How Bazaar

A man unloads crates at the Khanjankhel bazaar, several kilometers away from any vestige of government influence, where the Taliban holds heavy sway.

The principal of a secondary school in Wardak Province prepares tea for visiting soldiers in his nearly bare office.

Whatchuwant? Fruit sellers look skeptically at a patrol of soldiers walking through a bazaar in Wardak Province.

NERKH DISTRICT, Afghanistan - It's been a while, so I'm easing back into this whole blogging thing with a few snapshots of life out here in eastern Afghanistan.

Peaks soar to 15,000 feet in this region and people scratch out their existence in the river valleys, tending fruit orchards and wheat fields and living in mud-brick compounds in a landscape that looks like the Himalayas meets the Iron Age.

Wardak Province has long resisted central authority and the Afghans we met at the local bazaars haven't been too keen on swearing allegiance to anyone - Taliban, the government, Coalition troops, or otherwise.

Like Idaho, but with more guns (really) and fewer cowboy hats.