Possibly the deadliest job in a truck

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KABUL, Afghanistan — A team of Canadians is clearing roads in northern Afghanistan for a convoy of trucks transporting vital food aid to starving refugees.

Equipped with a jury-rigged snowplow, two Canadians have been removing truckloads of snow from a crucial mountain pass leading from the northeastern town of Fayzabad to Kabul, where thousands of displaced Afghans have been gathering to obtain much-needed food aid.

The work, often in -40C temperatures at high-altitude, has meant the road is now open to transport trucks carrying relief supplies, says Jean-Philipe Bourgeois, one of the Canadians on the team.

“To see the Tajik food convoy drivers smile at our team of about 20 laborers after we’ve worked so hard to open the road is a reward in itself,” Bourgeois, a trained avalanche expert from Drummondville, Que., says in an e-mail transmitted via satellite phone from Fayzabad.

They’re hoping to keep the road clear to allow 300 trucks to pass through and deliver food to Afghans over the course of the winter.

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