Road to Torkham, Khyber Agency, Pakistan

I chose this photograph as the first of this series because I wanted to remind myself of what life could be like. I'm sitting here in my comfortable home, listening to music, and drinking away my sorrows of the Obama loss in the Pennsylvania primary. When I wake up in the morning, I'll watch my niece for a few hours before heading out to go shopping for some new pants.

I was kinda dreading the getting up early part of tomorrow, so this is a reminder of how lucky I actually am.

Here's a snippet of what the photographer had to say:

The road connecting Peshawar with Torkham, the border point with Afghanistan snakes through the Kyber Agency mountains. The Khyber Agency is a Federally Administered Tribal Area, of which there are 7 in Pakistan. These Tribal Areas are home to the fierce Pashtun tribes who only partially came under British influence pre-1947. The tribesmen resisted British conquest, who would then punish the tribes with their bigger and better equipped armies.

These tribal areas border Afghanistan and the people here share linguistic, cultural and religious ties with the vast majority of Afghanistan. Until today the number of Pakistani Government laws in effect here ae minimal. Interference can often lead to a backlash. It does not mean that the people here are not patriotic Pakistani's or anarchists but their cultural code of Pashtunwali is what rules here. Tribesmen reach a decision based on a Jirga - a tribal council - it is quite a democratic way of dealing with issues. The people here on the whole are very hospitable and truthful. Do not be suprised to see men with weaponry here - the Pashtun tribes men love weaponry and as women wear jewellery, the men wear weapons.