New CO

The new PRT CO, who had taken over command just four days ago, visited us at PO Aybak today. We had a line up, some coffee on the sundeck (or fika på taket, as MOT D calls it), and then I gave him and the COO (chief of operations, or ACOS G3) a quick tour of the compound. Before and after lunch we sat down to talk about various issues, and then it was time to go meet the governor. I was surprised to find out that he was away, but the deputy governor was kind enough to receive us. He and the CO exchanged a few words, after which the deputy governor handed us a project proposal about building a road. A couple of days ago I found out that 1 kilometre of Afghan standard gravel road costs about 20.000 USD and upwards to build. From there we went to have a look at the planned location of the new camp, which is plain desert.

In the evening I had the interpreters translate the project proposal. On the first page it said, that "the PRT has promised the provincial governor to build and asphalted road and an electricty line etc." Funnily enough, the same thing was said in the evening news, which is broadcast to every household! The Afghans really know how to use propaganda. Later me and T, our signals officer, gave some new instructions to the guards concerning guarding of the wall construction site. We even borrowed them an older model of night vision goggles for the purpose. Today the old MOT D hands over their tasks to the guys of the new Swedish rotation, FS19.


In the deputy governor's office.