Toys"R"Us

Busy day. OCCP meeting, in which we found out that the Turkish government is finally going to start working on the second main bridge in Aybak. The bridge was washed down in a flood in March this year. From there we went back to the safe house, where a delivery of toys had just arrived. The PIO (Public information officer) and G9 were delivering the goods, while MOT Z was acting as force protection team. Myself and an interpreter joined them, and we went to a kindergarten and an orphanage in Aybak, delivered the toys, took a lot of pictures, and came back for lunch. It was, in short, a controlled chaos.


A snapshot from the yard of the orphanage.

While we were away, the TPT, or Tactical Psyops Team and the GENAD, or Gender field adviser had arrived. Fortunately they were able to entertain themselves during the day, so that I could pay our local employees their salaries. I paid the salaries a week in advance, but R and M still wanted advances on next month's pay, as usual, and I'm quite sure that H will too, when he comes to collect his pay tomorrow (oops, I made a referral to the future. Well, that kind of information won't matter). Then I wrote a couple of emails to staff and the situation report. After the daily briefing the GENAD and the leader of the TPT wanted to sit down and talk. The Swedes call it "diskutera", and it's very popular with them. It can be quite fun and useful, too, at times. I wasn't that keen on listening tonight, though, because there still was (and is) plenty of things to do, even after 14 hours of work.

Ashura

Today was another lazy day. It was the Day of Ashura, which is an Islamic religious holiday. None of our usual contacts with the local authorities were on duty because of this holiday, so we didn't do much. We haven't been especially busy recently, but I suppose that another day off can't harm anyone. I certainly felt very tired in the morning, but still I somehow managed to put on my CBA and go walking on the treadmill. I walked for one hour with the speed 6.5 km/h and the inclination 6 degrees. That means that i climbed 390 metres with the CBA on, which weighs 14,5 kilograms. It sounds like much, but it didn't feel that bad, actually. In the afternoon I finished some paperwork. Then it was time for some medical training. The topics of the day were protecting of the airway and intraosseous infusion. Today I also bought a carpet for my mother and some scarves for my cousin.


Practising on the fresh bone of a sheep.

CD and BD

Acronyms are never a problem, really. If you come across some abbreviation that you don't understand, the best solution is to take the initiative: Counter-attack by making new acronyms that are incomprehensible to everyone else. Like CD for Christmas Day and BD for Boxing Day. Your opponents are bound to be as confused as everyone else, making victory inevitable.

I was duty officer yesterday, so I got up very early and stayed up until very early. The mullah from the mosque next door appeared at our gate in the morning. Someone had complained to him about Isaf the puppy spoiling their drinking water by shitting in the gutter. At first I couldn't belive what the interpreter just told me. I asked the mullah wheter we shouldn't be more worried about the dozen fully grown stray dogs that are roaming free in our neighbourhood. But no, no, it was Isaf that was the problem, and she would have to kept on a leash. Besides, we haven't taken down our surveillance cameras like we had said that we would. And what about the pavement you have promised to build to the mosque. And yes, our well is dry, why haven't you done anything about that? The mullah was on fire. We should really be doing more for our neighbourhood! I calmly told the mullah that we were celebrating christmas, when what I really wanted to tell him was to piss off.

Nevertheless, I decided that it was time to buy us some good-will from the local religious and political representative, that is the mullah. I know for a fact that it won't last long. In just about six months time he will be back to ask for more of the same, or make some more ridiculous claims like the ones about the puppy. Never underestimate how much a donkey can carry and how greedy an Afghan can be. Later, when I sent H and K over to the mosque to find out exactly how much the paving of the mosque's footpaths will cost, they were much longer and wider than the mullah had told me just a couple of hours earlier. I had been fooled - again.

MOT Z left and was replaced by a Swedish recce squad. I showed them around, and they did well in trying not to disturb the quiet of our rest day. It was a rest day for the most of us, but not for the person who was both officer in command and duty officer, which was yours truly. I tried to watch a movie, but was interrupted on average every seven minutes by either one of my phones ringing, or by someone wanting to tell me or to ask me something. It reminded me quite a lot of a day at office as a company commander, except that I never tried to watch a movie at the office. But it was still a day off, because Christmas Day just happened to be Friday, and friday is a holiday down here. Had it been another day of the week, like Boxing Day was, it would have been a normal working day, which is exactly what it was. And, there was cholates and sweets readily available all around the house.

On Boxing Day I slept until lunch, as the duty offcer's shift had kept me up all night. At 1400 the landlords of the PO compound came to sign the renewed rental contracts for 2010. One signed his paper, but the other one refused and requested that the rent for his part of the compound should be raised from 800 dollars per month to 1000 dollars per month. Now, what was it that I just wrote about the donkey and the Afghan...? Knowing that the rent collected by this very same gentleman was raised from 500 USD to the aforementioned 800 USD for less than two years ago, I find it highly unlikely that PRT staff will agree to his terms. And, under the Memorandum of Agreement between ISAF and GIRoA, he is in a rather poor position to negotiate anyway. The rent we pay is more of a voluntary contribution than rent, really. And it's no small contribution either: 3300 USD for the whole compound, each and every month. Yes, now I remember what it was: never underestimate the greed of an Afghan!


It's poker night for the third night in a row. Yesterday it was the Polish EUPOL officer's turn to share the pot.

Christmas in the Arse of the World

Today was a full working day complete with food transports, patrols, reports, orders, plans, incidents and maintenance. After a quick visit to the sauna we sat down to Christmas dinner. Each nationality performed a christmas carol in their own language, and I read the Christmas Story from the gospel of Luke. The CO's of both contingent's called and wished us well. Later in the evening some guys played poker, other just sat and talked. Most were tired and went to bed early.


Traditional Finnish christmas dinner. The ham is not halal, guaranteed.

Isaf got a visitor for Christmas. She got along really well him, so the dog with one lame hind leg could even be Isaf's father, for all we know. It was not afraid of people, which is unusual of the local stray dogs.


Isaf wanted to play, but the visitor was not at all willing to join in.


His left hind leg never touched the ground.

Logistics Transport

The CPT left early, before I got out of bed. But it wasn't long until the next convoy of guests arrived: Two APC's (armoured personnel carriers), a heavy container truck and a TLC (Toyota Land Cruiser). In the vehicles were about 20 people, who all wanted something, lunch being one of them. The hygiene officer made plans to install a water purification container in the compound and the fortification officer took a look at the broken dining hall floor. The transport container was full of various goods for different purposes. It took a while to find out what each box and bag contained and where they should be carried. The APC's were full of staff officers, who wanted to be briefed about our situation. I gave them the usual tour and brief, and they shared with me their faint idea what the new operational orders would be like. The logistics transport took with them one of the PO staff, who wanted to leave, for personal reasons.

After the convoy had left - a little lighter than they had arrived - and our own patrol had returned from the ANP compound, where our police LO (liaison officer) K had conducted training for the ANP, we had a briefing about counter-insurgency doctrines. There was pizza for dinner. At the briefing we finalised our plans for Christmas Eve. It's going to be a full working day. After the briefing we took a group photo of everyone present to send home for Christmas. Then I spent almost three hours clearing up some of the paperwork, that is always piling up on my desk. It's all in a day's work.


Christmas greetings from PO Aybak!

Jogging

Before lunch, I started writing some new job descriptions by demand of the Finnish national support element. When I didn't feel productive any longer (which was the case about only 30 minutes after I had begun writing), I went to work out on the cross trainer for 35 minutes. The rest of the PO staff had the possibility to go running today: the rose garden behind the NDS compound is approximately 400 metres long and 100 metres wide, and there are good footpaths all around it. I went inside to talk with the chief of NDS when the others went jogging. The weather was exeptionally warm today, even though it's the winter solstice. The weather here can be really odd: we were told that it was 7 degrees below zero in Kabul, and in a valley in Baghlan it was almost thirty degrees. When we came back to the PO, MOT D and MOT Z had returned from their long range patrol. Then the Swedish CPT (close protection team) and an officer from G2 branch came over for a visit. My day ended as it began: sitting in front of the computer, typing. This time it wasn't job descriptions but the report from the NDS meeting.

Power of the Sun

In the morning, we went to the OCCP. The main issue of the meeting there was how to get the ANSF (Afghan national security forces) to join us for yet another patrol. There always seem to be plenty of excuses not go patrolling, and if there aren't any excuses left, there is always the option to start complaining or arguing. There are always plenty of topics available for a good, Afghan-style argument. Well, we got there at last, and our patrol will be joined by the locals even this time. Or at least that's the plan - the reality might be another story.

After the OCCP meeting there was the Provincial Governor's security meeting, which was business as usual. When we got to the safe house, I cleaned my weapons and the grenade pistol. At the weapons maintenance table in the back of the main building, the sun shone warm enough to remind me of the heat that I experienced in September. I really don't miss that heat, but I'm sure that there will be more of that to come. Then I wrote the weekly Suomi-report and the report from the security meeting. I printed the new contracts for our local employees - the contracts had arrived by email last week, but they were lost somewhere in the inbox. After that, I wrote a list for the weapons store of all the ammunition that we spent last night. Then, I worked a while on the contingency plan of the PO, which has been ordered to be updated.


This gentleman, who works at the Ministry of Interior, used to be a helicopter pilot in the Afghan Air Force during the Soviet occupation. He still uses his pilot's helmet when he rides his motorcycle to the OCCP meetings.

We are the Black Light

Today the weather was unusually warm. The forecast had predicted rain, but in reality the sun was shining. Towards the evening the wind picked up and clouds started gathering, and at about eight there was indeed a few drops of rain. But it was still quite warm, about 5 degrees. In the morning we went to the OCCP meeting and on the way back we stopped by at the local blacksmith’s workshop. He had raised his prices with 20 to 30% for the second time in three weeks, and he was not ashamed to say why: “Local people can buy this knife for five dollars, but for you it’s eight. You are foreigners.” I should really have turned around and left the shop – my IP told me afterwards that if I had done that, the blacksmith would have come after me and the prices would have been lowered – but I didn’t, and paid the price that he asked. The blacksmith did come out after us, though, but only to ask for a radio. I told him that we have already brought him a radio a long time ago. He said that he gave it to his cousin. I said that two weeks ago we brought him another radio. He replied that his son wanted that radio. I told him that if he wanted to listen to music while he is working, he would have had to keep the radios that we brought him. I said that those radios were for him, not his family, and that we are a security organisation, not a welfare agency, and that we would not bring him another radio. We will have to find another blacksmith.

In the afternoon we went with the PO patrol and two MOT’s, D and Z, to the shooting range. We practised the whole afternoon, had a bite to eat at dusk, and continued to practise in the darkness. It was interesting to try out the combination of infrared illumination and night-vision sight in the real environment. It’s baffling how the infrared light, that cannot be seen with the naked eye, lights up the landscape bright as day when looked at through night vision optics. Thermal imaging is equally amazing. I must say that the Finnish defence forces has provided us with some excellent equipment.

Another view from the shooting range, this time towards the south-east.

Sleeping and Planning

I slept until eleven, thus missing a meeting that I had planned at the kindergarten next door. We deliverd 200 pairs of children's rubber boots there recently, and the idea was to follow that up. But fortunatelu J from G9 came back here today, so he can do it some other day. Other visitors today were MOT Z, who came to reinforce us during MOT E's leave. And of course the Americans, who, as always, started playing basketball before they even got their vehicles through the gate. I wrote and order, the daily SITREP (situation report) and updated the activity trace. I also got a very interesting phone call from the FIN NSE S1 office, but I choose to say nothing of the contents of that phone call at present. After the briefing we had a team leader's meeting. And, as the Americans were here, T and K arranged another edition of the famous PO Aybak Poker Night. 15 dollars buy in, blinds doubled every 20 minutes, winner takes 50% of the pot, the second 30% and the third 20%. I don't play.

Fin Visit 4

Today the CO of the Finnish contingent for the next rotation paid us a visit. The PO's own guys who were coming back from leave arrived just 15 minutes before the guests. About an hour later there was a logistics transport, so the yard was again quite full of cars, and our numbers for lunch reached over forty. The visit went well, as usual, and then as suddenly as they had arrived, all of our guests left at about the same time. It's been a while since there was just our own units at the safe house. Now I'm acting as duty officer, and I'm planning what to eat during the night. Should it be the old Delta's specialty "Bullens Pilsnerkorv", of one of the MRE's we got from the American Tracker team?

Isaf the Puppy

Puppies don't tend to stand still for a second, and Isaf is no exception. Therefore it's very difficult to get good pictures of her. Today she slinked through the gate when the food delivery truck was coming in, and no-one was looking. She went straight towards the door of the main building, but MOT D's signalist P caught her, and brought her back outside the gate.



It only took about 15 seconds, and she was back inside the compound again. She ran behind the kitchen container, and now it was my turn to bring her out. This time I told the guards not to let her back in.



She's growing at a steady pace and has a very good appetite. Last night when J brought her food, I told him not to put the plate down until she calmed down. It took almost a minute, but eventually Isaf sat down and looked at J, and she got the plate. After a while I went and took the plate away, and again Isaf had to stop jumping and look at me to get it back.


When the sky is clear, the rising sun has enough power to melt the frost that has appeared during the night in an instant, even though it's mid-winter.


When the sun sets, it colours the mountains purple. The sunset only lasts a few seconds, not like back home, where the sunsets can be enjoyed longer.

The cold weather has forced the population to burn whatever fuel is available to warm their houses. The air is no longer thick with dust, like it was in the summertime, but smoke instead. Especially on otherwise clear nights like this, the smoke lies like a damp, smelly blanket between the mountains, on top of the city.

Safe at the Safe House

The PO's patrol left for camp Marmal in the morning to bring the ones who's turn it is to go on leave to the airfield, and to bring the ones who are returning from leave back to Aybak. That means that I'm once again OiC (officer in command) at the PO. It also means that both of our vehicles are away and that we're not going much anywhere. That means that there's time to do things that there usually isn't time for: to go to the gym, to update contingency plans, to read old reports, and to relax. There's even good, prepared food, although both our cooks are away: MOT D's medic used to serve as a cook in Kosovo, so he gets to be the stand-in for the PO's cooks. Excellent. The generator repairmen who are visiting us finished with the generators and the auxiliary generators today, so they started going through the electrics of the compound. They found many problems but they have managed to fix everything they have come across so far. It was really windy and quite cold today, but our diesel heater is working fine.

No Smoke Without Heaters

This Tuesday turned out to be easy. I didn't join any patrols, although both the PO and MOT E were out. Instead I stayed at the safe house, cleaned my quarters and went to the gym. I even had time to watch a movie, when the day's administrative duties were done. In the afternoon the gentlemen from OCCP came over to collect some more heaters from our yard. There wasn't room for all of them in the police car, so they ordered some zarangs to come and help with the transport. This is what that looked like:





The temperature was below zero in the morning. Once the smog from the thousands of chimneys of the city had cleared, the weather was really bright for once. You could see the snow-covered mountains more than 60 kilometres away. The sun soon warmed up the air to a pleasant 15 degrees. I guess that's why tomatoes can grow wild in our yard.



In the evening we had invited the chiefs of NDS and ANP to dinner. We ate well and talked for almost two hours. I know now more about Samangan, Taleban and Afghanistan than I knew yesterday, or more than I have ever known.

Raid

Two meetings: the first with the provincial COP (chief of police), and the second one with the provincial chief of NDS. Two meetings means, of course, that at least two reports have to be written. Some meetings don't result in anything worth writing a report about, but the vast majority do. And some meetings result in more data than will fit in one report. Or, as often is the case, the most interesting information comes up right after the actual meeting, during the necessary small-talk. Upon arriving at the safe house, I usually sit down and prepare the report templates while the interpreter prepares his notes. When the IP's notes are ready, I compare them with mine, complete what he had missed (yes, it usually is the IP who doesn't have the time to make a note of everything), check the spelling of names and places, take the grids of places on the map, and write the final report and put it in the outbox. Sometimes I'll have the person who has accompanied me to the meeting read through the report before mailing it.

The meetings and the reports would have neatly summed up today, if it hadn't been for the surprise visit of the FIN NSE COS, his CPT and a couple of MP's to the PO. That means the chief of staff for the Finnish national support element, his close protection team and two military policemen arriving at the provincial office. (Sometimes it makes sense to use all these acronyms.) They came here to investigate a matter which I am again not at liberty to comment on. Perhaps I can report on the outcome of the investigation at a later point in time. All in all, the investigation took some three hours of my time, the briefing about it another half hour, leaving only moments of spare time before bed.

We got two brand new washing machines today, and one tumble dryer. And more: new shower taps for the sauna, the guards finally got their new, fancy winter clothes, there was a new hose for the pressure washer and whatnot, all kinds of useful stuff that we have been waiting for for so long. Hooray to the logistics transport and the Swedish taxpayers - you made it all possible! The mobile medical team left us after a week at the PO, but instead we got the new generator maintenance guys here, not to forget J of G9. Not a day without guests. MOT D was on a SRP but E unfortunately didn't get to go out due to the surprise visit. Alas, they poured out all their frustration on the Guitar Hero game. (I just found out that the ops room is the best place to be when Echo's Guitar Hero session starts: the humming of the computers' fans overruns their noise pollution.)

Business as usual at PO Aybak...?

St Lucia

What a wake-up we had today. The Swedish soldiers at the PO had decided to stay true to the traditions of their homeland. A picture is supposed to say more than a thousand words, but in the case of Lucia one should really hear the singing as well. As it were, at least one of the participants of this very peculiar Lucia procession could actually sing. The rest were trying their best. This must be a very famous Lucia ensemble, because it's performance has already reached the internet on at least two blogs.


"Staffan va' en stalledräng..."

The rest of the day was pretty standard, really. A patrol with two meetings and a quick stop at the mayor's office, a briefing with our interpreters, and, to everyone's surprise, almost two hour's at the gym! I'm going to have sore muscles tomorrow.


An example of Afghan standards in water transportation to public buildings.

P.S.: About today's incident: NSTR (nothing special to report).

Defences

The entire staff of PO Aybak, including our two MOT's and the visiting MMT, spent the best part of today doing something that is potentially quite useless: planning and practising the defence of our little compound. I tried hard not to get frustrated by what was going on, but ultimately failed. There were, I have to admit, moments during the training from which one could learn something, but they were vastly overshadowed by other, longer moments of agonising uselessness. Some structural improvements took place at the PO today, though, when the welders that I had requested to come in yesterday finally arrived today, and they actually finished their job on the very same day. The job was to repair a roof support post, that an APC (armoured personnel carrier) of a visiting German EW unit (electronic warfare) managed to reverse into and bend. The post was mended and painted along with two other minor jobs, and I was glad to pay them 95 USD. Three guys for a half day's work. That in a country where the average montly wages is about 50 to 100 dollars. They must think we are stupid, and in a way we are. Furthermore, we also got our diesel and water supplys replenished today, which was much needed. That also cost a small fortune, but it's Swedish taxpayers money, so we don't mind that much.


Teaching the fine art of PO defence to H the guard with the kind assistance of Y the IP.


An example of Afghan standards in welding electrical supply.
(It's no coincidence that the contraption is positioned above the drainage: the radiator was leaking heavily.)

Live Wire

Some of my accomplishments of Friday 11 DEC 09 in chronological order:

• 30 minutes of walking on the treadmill wearing my CBA (combat body armour), which weighs 14,5 kg.
  
• Maintenance of signals equipment in Lion and Bunny
• Maintenance of personal weapons as well as shotgun and grenade pistol
  
• Attaching the grenade pistol to the ceiling of Lion
• planning defence exercise
• writing one LIREP (liaison report) and one administrative paper for FIN NSE
  
• printing business cards for the whole PO

Looking back on the day's achievements, I should be satisfied, but I'm not. I am beginning to feel gradually more and more frustrated by some issues at the PO, the details of which I am not at liberty to go into. I have taken steps to address these issues a while ago, and work is underway.


An example of Afghan stardards in household electricity supply.

Sleepy Day

I went to bet at 0600 in the morning, after my duty officer's shift at ended. I woke up at 1230, and went to the gym. It was crowded, so I excercised a little on the sundeck first. There wasn't any sun, though, but instead the clouds were hanging low over the mountains and there were a few snowflakes in the air. A little later there was more room in the gym for a 30-minute pass on the crosstrainer. In the afternoon I did a few administrative duties. We had planned a brief about the latest developments in the field of IED (improvised explosive devices) for the evening, but it was eventually postponed until later. While we were wating for the brief, we played Yatzy, which I haven't played for a very long time. I think that the last time I played Yatzy before today was with my grandmother.


Another peculiar sign in PO Aybak.

Duty Officer

My turn as the PO's DO (see headline) started at 0400 instead of the usual 0600, because the previous duty officer was planned to be the driver at a patrol in the afternoon, and drivers should be allowed 6 hours of continuous sleep before patrols. But, alas, to no-one's surprise that patrol was cancelled, so I woke up two hours earlier for no reason. I've now been up and about for 15 hours, and there's still 11 to go. Yes, that adds up to 26 hours, but it shouldn't be problem. The requirement for NATO staff officers is 72 hours, or so I've heard. As for other matter's than the usual DO's routines, I managed to have one meeting and to teach the new MMT members how to use some signals equipment. But I'm not the only one of the PO staff who has a lot to do - just take a look at the signals NCO's cascade of post-it's in the ops-room:

Afghanistan - It Was Already Broken When I Got Here

As I already knew when I was writing yesterday's blog entry, a suitable convoy was planned for this morning. But, as usual, I won't write of any upcoming events, and try to avoid writing about past events in such detail that will risk compromising operational security. This approach is due to the known fact that anything that is published online is instantly available to everyone and can never be erased from the internet. So off we were, MOT D, one MMT (mobile medical team) and our Lion. The trip was slower than usual, because the RG-32 and Patria have a slower cruising speed than our MB. But we were in Aybak for lunch. We introduced the newcomers to the PO safe-house, had a briefing with the development advisor and planned upcoming activities. The American "Tracker" team arrived, with the result that our yard is crammed with vehicles. We sometimes call the parking operation "playing Tetris with cars", because that's what it looks like from the roof of the main building.


Tetris with cars. There's eleven of them in the picture.

The other day our medic M made everyone laugh again with his poor English. Our other medic R was invited to the President's Independence Day Reception in Finland. When M told some Swedish soldiers about this, he said that "R is in the president's closet" (when he meant to say castle). It was hilarious.

I came across the slogan in the title at the FIN NSE (Finnish national support element) headquarter's in Camp Marmal. They had even made a patch with the slogan:
Afghanistan - It was already broken when I got here!

Stuck Again

MOT E left for Aybak and the PO CO went with them. Me and medic M stayed behind, because the new Lion had to have some repairs done. The road conditions here really wear the cars down quickly - they need repair much more frequently than the owner's manual suggests, and a brand new armoured car could be ready for scrapping after just 60.000 kilometres. The repairs didn't take long, or at least any longer than expected, but now that the two vehicles of MOT E had left, we are (again!) stuck here at CNL. The SOP (standard operating procedure) about patrols says, that military vehicles are not to move outside camps on their own, so we have no choice but to wait for a convoy to join us to Aybak. I'm confident one will turn up soon.

In the mean time, while waiting for the vehicle maintenance to work their magic, I ran errands in the camp. I revised the PO's cash for the new Swedish paymaster, and signed out a new cash of the new postmaster. I also had a long afternoon nap. Today is the old Swedish rotation's (FS17) second last night in Afghanistan. The soldiers of the new rotation, FS18, are learning and asking questions. I'm certain that our co-operation with them will be as good as with the old one. The new rotation consists to about 10% of women, which is much more than the old one. The new postmaster and paymaster were both women, for example. The Finnish rotation only has one female soldier.

The temperature last night was below zero, and in the morning the water puddles were frozen and most things were covered with a thin layer of frost. For the first time, I had to wear my winter coat during the day. But as expected, the temperature in sunny spots reached over 20 degrees in the afternoon. What I like most about the winter season here, though, is that the air is so much cleaner to breathe.

Independence Day

I slept late, until 1000, when it was time to get ready for a trip back to CNL. We drove in a convoy with MOT E and stopped by at the provincial ANP headquarters for a meeting with the chief of police. The reason to go back to CNL after only one day in Aybak was the Independence Day festivities. There was a line-up with speeches, promotions and medals, and after that a festive dinner. Everyone in the my (2/09) rotation received a medal, the NATO Non article 5 ISAF, including me. That's my second medal - my first one, the Nijmegen Four Day Marches medal, is hanging on the pocket zipper of my leather jacket. Perhaps I'll hang this one on the other pocket. The Finnish minister of defence was attending. After dinner, as I was sitting outside the Suomi-house with a cigar, and the minister with his entourage sat down at the same table and we talked for a while. I also met the old MOT D at the Swedes' "Glowing Scorpion" bar. In the Suomi-house, the President's Independence Day reception is showing on satellite TV. The weather is very cold, but there is fortunately a heater in our tent. The sky is full of stars.

First Shave in Three Days

Yesterday at CNL, we met the guys of MOT D. They had left Aybak for the last time, because the Swedish contingent rotates the coming week. We invited them to the Suomi-house and gave them each a Koskenkorva seat towel, to be used in the sauna, and a box of Sisu-sweets as going-away presents. In Aybak, they had already gotten knives and "kuksas", carved wooden drinking vessels. And, they had had a really, really nice dinner, which we found out when we arrived at the PO at about lunchtime today. There were left-overs: grilled lobster for starters, beef fillet and mushroom sauce for main course, not to mention all the side dishes. Sometime's it's easy to forget that we are in one of the poorest countries in the world.

I cleaned my room, paid the local employees their salaries two days overdue, and tried to catch up with the situation. In the evening I went to the sauna and had a shave. I had no razor in my luggage and was starting to look like a bandit. Winter is here and we have already had some snow. The mountains all around are white, of course. And it gets dark quite soon, too: the daylight is practically gone by 1730 hrs. The roads are starting to get muddy, but we are still able to get around. That is about to change by February, when the snow on the mounains starts to melt and the floods hit the valleys. That will be over by April, and everything will turn green instead of khaki. But only for a few months, until the sun has burnt everyhing dry. Right now it's difficult to imagine how ridiculously hot it was just three monts ago.

18 Hours

I left home more than 48 hours ago, and I am still not in Aybak. This could be considered unusual, if it wasn't for the circumstances: this is Afghanistan, and it is winter. This is an exceptional place, in the sence that there are many exceptions to the rules. In fact, most of the time there are no rules. Instead of rules, there are exceptions. Exceptions in the form of snow, floods, delays, darkness, sandstorms, parades, briefings and flat tyres. Exceptions that should, thus, in the long run, become the rule, but they don't, because they are exceptions by definition, and because this is Afghanistan.

I'm now in Camp Northern Lights in Mazar-e Sharif. From Raisio to Turku-Tampere-Pirkkala-Trabzon-Kabul-Trabzon-Mazar-e Sharif, and from here to Aybak, sometime in the future. No-one knows when, because Lion's chassis was broken and we are getting a different car, to which all the equipment has of course to be transferred and installed. But before getting stuck here, I was already stuck on three occasions on the way. First at the airport in Pirkkala, where we learned that by the time that we should have boarded our flight, it had just left Amsterdam 30 minutes ago. Then in Kabul, where we learned that the airfield in MeS is temporarily unavailable, and where the captain made the decision to fly back to Turkey after carefully considering it for 5 hours, all while a cabin full of soldiers waited. And finally in Turkey, where the seven waiting hours were spent in conditions far superior to those in Kabul: the airline company offered us a complimentary dinner, hotel accommodation and breakfast. I have never before spent 18 hours consecutively in an airplane, and i certainly hope never to have to do it again.

Nevertheless, the trip had it's moments. I enjoyed the time I spent playing with my newly acquired PSP, although I wish someone had reminded me to get a tax refund on it... Playing until the battery ran out, that is. The walk from the hotel in Trabzon down to the Black Sea beach was also something to remember. The waves made an athmospheric noise in the light of the full moon. The water was not as salty as in the Arctic Ocean. And getting a proper dinner and a shower at the hotel after 18 hours on the plane and three airplane meals - that was good. And before that, when the Danish troops disembarked and there was room to strech my legs. Such small but important things. And getting some sleep, soon.


A fine late-night dinner in Turkey.


The Black Sea really is black, at least at night.

Second Leave

I arrived in Finland at around midnight last night. It means that I won't be posting to this blog for a short while. The flight was late, which is the case more often than not. It was certainly no pleasure to sit in the very uncomfortable plane seat again for eleven hours, including two stopovers. Turkey is the only place where we get to disembark, but we might as well not, because it's a very depressing place. There is one toilet in the whole terminal, and it stinks. There are 'no smoking' -signs, but an ashtray just below them. The prices in the shop are ridiculous, except for alcohol, which we are not allowed to drink. Anyway, there we spend an hour or so, doing nothing, while the plane refuels and the crew is changed. This time was the first that we landed there during daylight, so we go to see the Black Sea, and those with a window seat, also the Hagia Sophia, which should of course not be confused with the real thing in Istanbul.


There was also a fire. Someone said there's always something on fire in Turkey.


Our plane. To the left some pilgrims are boarding their flight to Mecca, and to the right is the horizon of the Black Sea.

It feels really good to be home. The constant drizzle of rain doesn't bother me at all - it only means that there's no dust in the air. The darkness is almost as complete as in Aybak, and although it lasts a bit longer, there are more electric lights and less noise here.

Liar, Liar

Afghans lie. They don't think that they are lying themselves, of course. They exaggerate. They turn, twist and bend matters, cover up, hide and steal facts and details until there's not much left to analyse. They plot, confuse and mislead. They do this so frequently that one gets used to it. They do it every day, all of the time. In fact, I think that should I spend a few years here, I would propably not even notice the absence of truth and any trace of reliability anymore. But the funny thing is that Afghans don't resent lying. It's quite easy to get them to agree to the facts - and even details - when they have no other way to turn. I suppose it has something to do with losing face and not losing face and not losing face to Afghans and losing face to foreigners. Or Uzbeks, Tadjiks, Pastus, Hazaras, Turkmens or whatever. When you finally have them pinned down, after two hours of useless negotiating, and they agree to what you were saying from the start, they actually seem relieved somehow. They seem to show you at least some kind of respect. Or was I just imagining things?


Here I'm being lied to. It's not the interpreter's fault, he just translates.

Short Range Patrol

In the morning, the Department of Women's Affairs came over for a cup of tea. They wanted the usual: some stuff.


In the afternoon we went out on a SRP to Darreh-i Zendan village. Here we are at the local ANP checkpoint. The dog wasn't dead, just sleepy.


Our IP's were enjoying the magnificient views in the valley as much as we were.

A bit later we stopped at a mosque and gave away some psyops material: children's winter clothes and rubber boots, and a football. A bit further, as the sun was going down, we stopped at another ANP checkpoint, where I tried the panorama feature of my camera. Here is the result:

Shopping in Aybak

The duty officer woke me up twice last night. The reasons were nothing serious, but it was good that I got the information right away. So when it was time get up at 0700, it was really difficult to wake up. Getting up is easy, but waking up usually takes its time. We went out to the governor's office to invite him and the provincial chiefs of ANSF to a meeting later. The governor's secretary wasn't there, so we had to wait for the deputy governor to come to work. Meeting him usually takes a while, and this was the case today as well. So we were almost late for the usual OCCP meeting, but just almost, because they started late, too. From there we went to the police headquarters to talk to the training officer. That didn't take as long as we had expected, so there was just enough time to do some shopping.

I got word just yesterday, that a project proposal of mine, my second one actually, had been approved. It was about purchasing heaters with water boilers to be distributed to the ANP checkpoints around the province. I found out that the price for one heater was about 35 to 45 USD for PRT soldiers (and about 25 to 30 dollars for locals). I applied for sufficient funds to acquire 30 heaters, a total of 1200 dollars. It was a really good proposal, because giving away a heater to the freezing police officers is a quick and easy way of getting long-lasting goodwill from the security forces. So today we went to the sheet-metal worker's street and bought 8 heaters, including transportation to the PO, for only 250 dollars. Our IP Y made a really good effort bargaining.


I'm giving the shopkeeper the IP's cell phone number, just in case he wouldn't be able to find his way to the safe house. A woman came up to us begging for money.

When we came back to the PO, a British gentleman was waiting for us. He was a head researcher for AREU, and he wanted to talk with us about the district level political issues of Samangan province. We offered him lunch and had a chat. In the afternoon we had a meeting with the chief and deputy chief of NDS, which turned out to be a very pleasant experience as usual. There was spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner. After the briefing I tried to have a nap but was interrupted all the time by incoming messages. In the evening I wrote three reports about today's activites. It's all in a days work.

Commander's Conference

I've usually posted something in this blog each and every day that I've been in theatre. In fact, I don't think that I've missed out on a single day. Sometimes I've admittedly written a post one or two days afterwards, but changed the the post date and time accordingly. But today I think that I'll do an exception, and write one post that covers two days. I'll do so for no other than because the two past days were quite alike, except that things happened in different order. That, and because I'm tired. I'm not saying that there has been days that havent resembled other days here before, on the contrary, nor that I haven't been this tired before, but you get the picture.

So yesterday, after a cold breakfast (because our cook T was driving the other car and couldn't stay to clean up the kitchen), we left for CNL. The purpose was for me to attend the commander's conference, and for the others to run some errands, and then return back to Aybak. It started as planned, but thing soon changed as usual. The transport that I was planning to take back to Aybak left early and the conference continued until noon today, so the only altenative was that the team that drove me to CNL would stay there and wait until the conference was over. Later that turned out to be a good thing, because Lion needed some repairs anyway. During the conference's breaks I literally ran around the camp, attending to various business. I revised the cash, collected some archive paper and memorial shields for the Swedes, and signed my application for a second rotation, until 12 August 2010. The conference lasted to about 2000, and after that I slept, again in bunk 14 of tent 3-4.

This morning the conference continued at 0800 and went on for what felt like forever. After lunch it was time to climb back up in the front seat of Lion and drive back to the PO. The weather was beautiful and the traffic light. We tried a different route through MeS, which turned out to be fine, and that also saved us a lot of time. Upon coming back to home base, I took care of some business with J of G9 and P of G2 (the G's are different departments of PRT staff), who had arrived with the early morning transport. We had one briefing with almost everyone, including the IP's, one with everyone except the IP's, and one with just the leaders and others who write reports. We had brought back some "Suomi-food" from CNL, so of course the guys wanted to wrap up the evening with grilled "Camping" sausages and "Prepared Mustard" from Turku. It was good, actually, for a change.

I heard that the guards have started calling the puppy "Isaf". So now its name is Isaf, despite the fact that it might show disrespect towards the operation. I wonder if someone brought some sausage to Isaf? They must have, the way they are spoiling her.

Puppy Love

Although it was Friday, I was very hard-working today. I woke up at 0830, and spent a full hour on the cross trainer. After brunch we had medic training and a camp defence excercise. Then I prepared four messages to staff, counted the PO's cash, prepared some more papers, wrote a report, and then prepared even some more papers. At some point inbetween, I went outside the gate to take a look at the tiny puppy that has appeared in our street. It's very young, only four or five weeks, but it acts as if the street belonged to it. When we give it a meatball, it takes it away and snarls if anyone comes near. But after it has eaten it comes back and lies on its back at our feet.


Medical training on the sundeck. It's over 20 degrees in the day, but the nights are freezing.


The little dog house was built by the previous rotation for the PO's previous puppy, that mysteriously disappeared about six months ago.


She didn't dare come over the water to say hello.


So I had to walk over.


And kneel down.

Green Buses and Moses in the Cheddar

Our second medic, M, likes to talk. But his English isn't what it perhaps should be in a multinational operation. Nevertheless, this doesn't stop him from communicating his thoughts vividly, which sometimes leads to hilarious expressions.

Like when we were considering a surprise visit by a Swedish rifle squad, who wanted dinner without having ordered it in advance, M suggested the we "give them the green bus", meaning the green bags that the combat rations are packed in.

Or, when we were sitting down at the briefing on the day that we had discovered that there were mice in our cellar, M declared that "there is Moses in our cheddar".

A Day in the Camp

For the first time in many days, we didn't leave camp today. There's not much point in going anywhere, because we won't be able to have any meetings without interpreters. We could of course go on road recce or something, but we usually like to combine thing like that with other patrols. So today we could concentrate on the usual thursday activities: unloading the food trucks and receiving the support transport. We also had an hour of weapons training. There were two surprise visitors: the head of security for UNAMA dropped by to hear our views on the security situation in Samangan province. He was from India and looked like a guru with long, white hair. The other visitor was a private constructor, who wanted to offer his services to the PRT. Fortunately both of these visitors spoke English.

The interpreters were at CNL. There was a memorial service there and they also participated at the private funeral. There will be a mourning service at some mosque tomorrow that will last 5 hours, so they won't be available tomorrow either. Fortunately it's Friday, so there probably won't be much going on anyway.

I ate too much today: there was hamburgers for dinner. For lunch we had pea soup and Poor Knigts. What's worse, I just haven't had time to go to the gym now that the CO and OPSOFF are on leave. What even more worse, there's ice cold Inza Choko Drink available in the dining hall fridge every morning. It's just too good to be missed - but it also has all the calories.

More V.I.P.s

Wednesday started with a visit to the provincial governor's office, where the deputy governor received us. He was very courteous at first, but towards the end of our meeting he showed his true nature. He made jokes about the PRT sleeping all day, not confronting the enemy and not doing any reconstruction either, and laughed loudly. The deputy governor is pashtun, and it would probably not have been a good idea to say or do something against his idea of pashtunwali. So I limited my response to regretting his view and assuring him that we at the PRT are doing our best with the resources we have, and that we are risking our lives for peace in Afghanistan. My IP was under a lot of pressure towards the end of the meeting and did not perform too well. I'll have to mention this in some later IP report about him. The Swedish political advisor from PRT staff was there too, and she stayed in town for some other meetings when we left.

In the afternoon two generals and a major from the Finnish Defence Command paid us a visit. The gentlemen seemed relaxed and happy, unlike the previous VIP delegation from Finland. Just as they arrived, there was news about an incident in the north-western parts of the PRT AOR. The tragic turn of events made the visit a little shorter than planned, but the feedback we got was good. The Chief of Operations told us not to worry too much about the news headlines that we see in Finnish media - the support for our troops back home is really better than headlines suggest.

Later in the evening we learnt that one of the PRT IP's had died in the attack. Two of our IP's knew him personally, and of course they had to leave to see his family. But before they left, our remaining two interpreters came to see me, saying that they wanted to go to MeS too, because the chief IP had told them to. I said that it was a decision that the "chief IP", of IP coordinator, could not make, but they insisted that it was approved by the CO. "You have to be more flexible", one said, with tears in his eyes. It's a good thing that I didn't say out loud what I thought of him, his demands for flexibility and of my options of being flexible at that time. What could I do? I would have to cancel all operations for tomorrow and wait for the poor, poor boys to return. I hope they finally grow up after this - this is what they signed up for when they chose to become ISAF interpreters. And this is what we pay them for, almost three times more than a general in the ANA. The IP's are the true VIP's here, or at least they seem to think they are.

Snow-peaked Mountains

Today was a normal, busy day. It didn't rain - in fact there was periods of sunshine during the day - and it was quite cold outside. We visited OCCP and the second police district headquarters in Aybak. Their back yard was a sad but typical sight:


Dump, junkyard and recycling center combined.


A stray dog was walking across a nearby field, onto which more Soviet armour had been scrapped.


The fascinating ugliness of the old tanks looked almost unreal against the breathtaking backdrop of the snow-peaked mountains.

In the afternoon we interviewed the three remaining applicants for the position of guard. Funnily enough, they all turned out to be related to the guard commander. No surprise there - the importance of family relations can not be over-estimated: they far surpass any other commitment for Afghans.

Recruitment

Today the PRT CO visited us for a situation update, so we didn't do any patrols. It's always nice talking with the CO. Just as they left, there was a visit from a delegation of 7 people from the USAID (United States Agency for International Development). They wanted to see our compound regarding a preliminary plan to deploy an American development aid official here permanently at some point in the future. We'll see what happens.

Then it there was finally time for us to start the job interviews with the applicants for the position of guard at the PO, which has been open since I was forced to fire one of our guards a few weeks ago. K and I interviewed three guys today, and we'll do the remaining three when there's time. Of today's applicants one was good, one was no good, and one was somewhere in between. We'll select two or three guys, who the security officers at PRT staff will then scrutinise more closely. It was actually quite interesting to meet the locals and to see how they handled the interview.

It's getting quite cold now, and temperatures below zero are forcast for this area tonight. In the south parts of Samangan province, there is snow on the ground, but those areas are more than 2000 metres above sea level. The flu epidemic that 5 soldiers here have caught is not swine flu, which the analysis of a sample that we sent by taxi to the German military hospital in camp Marmal proved. (The taxi driver first asked for 200 USD for the trip, which is more than the average monthly income! Still, we paid him 100 $.) This type of flu has usually passed in one or two days, and the worst seems to be over for now.


One very peculiar sign, that can be found in both of the bathrooms in the main building.

A Second Rainy Day

It rained practically the whole day today. The streets are no longer full of dust, but instead they are getting muddy, and as a result extremely slippery in some places. A muddy road that is inclined in some direction can be very difficult to navigate with our armoured vehichles, because of their weight.

After the OCCP meeting we paid a visit to the First Police District headquarters. There I let our police liaison officer K do the talking, and stood guard outside for a change. As we were parked inside the compound, I could concentrate on taking pictures. There was a hornet in the yard, that was a little confused from the rain.




As I was watching it, a police officer came and took it in his fingers. The hornet acted very aggressively but it was not harmed, and when the man let it go, it flew away.


Outside the gate of the police compound, there were puddles in the street. An uzbek man was talking on a very strange looking mobile phone, while his friends were waiting.



We spent the afternoon at the shooting range, and finally got the PKM up and running. What a great weapon. We also shot a few rounds with the TRG 42, and K managed to pop five small balloons with five rounds from a distance of 295 to 315 metres (we used a laser range finder). Not bad, although I think anyone of us could have done that. The TRG more of a precision instrument than a rifle. The evening was spent cleaning the weapons and drying and cleaning the equipment from the mud and the rain.