By Graciela Damiano BBC Brasil correspondent, Kabul

The Afghan airline Ariana lost more than 70% of its planes during the US-led bombing campaign against the Taleban, and it is trying hard to pull itself together again.

To do this, it is counting on a helping hand from the other side of the world - 25 engineers from Peru.

The local menu does not exactly offer them much choice, there is only non-alcoholic beer, the contact with women is almost non-existent and walking around the city can be quite risky, but the Peruvians would not miss out on this experience for anything.

We never know when we might offend someone unintentionally and have a stone thrown at us

A Peruvian engineer

Jesus Chavez Castaneda has a lot to talk about whenever he manages to get in touch with his wife and children in Lima.

Before his trip to Afghanistan, he had only travelled around Peru and neighbouring countries in South America.

Asked if he was enjoying the trip, he said with a broad smile: "Absolutely! Very much so!"

Even getting to Afghanistan was an adventure in itself.

Ausberto Bazan Martinez, an expert in aircraft electronic equipment, said the special charter plane that flew them to Kabul had "stopped all over the place. We flew over three oceans".

The engineers were asked to work in Afghanistan when Ariana hired an international broker to find experts to perform tests on its aeroplanes, and teach the procedure to Afghan staff.

Afghan women

What surprised Bazan most on his arrival in Kabul three months ago was the way local women dress.

"It felt like a torture to me to see ladies with their faces all covered up. It seems they can hardly walk properly," he said.

The Peruvians do not venture very far from their hotel, but occasionally they organise expeditions to the supermarket to buy Western products.

Despite the hardships, the Peruvians are enjoying their "Afghan adventure"

They say they long to eat fish, chicken and fresh vegetables again, but for now they have to make do with imported canned food.

They also have to take care in the streets of Kabul. Local costumes and traditions are so different from their own, they find it difficult to know what reactions they might cause.

"We never know when we might offend someone unintentionally and have a stone thrown at us," said one of the engineers.

The Peruvians dare not talk to women at all.

But they feel more at ease in the company of soldiers from the international security force, ISAF.

They have already organised two Western-style parties for ISAF staff, with Western food and music - although with a room full of only men, dancing was out of the question.

Letters home

The engineers have noticed that some of the Afghans they work with at Kabul International Airport do not always appear to stop for prayers as much as they had expected.

They were told that during the Taleban regime, stopping for prayers was mandatory.

These sorts of observations are part of their precious weekly phone calls and emails to Peru.

The engineers are planning to work in Kabul until December

"Over there they are afraid for our safety but we don't feel threatened here," said Ausberto Bazan Martinez.

"My family keeps advising me to be very careful. They have been closely following recent developments in this country."

There have been explosions in the centre of Kabul, and in Kandahar there was also a recent attempt to kill the head of the provisional government, Hamid Karzai.

War damage

The Peruvians are currently working on two Ariana planes and the company is about to receive three others from India.

The US-led bombing destroyed six of Ariana's aircraft - four Russian-made Antonovs and two Boeing 727s.

Ariana's president, Jahed Azimi, a former airline pilot, has ambitious plans to rebuild the company.

Ariana was set up in 1955. "In those days... it was one of the 10 safest airlines," he said.

The Afghan national airline made headlines in February 2000 when a plane on a domestic flight ended up at Stansted airport in Britain.

Nine people were charged with hijacking the aircraft, and 74 of its 165 passengers and crew reportedly applied for political asylum.

Nowadays Ariana runs routes to the UAE, Pakistan and Iran. It has also just resumed its flights to Western Europe after a gap of 20 years.

The Ariana president said he was counting on Afghan patriotism to keep the company as the nation's official airline.

But he said: "It is time to make money in Afghanistan and many companies want a share of this market."

When I left Kabul I experienced some of the problems facing Ariana.

The Boeing 727 I was travelling in, taking a dozen passengers to Islamabad, had to fly back to Kabul airport shortly after takeoff.

Apparently the wheels would not retract.

The South American engineers have a lot of work to do.