Mohammed Payab, Lashkar Gah city
I built a private hospital a year ago but made this garden outside it at the same time. Patients sit in it and enjoy the flowers. Poppy seems to grow here on its own [ there is poppy everywhere in Helmand. My family even has land outside the city where we grow poppy. Everyone does – it’s money after all - but the smugglers make most money. I have always been a nurse in Helmand and worked with the communist party back in the day. The Mujahuddein came and brought with them slaughter. The Taliban brought peace but there was no progress. When the international people came the war started again after two years. It was really bad from 2006. I treated the civilians caught up in the war. You couldn’t imagine it.
