KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Each time Maj. Andrea La Force slid her sunglasses over the eyes of a young Afghan girl, she giggled and pushed them off her face. The girl probably had never worn anything like them.
 Air Force Maj. Andrea La Force, right, talks with Afghan girls during a visit to their school near a special operations fire base in the Kunar Province, Afghanistan.
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La Force and Maj. Kathleen Chapman paid a visit last week to a school built by civil affairs soldiers in the Kunar Province in northeastern Afghanistan. The children surrounded the soldiers when they arrived. The Afghan girls seemed happy that some of the soldiers were women. The children ranged in age from 7 to 15.
The visit quickly turned into a primitive show-and-tell, as La Force and Chapman looked at the girls' notebooks and backpacks. Most of the supplies were provided by coalition forces, and each of the girls' backpacks carried images of the American and Afghan flags.
From taking pictures of the children to asking them what they wanted to be when they grew up, the American officers tried to show the Afghans an alternative to the traditional role of women in Afghan society.
 Capt. Kim Belmont of the 25th Infantry Division escorts Afghan boys to their school.
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"We are different than their elders," said Chapman, who is in the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion at Fort Bragg.
La Force wanted to portray a positive image for the girls.
"We are people trying to communicate. We are here to be allies," she said.
La Force is an Air Force foreign area officer who specializes in Afghanistan. She assists the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force in Afghanistan.
 Afghan boys gather for a closer view of female U.S. officers who are visiting their school in the Kunar Province.
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The officers said they are not trying to change Afghan culture, which often restricts a woman's ability to get an education. During the Taliban's rule, women were not allowed to go to school.
"We can't expect things to change overnight," La Force said.
As Afghanistan modernizes, La Force said, the role of women could change.
The school, which is just outside the task force's fire base, was one of the first projects tackled by the civil affairs soldiers in the camp.
The soldiers built six classrooms next to the school's main building. The plywood structure was built in three weeks and allows the school to house three times as many students. The school now has more than 300 students.
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