Christmas Day in the Jungle was pretty much as I’d expected, most of the people there are either Muslim or Orthodox Christians… Muslims don’t do Christmas, obviously, and the Orthodox Christians don’t celebrate it until the 7th January. So the 25th December was much like any other day, in fact the only real sign of the festive season was an English charity worker wearing a mince-pie jumper, a Santa hat, pushing a wheelbarrow… actually one of the few aid workers who hadn’t gone home.

We spent a couple of hours in the Afghan kitchen drinking the unbelievably sweet chai tea, sitting-out the rain and chatting with some of the regular customers. I got the instant camera out and made photos for people to keep – a gesture that proved to be a wonderful ice-breaker throughout my entire visit to the camp. Before we left I went to pay at the counter, the owner smiled at me and refused to take my money.

1,3,5,7 – Pentax 67, 105mm 2.4, Kodak Portra 400 & 800
2,4,6,8, – Olympus MjuII, Kodak Portra 400, Fuji Superia 400 and Fuji Natura 1600

Film developed and scanned at the excellent UK Film Lab