It was another week of stumbling into the unknown for a group of seven men attempting to make the long trek from Tajikistan to Mecca entirely by foot.

“A rather uneasy encounter with the Taliban, running into a NATO forces’ checkpoint, and a lavish dinner at the Balkh governor’s residence,” group head Abdulaziz Rajabov says as he lists the highlights of the week.

At the beginning of their quest to make it to this October’s hajj, the group told us they would be depending on chance and the kindness of strangers. This week, it seems, things were going their way.

Eurasianet/RFE/RL

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