The Foreign Service Journal, June 2021

90 JUNE 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL LOCAL LENS Please submit your favorite, recent photograph to be consid- ered for Local Lens. Images must be high resolution (at least 300 dpi at 8” x 10”, or 1 MB or larger) and must not be in print else- where. Include a short description of the scene/event, as well as your name, brief biodata and the type of camera used. Send to local- lens@afsa.org . BY ANGELIQUE MAHAL n SAFED DARA, TAJIKISTAN Angelique Mahal, a USAID Foreign Service officer, is acting deputy mission director at USAID Tajikistan. She loves the winter season and has been enjoying the snow and cold weather. Angelique joined the Foreign Service in 2015; her previous posts were the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Afghanistan. She used her iPhone 6s to take this photograph in January. O n a wintry Saturday morning, these stunning mountains at the Safed Dara Ski Resort ( Safed Dara means white valley) in the Varzob region of Tajikistan glint in the bright sun. Walking in the snow and cold, crisp air with a colleague, surrounded by the majestic Pamir mountains, was a refreshing break from continual telework at home in Dushanbe. Skiing, ice skating, snowboarding and snowmobiling were all in progress just out of range of the camera’s lens. n