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Young men crowd the back street shop of a teacher, or moalem, to laugh and study verses from the Holy Koran. The legend on the booklet held by the boys reads Sephakha Alam de Lala and translates as Verse Alam de Lala. The boys were eager to be photographed and the teacher, who is just off camera, was pleased to oblige.

These young men, wearing typical long robes, or chapans, tend their flock near their home. The entrance to their compound is seen in the background: a tall mud and rock wall with a wooden entry door.

An elderly passenger leans from the window of a bus as it leaves a terminal in Kabul.

The proprietor greets guests at the door of a teahouse, sometimes called a hotal. In the left corner, a wood-fired oven, or bukhari, heats water for tea. The minstrel at the right holds a crudely made two stringed dambour.

I encountered this denizen of the desert somewhere in the Balouchistan region of Pakistan. He admired my cowboy boots and I his sandals, complete with truck tire soles. We made a swap and shared a cigarette.

Sitting on the top of a bus is the preferred way to see the countryside; it is cool, uncrowded and usually provides dust-free passage to one's destination. Bus lines, or serwes, provide access to most places in Afghanistan at nominal cost.

Using a foot driven wheel, a potter fashions a large water jug from local clay. In the background, several young girls watch from a respectable distance.

A well-dressed, well-groomed man wears a pakol hat made of fine woolen felt. The hat is common amongst the men of the region of the Afghan provinces of Nuristan and Konar. Some scholars and writers have linked the local appearance of the pakol to the invasions of Alexander the Great in the 4th century B.C. Regardless of its origin, it is now distinctly Afghan and quite popular.

Landscape with trees, clouds and lone traveler.