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.
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