Home Away From Home

I've arrived at my place of service for some time into the future: The Provincial Office of Aybak, or PO AYB for short. It is situated in the centre of the provincial capital of Samangan province, Aybak, a city of approximately 35000 people. The city lies over 900 metres over sea level and is surrounded by mountains with peaks between 2400 and 3500 metres high. This makes the area on average a little cooler and less arid than the surroundings of Mazar-e-Sharif: there are grasslands, fields and even small parks with trees in and around Aybak. A river flows through the city centre (at least according to the map. The maps around here are very far from the standard that we're used to in Finland - they are kind of a rough estimate of how the terrain, buildings and roads might have looked a while ago, before the last war, earthquake or flood.)

After our small convoy arrived, we unpacked our personal equipment and prepared our quarters. I wiped and vacuumed my lodging (or "körmy" as we call it) clean, as if was in typical "I'm-leaving-so-I-couldn't-care-less" state after the last occupant. I have about 4 * 2 metres of private, secluded space, and there's a bed, a small desk with a desk lamp, some shelves and a notice board. That is actually quite a lot and definitely enough for my demands. In the evening there was a briefing, some training, some equipment maintenance and some bad news: the air conditioner in my part of the building is not working. I tried everything: I cleaned the filters, turned off the power and tried different settings. I even investigated the outside unit with a Swedish repairman, who came here to fix a generator, for almost an hour, but to no avail. It must be at least 30 degrees in my room even at this late hour (it is now 2245 local time). It's cooler outside, which says a lot.

Anyway, my first impression of my new home away from home is excellent. Even the food is great - in Camp Northern Lights if was suberb, but the experience of one lunch and one dinner from the PO kitchen is very promising.