In the morning it was time for the security meeting. It was the first one of its kind in over two weeks, and the first one with the new governor. As expected, there was a new atmosphere and a new agenda. The security situation in Samangan was no longer assessed as 'good', but as 'acceptable', and many incidents that would not have been brought up in a security meeting with the old governor, were now discussed in detail. When it was my turn to speak, I told the governor amongst other things that we had had patrols in all seven districts in the past week. The governor, however, was not impressed. He said that there is no security problem and that our patrols don't do any good. He said that he needs a provincial reconstruction team that actually does reconstruction, and added that he wishes that I bring that to the attention of my superiors. I replied that both I and my superiors are well aware of what our mission in Afghanistan is.
After lunch we went out for a drive in the desert to look at what the dotted lines on the map described as 'roads' looked like in reality. We didn't get lost or stuck once, and met some friendly nomads who asked us for a radio. It was hot, but not ridiculously hot - yet. We saw many eagles, turtles, beetles, spiders, ants and much more.
The desert is now very much alive.
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