On most days, now, many of the staff head down the road to the little corner store, where we grab a bottle or two of soda, or have a couple of small candy bars.

The store is at a cross-roads, so there's almost always quite a few people coming and going. If we go closer to sunset, it gets very busy because people bring their animals back from the fields just then.

Below is a batch of photos taken on one or two store trips. First, though, take a look at the panorama of the corner store.




Hans, our surveyor, and Ahmed, the shop owner




We saw this man and his animals go by neary every day.




This fat-tailed sheep belongs to the man above. It would always follow him and the water buffalo back and forth, wherever they were coming and going.




Occasionally a big ol' camel went by too. No tourists on this one, though.




This photo is my favorite for the whole trip, from a photography perspective. It's hard to see in this small version, but the buffalo is in perfect focus, and the low light level made for the people and stone wall being blurry, so it looks like the cow is moving pretty fast, but she's just plodding along.




Tom and I both had our cameras out, and eventually got SWARMED with kids of all ages wanting their photos taken. We made the mistake of letting them see the immediate results on our digital cameras, and thus ended up staying there shooting various groups of them until it got too dark and/or we used up all our batteries. One of our local guards in this artificially lightened photo posed with these kids.