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.