It was designed and introduced in 1620 by English clergyman and mathematician Edmund Gunter (1581–1626). This introduction was long before the development of the theodolite and other more sophisticated surveying equipment. The surveyor’s chain enabled plots of land to be accurately surveyed and plotted for legal and commercial purposes.

There are also other types of chain measurements, not to be confused with the surveyor’s chain, that differ in length!  To dive deeper into this fascinating subject of “chains” see, 5 Types Of Chain In Surveying And Principle Of Chain Surveying | CivilString

If you need assistance in diving into the details of a deed or title report with its many exceptions, Schroeder Law Offices, PC is available to assist.  Please contact us at counsel@water-law.com with any inquiries you may have.

This weekend my brother Paul explained how he had successfully used Facebook Marketplace to sell extra furniture.  Wow, I thought, this is a great resource. But then a potential client called today.  The potential client posted For Sale by Owner on Facebook Marketplace without legal advice.  The problem was NOT with the platform, but with selling real property without professional help. 

Lawyers, title companies, real estate agents are expensive.  Many of the documents used in a real estate transaction can be bought for next to nothing online.  Tempting, but should you proceed without professional help?

Water rights, easements for access, well share agreements – they all need an experienced legal hand.  Even attorneys whose business is limited to real estate transactions often do not have the experience to advise on water use as it relates to real property. 

It’s a lot cheaper to hire legal help to do it right before your “For Sale by Owner” than after.  If you have a mistake the legal team will charge at their much higher litigation rates than at their more reasonable transactional rates.  If you are still unsure about needing professional help check out one of our webinars: Water-Related Disclosure Requirements – Schroeder Law Offices, PC (water-law.com)

Another thing: realize that your lawyer, title company and realtor are all having the same labor shortage as every business. Contacting your legal team before you put up your ad on Facebook Marketplace, Zillow, or another “For Sale by Owner” platform is a good plan.  Save yourself from improperly disclosing important information about your property, water rights and easements before you list!

Stormwater and Water Delivery: Should I welcome stormwater into my water delivery system? With so much drought, suppliers and golf courses look everywhere for precious water. They need to augment the dwindling water supply. And they look to storm water as a solution.

But should they? Sediments, human and animal waste, fertilizers, and street oils are all classified as pollutants. The pollutants are transported with the water into your system. Do you take the precious water anyway, for free or by contract? What are the liabilities? These are all questions regarding stormwater and water delivery.

This webinar will discuss storm water management strategies. Is contracting to take stormwater ever a good idea? And what are the best management strategies to limit liability?

Laura Schroeder will present this fact filled webinar on this timely topic. This November 9th webinar will start at Noon, pacific time.  You will need to register in advance at this link. 

This webinar will be the 7th in our 2021 series of webinars we have called the “Vaccine” Series. This series is in respect to the on going fight against COVID.  And this series follows upon the 8+ webinars recorded in 2020. Recordings  of the past webinars can be viewed at our Water Rights Video Handbook or Guide.

We look forward to seeing you Tuesday!

Schroeder Law Offices plays some serious water games, and so should you! Serious gaming is an emerging tool in negotiation, mediation, and water conflict. Serious water gaming acts is a way to share knowledge, interact in an engaging way, and build capacity to solve the real problems in water resources. The games allow for role-playing for social learning in a less-threatening environment. Parties that might otherwise be unable to cooperate build capacity, relationships, and deescalate tensions, at least momentary. Careful reflection after the game concludes provides lessons that can be applied to the real-life problems. When we aren’t helping you with your real-life water issues, we are honing our water gaming skills.

The United States Army Corp of Engineers has started playing too! They have built a dam-based game resembling the way the agency balances water needs for agriculture, flood control, habitat, water quality, and hydropower. The “River Basin Balancer Game” is available for free at: http://www.nwo.usace.army.mil/Missions/Dam-and-Lake-Projects/Missouri-River-Dams/Basin-Balancer/

The United Nations plays “Aqua Republica.” This game simulates the demands placed on water managers, balancing food, energy, and wildlife. The game includes social revolts, population increases, and economic impacts. There are multiple versions available representing different regions. Choices of crops, environmental policies, and irrigation technology all influence the player’s success. To begin playing for free, follow this link to the registration menu: http://capnet.aquarepublica.com/register

For those that enjoy board games, the California Water Crisis Game pits the three regions of California against each other in a competition for water, but also reputation! Different stages of water law are represented, including the Gold Rush era and today’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. (See our blog post on the Act here: https://www.water-law.com/california-will-have-regulations-on-groundwater-pumping/) More information is available here: http://www.californiarailmap.com/cawater

Schroeder Law Offices will be developing its own game to show the kinds of legal problems you could encounter with your water issues! For more information and games, see Dr. Todd Jarvis’s blog at http://rainbowwatercoalition.blogspot.com/2016/04/serious-gaming-in-water.html and the upcoming paper titled “Serious Water Gaming” by Shelby Hockaday, Todd Jarvis, and Fatima Taha.

Make sure to stay tuned to Schroeder Law Offices’ Water Blog for more news that may affect you!

This article was drafted with the assistance of Law Clerk Jakob Wiley, a concurrent student at Oregon State University’s Water Resources Policy and Management graduate program and a law student at the University of Oregon School of Law.

By 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water scarcity.  Two-thirds of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed regions where is there a water security risk. This issue is no longer relegated to the developing world!

We as water lawyers practicing throughout the Western United States are developing new legal strategies to help our small municipal, ranching and farming clients to conserve, maximize efficiency, and change water use patterns to meet these challenges.

To help understand these challenges our lawyers educate, teach and train water users throughout the West and world to use the existing law and traditions to address present and anticipated scarcity challenges. Here is a partial list of presentations we can offer.

The Sacramento Superior Court of California on July 10, 2015, granted a TRO temporarily restraining the California State Water Resources Control Board’s drought curtailment action against certain senior water rights holders. The court held that the Board’s action violates due process rights and would cause irreparable harm.

On May 1, 2015 and June 12, 2015 the California State Water Resources Control Board issued notices of curtailment to West Side Irrigation District (West Side), Central Delta Water Agency (CDWA) and South Delta Water Agency (SDWA), respectively. The notices declared that the recipients were not entitled to divert water because the water was needed to meet the needs of senior water right holders.

West Side, CDWA and SDWA filed an ex parte application seeking a stay or temporary restraining order/order to show cause. While a petition for reconsideration was pending with the Board regarding the May curtailment letter, the Superior Court found that the letter was subject to a judicial determination as to whether it constituted a violation of the petitioner’s due process rights. It noted that there was the administrative process did not have to be exhausted before a temporary restraining order could be issued because the circumstances were such that irreparable harm would occur to the petitioners absent a temporary restraining order. Moreover the court found every day the letter remained in effect constituted a violation of the petitioners’ constitutional rights, so that a temporary restraining order was appropriate while the administrative process was proceeding.

With regard to the June curtailment letter, CDWA and SDWA were found to have adequately plead that the agencies’ landowners exercised pre-1914 appropriative and/or permit licenses rights that were subject to the directives of that letter, providing the petitioners standing to bring the ex parte application.

The court viewed the curtailment letter’s language, that which provided that the recipients were not entitled to divert water because that water was necessary to meet senior water right holders’ needs, as a declaration and determination by the Board of the recipients’ water rights priorities.

Further the court determined that the language in the letter instructing the recipients to “immediately stop diverting water” and complete an online Curtailment Certification Form documenting receipt of the curtailment letter and cessation of diversion, was not merely instructional as alleged by the Board. It viewed the letters as coercive, finding that they could reasonably be interpreted as an order, not a mere request for voluntary cessation of diversion activities.

Concluding that the curtailment letters resulted a violation of the petitioners’ due process rights in that there was a taking of the petitioners’ property rights without a pre-deprivation hearing, the court granted the ex parte application for a temporary restraining order/order to show cause as to why a preliminary injunction should not issue.

By: Laura Schroeder and Derek Bradley

Despite being a landlocked country with an arid climate Afghanistan possesses a surprising number of fresh water surface sources thanks to snowpack originating in its mountainous terrain.  While the country has several freshwater sources contained within it (namely the Northern water basin) all four of the country’s largest river basins are transboundary rivers.

Despite repeated attempts by Afghanistan’s neighbors and Western nations active in rebuilding the country, the government of Afghanistan has been hesitant to enter into any international watercourse agreements.  In fact only one of the rivers has a treaty associated with it, the Helmand River.  The Helmand treaty between Afghanistan and Iran was negotiated after many years and was finally signed in the early 1970s with the treaty going in to force in 1977.  Since the signing of this treaty both countries have experienced major shifts in their governments.  As a result of these government shifts, many provisions of the 1970s treaty have been ignored by both nations throughout the treaty’s history.

In addition to the Helmand River basin, there are also the Kabul, Hari-Rud, and Amu Darya basins.  The riparian countries of the Kabul river basin include Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, and China.  Afghanistan signed a treaty with Great Britain in 1921 dealing with usage of the river for irrigation and residential use on both sides of the Kabul river.  The Kabul treaty, however, dates back to Great Britain’s occupation of land that is now Pakistan.  The treaty has not been updated and neither country relies upon it.

The Hari-Rud river basin is shared between Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and Iran.  Leaving out Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Iran negotiated an agreement concerning the Hari-Rud.  In 2004, Turkmenistan and Iran completed a dam that provides irrigation and drinking water for Iran’s second largest city Mashhad.  Afghanistan intends to build its own dam upstream of the 2004 dam which has the potential to cut off more than 70% of the water Iran receives from the Hari-Rud.

The Amu Darya acts as the border for significant areas between Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.  While there are some treaties between Afghanistan and its neighbors concerning borders, cooperation issues, and joint management of the Amu Darya there are no treaties concerning allocation and usage of water.  Further complicating the benefit of any of these treaties is that they were made between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union.  Since the departure of the Soviet Union, no new agreements have been made between the new democratic government of Afghanistan and those of the Central Asian Republics.

While Afghanistan has access to a significant amount of water it has not been able to fully utilize much of it due to a lack of infrastructure.  USAID and many other organizations have been interested in assisting Afghanistan build this infrastructure but Western Donor Countries have been hesitant to provide resources for major water infrastructure projects because of the lack of necessary international water allocation agreements.  Decision makers have been distrustful of their neighbors and have generally not been cooperative when it comes to providing information to other countries about how various water projects would influence transboundary waters.

Despite little progress since the establishment of a democratically elected government in Afghanistan there has been some advances in putting Afghanistan in a player’s position with regard to international watercourse treaties.  The World Bank, beginning in 2006, has facilitated negotiations between Pakistan and Afghanistan.  These efforts culminated in the finance ministers of both countries signing an agreement in August 2013 to build a large scale hydropower dam on the Kunar River (part of the Kabul River Basin).  While a positive first step, moving forward to the next step will require internal resolution within the Afghani government.  Furthermore, the World Bank has recently approved funding for Pakistani hydropower projects despite Afghanistan objecting to one of them. This has led some Afghani decision makers to view the World Bank as skeptically as Pakistan.  However, the recently elected Afghan government of President Ghani in May of 2015 publicly stated that they are committed to the Kunar dam and that they are interested in pursuing closer ties with Pakistan.  This comes on the heels of China announcing earlier this year that they would help pay for the dam, revitalizing hope that the Pakistan and Afghanistan will work more closely together in the coming years concerning transboundary waters.

On the Western side of Afghanistan things are faring worse than to the East.  Afghanistan’s only international water use treaty with Iran regarding the Helmand has done little to establish positive relationships between Iran and Afghanistan.  Adding to this tension, is development of the Hari-Rud dams as well as further dam construction on the Helmand.  Since the “removal” of the Taliban, Afghanistan and Iran have been in talks to resolve the disputes concerning both of these rivers, but no real progress has been made.  Both countries insist they are hard at work concerning these negotiations and are putting in a good faith effort; but it would appear that with both nations trying to unilaterally make use of the Hari-Rud tensions might actually be increasing between the two.

As pressure on water resources continues to grow in Central Asia and as more infrastructure is built within Afghanistan to capture and utilize the water within its major river basins, international disputes will also continue to become more frequent and heated.  International agencies and Western nations should continue to pressure Afghanistan to enter in to transboundary water agreements, but more than anything it appears it will require local decision makers to adjust positions for any progress to be made.

The plane landed on time Saturday in Portland.  Nevertheless, I definitely experienced “bobble head” on the almost 6 hour flight from DC to Portland! Whew!

Spring arrived while I was in Aghanistan, but it is unseasonably dry here.  The Willamette River in front of our house is lower than usual.  This eastern Oregon girl, won’t complain though about the lack of rain…. Sun shining both Sunday and today…Flowers blooming everywhere!

Catching up a bit and wondering about my next adventure?  Scott and I will attend the World Irrigation Forum in Turkey in the fall as my abstract was accepted. Maybe more work in the Middle East?

Left the EQUALS Compound for the Kabul Airport at 3 pm Friday (approx 3 am Friday in Portland, Oregon) with the EQUALS security contractor PILGRIMS including our driver, armed security, and unarmed Afghan airport liasion.  When I was getting in the vehicle at the Compound, I was instructed to stay in the vehicle unless directed to leave it.  I was also given special instructions should our vehicle be attacked:  “Lay on the floor in the back seat!”  I was also told that if the driver and armed security were both injured, that I should push the red panic button attached to the GPS tracking  for 5 seconds and the security back at the Compound would come to our rescue.

I must say that arriving and departing from the airport was the “scariest” part of the whole trip!  There was dead silence in the vehicle both on pick up and today on delivery to the airport.

At the Kabul Airport outside perimeter, our EQUALS-PILGRIM security let me out of the vehicle where I was directed to a small building marked “Woman’s Security” in English with Arabic underneath.  There was a wool blanket hung over both the entry and exit.  No windows.  Inside, a woman had me spread eagle and patted me down through my clothes.

I think the armed security had to give up his gun because when I arrived, I noted that the security person retrieved his gun from the outer perimeter check point.  I think all the guys had to go through a pat down as well.  But, since I was concentrating on behaving “unsuspiciously,” I didn’t really worry about the guys.

Next, I walked from the permimeter to the intermedite area of the Kabul Airport where I was once again directed to a blanketed building market with a Women’s Security sign, entered alone and patted down by a female Afghan.  Upon exiting this Women’s Security, I was directed to pull my luggage out the vehicle and place it in the scanner.  I was then directed to open my suitcase and unload it so that the Airport Security could look for the metal they saw in the scanner.  I passed this intermediate inspection, and then the security team loaded me up in our armored rig where we entered the Kabul Airport parking lot.  The security person paid some money to park the car, and I unloaded everything again.

This time, the EQUALS-PILGRIM Afghan airport liasion, assisted my out of the parking lot on foot to approach the terminal.  At the edge of the parking lot, I was instructed to show my boarding pass.  However, I didn’t have one.  Moment of panic!

My liasion told me that the only reason I was able to get through the “Bording Pass Checkpoint” was because of his relationship to the checkpoint people.  Crazy, since Safi, the airline I was flying doesn’t issue boarding passes electronically–so, the fact was that people were just showing their itinerary.  My problem was that I had changed my Safi flight from the morning to the evening and had not known that I should have printed out my itinerary at the Compound.

Passing through the Parking Lot checkpoint, we traversed empty road space to the terminal.  Upon entering the terminal, I was once again directed to the women’s “blanket room” and patted down again.  Through that, my luggage was scanned and opened again for inspection.  The Airport Security does not dig through your luggage, I think afraid that they might grab a bomb, so I unloaded it and satisfied, I threw everything back into the suitcase.

Finally I ended up at the Safi check-in.  My luggage tagged, and boarding passes obtained, I went upstairs alone–my Afghan liasion departed to the arrival lounge to pick up someone else.  I lined up and went through immigration and another security scanning which was similar to TSA scannings–no more pat downs there.

Waited a couple of hours, then on the plane to Dubai.  It was about a 3 hour flight.  At Dubai, we had to go through another TSA security type check to enter the airport.

At Dubai, I waited about 4 hours, then the United Airline departure area opened where passports were checked, and another secondary hand screening of our carry on luggage!  Loaded and then a 14 hour flight to DC where I am now waiting (most of the day) for a direct flight to Portland, Oregon.

In DC after immigration, picking up our luggage, and going through customs, we deposited our luggage for scanning and then had another TSA security screening before entering the DC airport proper.

Perhaps the day will come when we can “Beam Over?”

Had a Starbucks Grande Triple Shot Non-fat Latte…but think I might need another one soon!  I think this is the longest continuous air trip I ever made in my life.  Needless to say, I will appreciate being home again following this amazing adventure!

I presented the recommendations of the Governance training participants to the Technical Secretariat today in Kabul.  Afghan’s Technical Secretariat for the Water Sector is made of the following representatives:

The Governance Training Graduates below (with me as their facilitator/ trainer/ teacher) hope that their three pages of single spaced recommendations, following four and a half days of work, will have voice with the Technical Secretariat that has the power to pass regulations and suggest legal amendments to the Water Law to Afghan’s Parliament.

 

Tomorrow will be my last day of the Governance training here in Kabul with class ending about 11 am.  I will provide about a half hour of feed back to the Technical Secretariat at 2 pm.  The Technical Secretariat consists of all the in-line water ministries so will give me a chance to interact with some of the more important leaders of the Afghan water sector.

In a short couple of weeks, I made some great friends who shared the ups and downs of the tough side of development work and capacity building.  Uniquely, here, you live, eat and play with the people you work with so its a 24/7 relationship that requires that you really learn to trust one another for the simple things, like learning how to get in and out of a security vehicle, or walking down the street.  The Basics.

After work today, I headed with Glen to Spinney’s, which is the super market adjacent to the Compound, to purchase an Arabic calendar.  We are not required to take a security guard with us, but they are posted all along the route and radio each other to follow us on the short walk.

The Persian New Year starts this Thursday (spring equinox)  and is an official holiday in Afghanistan.  I thought this article on the New Year was especially enlightening:  http://www.tolonews.com/en/opinion/2190-qnawruz-1390-q-or-the-afghan-new-year–

Taqi, the translator that I have been working with, will take New Year’s holiday on Wednesday so I will not have a translator that day–though the plan is to train only a half day–and spend the afternoon with the Technical Secretariat, the highest level of agency organization including the main line water ministries and agencies.

I asked Taqui how New Year’s is usually celebrated before I read the article.  He said, “Everyone goes for a picnic!”  It’s still pretty dry, dusty and wintery here in Kabul, but likely there are green spots at lower elevations.

I will have to consider how to celebrate!  Likely, it won’t be a picnic unless it’s in the Compound.

In preparing to deliver training in Afghanistan, one of my concerns was being a Lutheran-Christian woman teaching Moslem men.  I wondered if I would suffer any prejudice? Or, if the men would direct their questions to the translator, instead of me?

I am pleased to report that every man both in and out of  class has treated me with the utmost respect. In fact, the teaching experience is extremely rewarding. My only disappointment is that only one woman attended my Public Administration class, and today the woman that had attended yesterday’s Governance class, did not attend today.

According to Moselm custom, men and women do not touch each other.  Instead, women, when greeted, put their hand over their chest with a slight bow.  I’ve noticed that some men will offer their hand in greeting, especially after a day or two of class.  I am taking that as a sign of respect and some acknowledgement of equality, whether or not it is meant in that way.  Glen told me that given two men from the Public Administration Class requested to continue with the Governance class attending every day, he knows that the trainings are being well received.

Perhaps, because I spent some time studying the proper way to dress in order to honor the culture here, and purchasing the appropriate clothing online, respect was returned to me.  Many of the men here at the compound commented favorably on my respectful dress.  To tell you the truth, it’s kind of fun dressing up everyday Afghan style !

On Friday (Holy Day), Elizabeth arranged for Paul, Galeb, Arzi, and I to go out to brunch and shopping at a local women’s artisan market in Kabul.  As usual, the entrance to security approved locations required a wanding, walk through a metal detector and a hand search through my purse.  Apparently, sometimes you are required to show your ID/passport, particularly where alcohol is served since special licenses limit the Afghans from serving alcohol to anyone who is Afghani.

At the artisan market, called Ganjina, the work is prepared by widows and is marked for non-negotiable pricing, which, of course, one is happy to pay.  The shop is behind walls and security, and unless you knew where you were going, you would never know how to find this special place.  The shopping experience is much less pressured than that on Chicken Street, and the prices reflect that consideration.  However, since Holy Day is also the guys day to play basketball here at the compound, Elizabeth and I had to rush through the shopping.  Nevertheless I managed to find some lovely textiles, jewelry and Afghan sling shot for my grandson!

The best think about the excursion was visiting a new part of town.  Elizabeth told me that some of the streets that looked particularly nice were rehabilitated by the Japanese development team.  Though as you can tell from a couple of pictures, the money didn’t always extend to to full length of the street, given the mud that we experienced!

Saturday through Thursday constitutes the usual work week in Kabul.  Between Saturday and Tuesday, we work at the Ministry where we have marvelous meals that are cooked for our team there in our own kitchen nestled between the offices and the bathrooms!  During my trainings our chef plated each meal–I should say we had two plates each!  Besides a wonderful Persian rice dish including raisens and nuts, there was fried chicken, lamb and beef!  All made in a tiny kitchen at the end of the hall. Back at the Compound we have our own kitchen as well.  Breakfast includes fresh squeezed orange juice, or made to order pomegranite juice, as well as to order eggs, omelettes, pancakes or french toast! Besides the made to order items, brunch on Fridays (Holy Day) includes bacon, sausages and other meats.  While at the Compound (we work from here on Thursdays), lunch was a “full meal deal” with mediterranean salad, fried shrimp, spagetti with meat sauce and two kinds of cheeses as well as cooked vegetables with cinnamon rolls for dessert (danish style so I still think mine are better)!  Dinner is similarly wonderful with two or three kinds of meat, usually a barbeque of some sort (lamb, chicken or beef), salad, vegetables, and dessert.  Last night we had chocolate cake!  With every meal Afghan bread is served which is a kind of foccacia–too dry for me especially when I have so many other wonderful choices.  Today, the cooks added garlic bread with the spagetti fare.  If I don’t gain five pounds, I will be surprised!  My bedroom is adjacent to the kitchen here on the Compound.  The door to my room opens onto the dining rooms which means that I can sneak out in the morning to grab a cup of hot water to make coffee from the VIA I brought.  The hot water is always available.  Tea is the national drink!  I just snapped a picture out my door and caught the cook’s assistant putting out dinner looks like bbq chicken!  Unfortunately, I will be taken out for dinner tonight—hopefully it will be better than the last time I went out where lasagne was served–which cost $10 and was not half as good as the food at the Compound. 

The streets were filled with hand carts today.  I wonder if the carts are manned by a certain ethic group as most look more Asian that other peoples on the street of Kabul.

A step up from the hand carts are the donkey carts hauling bigger loads.

Next up are bicycles and motor cycles.  In Afghanistan, a rug is used to cover the seat!  And a scarf is used instead of a helmet.

Dealing with traffic at the 4 pm rush hour requires an expert driver.  Luckily, our driver is young, patient and experienced in nudging the SUV into lanes and streets against all odds…even in the rain!  Perhaps a remnant from the British era, Kabul even has stands in the middle of the street for the traffic cop.

On our daily “site seeing” trip in the armoured SUV with the driver and Omar our armed body/security guard, I noticed a big blue building signed as an Afghan-Dubai Wedding Center.”  Omar told me that Afghan weddings include over 1,000 guests!  The party is traditionally paid for by both sets of parents, but because his father is only a poorly paid Physics teacher that he will pay for his own wedding.  Traditionally, the wedding couple receive their gifts a week or so after the wedding with money, gold, jewelry, or household items being the order of traditional gifts.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of the “Wedding Center.”

Since weddings are a civil matter, the Mosque is not involved.  Typically the marriage license/certificate is obtained at the City Hall.  See below some of the mosques that we see on our typical drive back to the Compound.

Mohammad Taqui Amini acted as the translator today for the first day of the Public Administration class.  While we had about half of the 15 students than we expected, I believe that the class went well covering the basics of Public Administration.

Teaching in this culture and with a translator requires a bit more time and patience.  I also learned that the participants expected the professor to lecture rather than to discuss and share ideas.  Taqui informed me of his own experience in an Indiana University classroom for the first time explaining that he was completely taken by surprise when he was expected to respond to the professor’s questions rather than simply taking notes of a professor’s lecture.  He said, “Afghans are used to learning by lecture.”  Consequently, I tried to lecture more in the afternoon, though I found it very difficult to find just the right stopping place in order for Taqui to take on the translation to Dari.  In any case, the participants were very understanding and receptive despite my learning this new technique “on the fly.”

On my drive home with Omar, I learned that most of the fresh vegetables on the street at this time are grown out of Kabul.  Farmers bring their produce from the lower elevations and either sell them in existing shops, in temporary shops, or from their carts.  It’s from market to table even in Kabul.  

Travel from the EQUALS Compound to the Ministry of Water & Energy is about a 40 minute drive through Kabul City.  Our work hours are the same as the program staff whose transportation to and from the Ministry Offices is provided by the government.  I was told that the work hours change depending upon the time of year.

Our driver and security guard pick us up is an armoured SUV.  Pick up and delivery is door to door.  Only two of us can be transported at one time, and we must sit in the back seat behind the driver and security guard, both of whom are in camo and body armor.  Our security guard carries a big gun!  The doors are locked by the security guard, and he is the only one that can let us out of the vehicle.

As we leave the Compound, we travel first on a kind of internal road.  I can walk on this road between the buildings without a personal body guard.  Every few feet there is a big blue rectangular protection station with a square whole.  I imagine it is a kind of bunker.  Sand bags are also piled up at various corners.    Security guards are at the gates of each of our Compound buildings and along the road to the first check point.  There is a gate that is raised by the security guards and a sign in/out station.

As we leave the first gate on the Compound, we come to another security gate which is the entrance to our private street also guarded.  Leaving our private street, we go onto a public street, which is not really public, as only those with certain permits and authorizations can travel on it.  This public/private street is also adjacent to many of the embassys including the American Embassy.

From this public/private street there is another checkpoint and we are on the streets of Kabul City.  Even so, there are multiple checkpoints within Kabul City, which we stop at if summoned by one of the guards to do so.  We do not travel the same routes.

As you can tell from today’s photo gallery the ride is fascinating.  The backdrop of the snow covered mountains that surrounds the Kabul on all sides gives a tribal feel to this city of over 3.5 million people.

All modes of dress are worn by the women on the street from the burka to more western dress with a scarf.  According to our security guard, Omar, there are 3 types of burkas worn in Kabul, blue, white and black coverings.  The blue ones seem more noticable as we travel. My “boss” Glen, the driver, and security guard all complimented me on my culturally appropriate dress today.  I was very, glad I sought some guidance in Portland and took the time to order the tunic tops and head scarves online!

I will start teaching tomorrow so off to do last minute preparations!