... Continued - Fighting for the peace

This week sees the start of the holy month of Ramadan, a key period in the Islamic calendar and a time of fasting and much prayer. Will it affect what we are doing? Yes and no. The contractors building reconstruction projects will largely stop, but then if I were not allowed to eat or drink from dawn until dusk I wouldn’t be much use on a construction site either. Unfortunately this is not the same for Taliban fighters. Because they consider themselves to be fighting a Jihad or ‘holy war’ they believe they are exempt from the fast, so for them it is work as usual – bummer. What it does highlight is our huge religious and cultural differences. Is this a problem? I do not think so. We are not here to change people’s beliefs, religious, cultural, political or otherwise. We are here to help make this a peaceful country that cannot be used as a base for international terrorism against the UK. One of the civilian construction projects we are building (along with a number of mosques) is an Eid Square - a large park type area in Sangin with shade and toilets, where the community will come together (in their thousands) to celebrate Eid, the traditional festival at the end of Ramadan. I have no doubt that amongst the crowds there will be more than a few Taliban fighters enjoying the festivities. I hope they appreciate their new facilities.

Hope all’s well back home.

Dave Wilson