Laundry Soap

Laundry Soap
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

I originally thought this might be some sort of vegetable based soap but I didn't have an Afghan colleague with me to ask (poor guy has to ask all my weird questions, I can see the locals thinking "why are you asking that?"). On the side the only English I could make out was "laundry soap" so that much I know.

They had other soaps there as well but I kinda had to take this photo incognito as I am still a bit nervous about photography in Afghanistan. I haven't had *any* problems but I have heard things like women walking in front of a photographer just as they snap the picture only to get yelled at, not to mention looking even more like a foreigner (I have grown a beard and there are some light skinned Afghans out there so I don't stick out tooo badly).

You can also see rice and beans behind the soap. I was pretty much amazed to hear that Afghanistan grows rice (since it’s a water intensive crop), though only in certain areas. Some locals grown their own little patches of rice but I was told that it is pretty low quality stuff and the "good stuff" comes from southern Afghanistan and Pakistan.