Village

Today Pete is either out of town or out of the country, depending on who you ask -- and I'll let him explain that issue later.  It's political and I don't know that I fully understand it all.  All I know is that Pete heard the phrase, "Americans should probably not go to that region," and he immediately put it on the top of his "Places I Must Visit" list.  So he is there today with some friends.  (I followed the State Department's advice and stayed home.)

Anyway, he has both our video camera and our newly-fixed regular camera, so I was just looking through some old files on the computer and found some footage of a village we took a couple months ago.  When we went on the big field trip to see the monastery in the cliff, this village was at the base of the hill we hiked up.  From what we understand, once one ventures out of the city here, most of the rest of the country is comprised of villages like this.  A lot of them can be quite primitive... many people do not have running water, etc.

This one appeared to be quite pretty -- brightly-painted gates, organized rock walls, etc. -- and there were a couple of cars indicating some modern technology.  There were also horse-pulled wagons transporting people and things, and the whole town was on one main road -- a dirt road.

Quite obviously I am an awful cinematographer, but hopefully this gives a little glimpse of village life anyway...