The Wait

We were supposed to get going down to Aybak today, but it didn't turn out that way. Optimistically, I brought my bedlinen to the laundry in the morning, but had to make my again tonight. Things being what they are, I tried to do the best of my time here in CNL. I did some shopping in the container shops, collected the PO's mail, spent almost an hour on the cross trainer, read and watched movies in the theme of Halloween ("The Fog" and "The Excorcist"). I just wish that I had brought my laptop, running shoes and a towel, but who knew that I would be stuck here for three days! (Ok, the towel I just forgot.) I also got some green smoke grenades to the PO for the purpose of marking a safe helicopter landing site. In one word: I waited.

One thing helped to keep my spirit up: today was payday.

One More Day in the Suck

Last night there was again a small earthquake. It felt like someone was under my field bunk (number 14) and shook it gently. The shaking started slowly and lasted for about 20 seconds, then stopped abruptly. It was so unreal that I didn't realise what was happening until it was almost over. Today I've done practically nothing and it feels odd. I visited the Swedish paymaster in the morning and got some more pocket money, and in the afternoon there was the Suomi brief. I missed lunch because I fell asleep reading a book, Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner" (in Finnish). After dinner I listened to music for almost three hours, but not continuously, because I fell asleep for a while in the middle. So I should be well rested for future challeges, when MOT Delta's vehicles come back from maintenance and we can finally drive back to Aybak.

Bunk 14

Here are my movements of the day: PO - OCCP - PO - Marmal - CNL. In Marmal and Camp Northern Lights, I attended to various business, the most important of which was how to proceed with the matter of the missing 134 US dollars from the PO cash. The jury is still out on that one. I was appointed bunk 14 in accommondation tent 3-4, and I will sleep very well in it, I'm sure.

In the incindent in the vicinity, no PRT soldiers were injured. Sorry, I can't say anything more about that.

Meetings and Medical Training

Another busy day. From the OCCP meeting we hurried over to the provincial governor's office for a security meeting, which was ordered from a higher authority. The meeting was again about the second round of the presidential elections. The OCCP presented a plan about how all the ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces) would handle the security of the elections. Our IP translated it for us later, and it was actually quite a good plan. In the afternoon there was a couple of hours of medical training for the PO staff with our own medics as instructors. Then I did some material checks and other administrative things.

In the evening I surprised myself by burning 700 kilocalories in 45 minutes on the cross-trainer. After a quick sauna, I put on warm clothes and went up to the sundeck with a beer (non-alcoholic, of course). I sat in a sun chair and listened to the sounds of the night. There is the humming of the generator's diesels. Then there is an almost constant barking of dogs from all directions. Sometimes a cow or a donkey can be heard. And in the background the lorries on ring road 5 roll by. There are no crickets anymore now that the nights are colder, and the birds were quiet as well.

Half a Range Day

The plan was to spend the whole day at the local shooting range, which in reality is nothing more than a hillside in the desert. I gathered two boxes full of different ammunition from the stores. We would need all kinds, because we brought the Remington, the Heckler & Koch and the PKM as well as all the Sakos and Sig Sauers. Not to mention the smoke- and flash-bang grenades. But alas, as soon as we had arrived, patrolled the area for IEDs, called OCCP and put up our targets, a Ford Ranger with 8 ANP men arrived. They were about to have a training day, not just the eight of them but two whole police districts, over 50 men! This is unheard of - the ANP practises shooting only about two times each year (mainly due to the lack of ammunition, but also because of a multitude of other reasons), and never before at this location. And that they would want to do it here, today, just as we were about to begin shooting - well, the propability of that is just infinitesimal.

But we agreed that we could stay there an practise for a while. They went to another pit to shoot and come back in the afternoon. We practised for about two hours and did not stay for lunch like we had planned, but drove back home instead. Weapons cleaning and other usual duties filled the rest of my day, to the point that I didn't get to go to the gym today either. (That's almost a week without exercise - I need to do something about that.) Oh, and it did rain today for almost fifteen minutes and the rain almost managed to make dry surfaces look wet.


M put his hand into the picture to show the size of the beetle hurrying around the range, but put it down on some sheep droppings.

Patrol

Today I went with MOT Echo on a short-range patrol to Firuz Nakhchir district, where we visited the governor and the chiefs of NDS and ANP. We discussed the elections, the security situation and the preparations for winter. And drank tea, of course. It's not that far to Pir Nakchir village, so we were back in Aybak in time for lunch. In the afternoon we had a backbrief with representatives of G3 and G4 from PRT staff, did some administrative work, and cleaned my weapons, too.

I didn't sleep well last night for some reason, so I would like to go to bed early today, but can't, because I'm DO (duty officer). Well, there will be time to sleep later. Perhaps I'll go exercise on the cross-trainer. Outside our gate, autumn has coloured the first tree yellow.

V.I.P.s

Last night we were invited to the provincial governor's office for the weekly security meeting. The only item on the agenda was the upcoming second round of the presidential elections. We discussed various security issues that concern the election process and had two cups of tea.


The view towards the Provincial Governor's desk from my (very comfortable) chair.

On the way back I put my camera on Lion's windshield and recorded a 10-minute video of the whole drive back to the safe house, but nothing unusual happened. The video might still be interesting to watch later. At the PO, everybody spent the afternoon getting ready for a delegation of V.I.P.s: The commanders of the Finnish Defence Forces, the Army, and Pori Brigade, and of course their host, the commander of the Finnish Contingent in Afghanistan - and their CPT (Close Protection Team). They arrived, we briefed them and showed them around, we had coffee, and then they left.


Here the generals are having a look at MOT Echo's equipment.

In the evening I wrote a LIREP (liaison report) on the security meeting and also prepared an order for an upcoming LFX (live fire exercise). It's all in a day's work.


PO staff waiting for the V.I.P.s to arrive (...but not until a couple of hours).


It's still reasonably warm in even the shade, but in direct sunlight it's at least ten degrees warmer.

They've predicted rains for the coming week! That would be the first rain here since my arrival. Oh, by the way, there was an earthquake two nights ago, when I was in CNL. I forgot to mention it, because it happened around midnight and I never woke up to experience it. Many of my colleagues did, and the quake was really quite strong. The centre was near Kabul, where around one hundred buildings were damaged and four people were killed in a collapsed building (reportedly). NFDK (no futher details known).

Catching Up

This is me in my quarters, blogging. The unusual perspective was enabled by my recent purchase of a Gorillapod (TM), a quite handy piece of equipment.

Saturday was mostly spent catching up on recent developments in the AOR (Area of responsibility). I also sent some emails with questions and requests for directives to staff and did some admistrative duties. I didn't do any physical exercise because of my achilles tendinosis, which is getting better every day, but instead I read a heap of reports and tried to think about what I had read. In the evening I went to the sauna, washed some laundry and watched a movie.


There was a locust outside that was paralyzed from the cold morning. (This picture's perspective and sharpness also owes to the Gorillapod.)

Reality Check

We arrived at PO Aybak before lunch - or brunch, actually, as it was Friday. The trip from CNL was normal with only light traffic, as it was Friday. We met a convoy of ANA, Croatian and German troops just after the Khulm pass. Then there was a traffic accident, in which a car had driven off the road. It had happened only seconds before: there was still a cloud in the sky in the air and people were stopping their cars and gathering at the scene. We didn't stop - we have instructions not to stop at accident scenes unless we are involved ourselves - but we could see from a distance that the driver of the car had crashed half way through the windscreen and that he had lost a lot of blood already. The car's white hood and the driver's white clothes were stained red.

At the PO not much had changed. The drainage covers had been repaired and the yard and the floor one room in the mudhouse covered with gravel. The water heaters had beed changed and one case of blocked sewage had been cleared. I began with vacuuming and wiping the dust in my quarters. There was a lot of dust, just a little less than there was when I first arrived, so I suppose my predecessor had cleaned the room before he left, after all. Then I put a picture of A and V on my wall and a Fingerpori comic strip on the door to the sauna. Then we talked with the CO for a while about what had happened during the past two weeks. After the usual evening brief I added a bunch of reciepts to the PO's cash register and counted the total sum. It was 179 dollars short. I was very angry about the deficit and felt like I should never have left to leave - after all, the 15000 dollar cash is my personal responsibility. Well, I'll do a recount tomorrow and try to get it all to sum up. It's Swedish taxpayers' money. Pehaps it's supposed to spontaneously disappear.

The atmosphere at the PO seems less relaxed and energetic than two weeks ago. It's too early to say anything definite about the reason for this, but I have some ideas. MOT D is on leave, which is a big gap to fill. There were no guests at the PO today, which really is exceptional. The weather is really getting colder. Today I also once again realised that the CO's style of leadership differs considerably from that of myself.

Chicken or Beef?

Two weeks have passed and my first leave is over. The three of us who were on leave from PO Aybak are spending time in CNL, because Lion is getting serviced in the vehicle maintenance. The flight here was more pleasant than the the one to Finland two weeks ago. First of all it was on schedule - even a few minutes early. Secondly, there was fewer people on board with free seats in every row, which meant that there was more room to sit or sleep or eat in. And thirdly, a night flight seems to go quicker, perhaps because it's dark. I even managed to get some sleep although it is absolutely impossible to find a comfortable position in the chair. I think it was hotter in the plane than before, or perhaps it was just compared to the temperature of the place of departure. The plane's interior was different: it had LCD-screens and audio sockets and they showed a film.

The two in-flight meals were excellent as usual. The flight starts with a "dinner", which includes a warm main course ("Chicken or beef?"), a fresh salad, a warm roll with butter, and dessert. About two hours before arrival there is a "breakfast" with a warm dish (this time it was a pancake with mushrooms, but before it was an omelet), fresh fruit, a warm roll, cheese, olives, butter, and strawberry jam. A selection of beverages is served (but no alcohol). The servings are small, but the food is really tasty.

The daytime temperatures have dropped to below 30 degrees, and the night are getting really chilly. I heard that there has been nights with temperatures below zero already. Our temporary acommodation here in Camp Northern Lights is in tents, but they fortunately have heaters.


A view of the cosy interior of our inflatable airbeam tent. (The toes in the lower right hand corner of the picture belong to yours truly.)

Leave Transport

On Thursday 8. October it was time for me to travel on leave to Finland. This leave came unexpectedly early, after only four weeks in theatre. I'm not complaining, but four weeks was barely enought to get acclimatised and it went really, really quickly. Anyway, when the time and opportunity to go on leave comes up, it mustn't be missed. We left Aybak very, very early and arrived at Marmal just in time, only to find out that the plane was delayed by about 10 hours. I spent the day laying in the sun, walking around the camp, reading, taking pictures and watching movies. When we finally took off it was only hours before sunset.


The departures hall at Camp Marmal. (There is no arrivals hall, propably because all the arrivals go straight to work!)

We landed in Finland very, very early (local time) on the next day. It was dark, the temperature was more than 30 degrees lower than in Mazar-e Sharif (five below zero) and there was no dust in the air. I got a lift home with a colleague - after we had scraped the ice off the windows of his car. On my leave, I'm looking forward to sleeping, walking with the dogs and swimming. And seeing all the people who I haven't seen for four weeks.

Visitors Wednesday

The ANA colonel and OCCP chairman that I mentioned in my blog entry of yesterday, got a present from us today. I got K to print a colour copy of one of the pictures that we took yesterday, put it in an IKEA frame (that we have ready here for just such purposes), and hand it over to him in the OCCP meeting this morning. It's too bad that I wasn't there to see his reaction, because K told us that he was very, very pleased to get a framed picture of himself to put on the wall. Now that's what I call PR.

I stayed at the safe house to receive two delegations of representatives from two different GIRoA (Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan) organisations: The Directorate of Women's Affairs Samangan Office, and the Balkh University Department of Education. We sat down and had tea and blueberry cupcakes. We exchanged politenesses for about half an hour. The university fellows really made a good effort to convince me that the point of their visit was just getting to know me and to establish a good relationship between the PRT and Balkh University. But their visit was no courtesy call, as it soon turned out (they never are): I patiently sat and listened to their requests at least half an hour more. They wanted a lot of things, everything from printer cartridges and multimedia projectors to a car for transporting lecturers and one kilometre of road to the new faculty building. The DOWA women's requests were more modest: 300-500 litres of diesel fuel, hygiene kits, children's winter clothes. I told them that I would forward their requests to the appropriet people.

In the afternoon the OCCP top brass paid us a surprise visit. They were very upset about some operational matters that are beyond the limits of this blog, but soon calmed down when we sat down with some chilled soft drinks and cashew nuts. We explained the situation and emphasised that we would work with them, not let them down and earn their trust. When they left, O-P gave them a bunch of the latest issue of the local propaganda newspaper, ISAF news, which was much appreciated.


OCCP and ANA at a surprise visit to the PO

But that was not all the visitors of the day: Both the Finnish and the Swedish Development Advisors came over. They will go to some meetings. And another platoon of U.S. Army dropped by, led by my old friend W. Always a pleasure to have the "yanks" (as we affectionately call them) here. I also washed some laundry and should have vacuumed my room, but didn't. So it was a quite normal day.

Tuesday Blues

In the morning I still didn't feel quite all right, so I took a Burana 600 to get me going. After breakfast It was time to go on patrol, first to the OCCP, then to meet the ANP training officer in the next building, and then to the district governor's security meeting. The latter had been cancelled, but the Operative Co-ordination Center, Provincial level, was fine (for a change). The chairman, an ANA colonel, has recently been showing signs of actually understanding what he's is supposed to be doing and at the same time has been able to produce some sentences that actually contain information that is relevant to the subject at hand. (Yes, it's that bad.) After all the business of the meeting was done, I handed him a big map of Samangan province, that he had requested yesterday. It was in scale 1:100000 and about two metres wide - a high quality Swedish map, printed in July 2009, unrestricted, releasable to ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces). The reaction of all the locals present was remarkable. They all crowded around the map on the table, wanted to touch it, show where they had been etc. while talking loudly. This went on for several minutes. Me and my colleagues looked at each other and smiled. K was taking pictures.


Here the map is still in my possession.

On our way back we saw something in the street that had really been worth to take a snapshot of, because it's hard to believe without the picture. A man was coming towards us, pushing a wheelbarrow. In the wheelbarrow was a freshly butchered black goat - its thoat was cut and stomach opened and its bloody head was hanging over the side of the wheelbarrow. Nothing extraordinary about that. But with the goat, a baby of perhaps two years of age was travelling in the wheelbarrow, sitting straight in a puddle of blood. The man smiled at us as they passed Lion.

The Americans are here again and it's getting a bit crowded. The welfare room has suddenly become so popular, that the Swedish soldiers don't get to play computer games between dinner and the briefing like they usually do. Wathing movies has right of way over playing computer games, because more people can take part in watching movies. Well, I suppose as long as our problems are of that calibre we're doing quite well.

Someone else is also writing a blog from here, or CNL to be precise. K and C have been trying to figure out who the writer is and have narrowed down the list of possible writers to four persons. I don't agree with everything that the blog says, nor do I like the style very much. But then again he or she would probably say the same thing about this blog. I wonder if there are any more blogs from Finns currently serving here?

Monday Business

Business as usual. I didn't join the patrol in the morning, but updated my situation awareness by reading the mail in the PO's inbox instead. After lunch I cleaned my weapons and prepared weekly the Suomi-report, which must be ready by noon on Tuesday. I also finished sorting the PO's paper folders, which had been sadly neglected by my predecessor(s). Then I paid our guard commander 495 dollars for the new equipment vests for the guards. We had agreed on the price of 405 dollars for the vests and 45 for the gasoline to Mazar-e Sharif. I even made a point out of urging the man to try to make a good deal for us, as we were buying a total of 9 equipment vests! But no, the sum on the receipt was 495 and not 450. It almost made me lose my temper, but fortunately I kept my calm, and by doing so saved my face. After all, it's not my money, it's the Swedish taxpayers'. But one thing is certain: the locals try to trick us at every opportunity they get. I've seen enough examples already to draw this conclusion. In the evening I felt like I was coming down with a cold.

Moonlit Mountains

I started the day with a shorter run than yesterday, only three laps, and stretched for a while in the gym. After breakfast the commander's conference started. My presentation was a bit later, after a 15 minute coffee break. It went ok. Afterwards I was approached by the Swedish Development Adviser responsible for the Samangan province and an American journalist from the Forward Media Team, who wanted to ask about the situation and different projects in Samangan. They also wanted to come and visit Aybak some time soon. On the lunch break I went to see the tailor, who had finally gotten my insignia of rank ready. My nametags were in the PO's mailbox, along with the nametags of all the other new arrivals.


And this is what my new nametag and insignia of rank look like.

The conference ended at about 1500, which was earlier than expected. I hurried over to where Lion and Bunny were waiting, where M and M were carrying all the cars' equipment from the container where we stashed it and putting it back into place in the vehicles. It seemed like we would get back to Aybak by nightfall. However, the signals equipment did not have the required settings, and we spent over two hours just to get a communications check with one radio. After all the other preparations were done, we didn't get to leave CNL before dusk. At Marmal, we picked up T, who had spent two nights there after the dentist's appointment, prepared our equipment for darkness and tried the other radio. It wouldn't work to begin with, either, so M spent almost and hour to get the settings right. In the mean time we changed Bunny's right front tyre, that was damaged.

The drive to Aybak took more than two hours as there was surprisingly much traffic. Heavy lorries, overloaded with various goods, were driving sometimes without lights at only 40 km/hour. At the police checkpoints the road was blocked, but the police lets ISAF vehicles through quickly. And the radio worked fine. It was full moon and not a cloud in the sky. The mountains on both sides of the road looked like they were made of silver. At the PO's gate we were greeted by the stray dogs, who were barking at us. There was also the usual smells in the dry and dusty air: coal smoke, garbage rotting in the heat, and the cows in the neighbours yard. It was like coming home.


P.S.: There are peculiar signs in Camp Northern Lights, too.

Shopping and Waiting

After running six laps on the one-kilometre course in Camp Northern Lights, I had a shower, breakfast and went back to bed. Not because I was tired, but simply because I could. There was nothing better to do. The morning was much warmer than in Aybak, and as the sun started roasting the inflatable airbeam tent, the temperature inside rose rapidly. My beauty sleep was interrupted by M, who came to say that a Finnish unit had been struck by IED. We didn't know exactly who it was and how badly they had been injured, but we were told that everyone in the car was injured. This was to be expected and I must say that the reaction from the troops in the camp was well planned and practised beforehand. As I had no part to play in anything concerning the incident, I went about my business. The radio installations in Lion and Bunny were progressing according to plan and there was plenty of time until the commander's conference, so I went shopping in the camp's "bazaar". I bought some handicraft items to give away as Christmas presents. If the leave schedule is kept (and nothing unexpected happens), I'll be here for Christmas, so it's better to aquire some presents in advance.

Easy Friday

Up at 0500 and of to CNL (Camp Northern Lights) via Marmal, where we dropped off T, who had a dentist's appointment. At CNL we had to find a place to stash all the equipment from Lion and Bunny, who - or that, rather - will be fitted with new radios. Once the cars were empty I had a nap before lunch. Then I watched a movie at the Suomi-house. That was a new experience for me - to have nothing better to do, I mean - though quite a few of people seem to be in that situation every now and then down here. Then it was time for the weekly Suomi-brief. In the evening I might read something light and entertaining or go for a walk, if I feel like it. The commander's conference, that is my reason (together with the aforementioned signal equipment installations) for coming here, will not begin until tomorrow afternoon. Yes, it's easy Friday.

Btw., I got my first pay yesterday. It was one day late, because the pay office had got my bank account number wrong. That's really odd, because it's the very same office that pays my salary in the Defence Forces too! I had to call them in Hämeenlinna and correct the mistake. Anyway, the money is in the bank now and it's a reasonable sum. More good news: All the Finnish peacekeeper's wages were raised by at least 2.2% as of 1. October 2009. Very nice.

At the Orphanage

It was a very normal day today, if one can call any day normal down here. In the morning we went patrolling and took the visiting DEVAD (Development Advisor) and FIN Chaplain whit us. We visited OCCP as usual (NSTR, Nothing Special to Report), but on the way back we visited an orphanage. The DEVAD and chaplain went in to talk and the others, including me, stayed and watched the cars, which had to be parked in the street. That's always an unnecessary risk, as they draw some attention, so we like to park in the yard of buildings whenever it's possible. This time it wasn't so there were a lot of children and other people coming to have a look at us.


M and his new-found friends.
("First time a friend, second time a brother" - Afghan proverb - )


Ball? Ball? Ball? (Sorry, we had no footballs, volleyballs, frisbees or any other PSYOPS giveaways with us today.)

When the DEVAD and chaplain were done, it was time to head back to the safe house. Some parts of the patrolling are becoming routine now, and I've even stopped complaining about the temperature (it hasn't helped much - it's still very, very hot in the afternoon). Routines are dangerous and should be avoided as much as possible. One example of this is the routine of unloading your weapons when entering the base. Accidents do happen at the unloading barrel.


Finland 1 - Sweden 4. And in this game low score wins!

There was no usual Thursday barbeque today, because we didn't have enough suitable meat. The hordes of unexpected guests this week hade made away with it. Instead we had sauce and potatoes in the dining hall. Just before dinner our interpreters were taking part in the weekly kite-flying competition. They took the business of getting their kite to fly the highest very seriously: they had over 1000 metres of string ready and were running around, shouting advice to the "pilot" and climbing on the cars to gain altitude. Just as their kite had reached about 300 metres altitude, it got caught in another kite's string (the sky was full of them), and they both fell to the ground several blocks away.