Now in Helmand

I am now working in the Helmand Province. This province is plauged with poppy production and drug lords. The province accounts for nearly half of the wolds poppy production. We are working with the Afghan Government to encourage farmers to invest in crops other than poppy.

Helmand also has an interesting history with the United States. USAID worked on several irrigation and power projects here in the 1960s and a large population of Americans were living in the city of Lashkar Gah. So many that this area was called "Little America". Many of the older Afghans remember this and tell me how the Americans helped them so much in the past.