Afghanistan Cities

Afghanistan cities There are several big cities, and Ka­bul, the capital of the country, has a population of 300,000, with a university, and a college of arts. But only one family out of twelve lives in a city. (In the United States, more than half the people live in cities.) It is only the peo­ple in the cities who ever see books or newspapers, but somehow any impor­tant news soon spreads all over the coun­try, through the chiefs of the tribes. Though Afghanistan has laws that ap­ply to all the people, the farmers in the villages and the nomads wandering through the country are ruled in most matters by the chiefs of their tribes.

There isn't much "fun," as the Amer­ican would think of fun, for either grown-ups or children. No television, no movies; and radio broadcasts are for the few people in the cities, because the farmers and shepherds don't have radio sets. But children love to hear the vil­lage "story-teller" read or tell stories, often playing on a stringed instrument like a guitar as he does so. what kind of place it is Most of the people of Afghanistan live in the central part of the country, on level plains with rivers running through them and high mountains rising on all sides. Some of these mountains, the Hindu Kush range on the eastern bor­der, are among the highest in the world.

On the plains, where the farming is done, there is a "rainy season" from December to April, but even during this season there is very little rain. At other times there is no rain at all and the temperature often goes as high as 120°, which is higher than it ever gets in the United States, except in desert regions like Death Valley. The farmers have to depend on the melting snows running down from the mountains in three important rivers, the Amu Darya, the Kabul, and the Helmand. From these the farmers get enough water for their fields. On the slopes of the mountains, the shepherds tend their flocks of sheep. Here it is sometimes very hot, often