On the Move

I didn't leave the safe house before lunch. The MOT's were out, as well as the PO patrol, but I stayed in, updated the contingency plan and prepared for leave. We should have left for Camp Marmal at 1300, but were delayed 20 because of a corrupted file to the signals PC. Still we were in no hurry and made it to CM well ahead of schedule. I visited both the Finnish and Swedish paymasters to run some errands. When you walked past the Norwegian Camp Nidaros, you could not help noticing the container with the honor guard. The four Norwegians who were killed a couple of days earlier are in that chilled container. There will be a line-up early tomorrow morning when the coffins are loaded on the plane to Norway. After dinner (pizza!) it was time to check in our luggage, then to the sauna, and straight to bed. The plane for Turkey, Sweden and Finland takes off at 0800 tomorrow.

Gearbox

MOT E's bad fortune continues. Returning from patrol yesterday, the automatic transmission on one of their vehicles broke down. There was nothing else to do than to call in the recovery truck, load the Mercedes, and to ride piggy-back to the repair workshop in Camp Marmal. MOT D, on the other hand, got in two spare wheels today, and loaded up their punctured wheels on the same recovery truck, so basically they are operational again.

For the Provincial Office it was a Tuesday like any other. OCCP meeting, then to the Provincial Development Council meeting, then a shortened version of a security meeting, and in the afternoon a meeting with the chief of the National Directorate of Security. That many meetings means that many reports. The interpreters are rotating again shortly, so I wrote a personal evaluation paper on each one, as well as certificates of employment here at the PO for them all. And, I documented the new HLS (helicopter landing site) near the PO. We had to move it a little because the fruit tree saplings in the previous field had grown too tall.


The meeting of the Provincial Development Council.


The governor himself had taken off his necktie, but it apparently didn't help him relax: He told the chief of the Department of Public Works to leave the meeting because he was useless, and the chief of the Department of Agriculture to choose between doing his job or resigning.


There was a stray dog in our street at least five times the size of Isaf, but she drove him off by barking like mad.

Paperwork

Today I had some paperwork that was overdue, so I opted not to go on patrol. There was of course a need to meet some of our Afghan counterparts (there always is). The solution was obvious: Today's patrols would have to go to the meetings without me. I felt very tired today and had two naps between working. I got a lot done - perhaps it was just because of the naps inbetween - but some minor things still remained in the evening. I also had a sore stomach most of the day. Nothing serious, but enough to make me pass the gym. It was again quite hot outside, 42 degrees, and it will continue to be hot for the rest of the week, the forecast says.

Patrol 4

Today I spent the whole day on patrol filling the duty of an extra rifleman for MOT E. We drove off the map a little, but otherwise it was a good day. Besides, driving off the map is part of the point with road recce. Our MOT's have had their share of bad luck recently. MOT D has had a flat tyre twice this week, and flipped a care on its side once last week. Earlier MOT E had a collision and three cases of engine trouble. Today we fortunately had none of that.

In the evening practically all activity stopped for the duration of the football game between Germany and England. Germany won with 4 goals against 1, although it should have been 4-2. Auf Wiedersehen, Engländer!


We drove most of the way in a deep and wide dry river bed, or wadi.


Higher up the wadi was narrower and steeper. There was a flock of 600 sheep looking for some shade. To the left, their shepherd dog can be seen. We tried to give it some water, but it was afraid of us.


The donkeys of a remote village were taking it easy in the dust.

Convoys and Flour

Today we were supposed to support the transport of an ANA (Afghan National Army) Kandak (batallion) through our AOR (area of responsibility). Our job was to observe the passing convoy in Aybak and to report what we saw to headquarters. The first vehicles of the convoy were ahead of schedule, so we missed those. The last ones were an hour late, because there had been a traffic accident, so we had to wait for those. And the driver of the ANA car that had been involved in the accident had ran away into the desert because he had been afraid of being punished, so one platoon had have to go after him. We didn't wait for that platoon. Instead we recorded the position of an emergency helicopter landing site and delivered a letter to the chief of NDS.

In the afternoon we went to meet the chief of police. He was very talkative as usual, and tried to impress us by telling things that we already knew since weeks ago. When we were leaving, he gave me his rosary, or tasbih, for some reason. I tried to refuse, but he insisted, and finally I took the trinket with glass beads. From the ANP HQ we drove to the department of women's affairs. When the previous Swedish rotation, FS18, went home, their mess association donated 4.000 USD to the people of Samangan. We were tasked with the job of finding a suitable project for that sum. With the help of the deputy chairman of the provincial council and the chief of the department of women's affairs, we today chose the project to be a delivery of foodstuffs to 100 disadvantaged families in Aybak. For 40 dollars, each family gets 50 kg of wheat flour and 3 litres of food oil. I'm well aware that it's yet another short-term, feel-good project, because sooner than we think the families will be hungry again, but that was their suggestion and what they wanted.


We chose a position overlooking the ring road for following the movement of the ANA convoy. A little boy was keeping a close eye on us.


The shape of a hand cut out of sheet metal are common decorations on graves. This one had a bullet hole in it.

More Low Ops

I slept until 1030. That's quite exceptional - I can't recall the last time that I've slept this late in Afghanistan. It must have been when I was duty officer, and that hasn't happened since February. After brunch I did some planning and paperwork, washed some clothes and relaxed. Nothing much happened today, but the weather turned back to normal. Normal in this case means that the 40+ degrees air is full of dust and large insects, and that in the direct sunlight it's hard to keep your eyes open without sunglasses.

Low Ops

All our vehicles - except for MOT D's Toyota pick-up, or the "Bob the Builder -car", as it's also called - left for patrols early in the morning. I opted to stay at the safe house, which provided me with an opportunity for a lenghty training session at the gym, as well as to catch up with some paperwork. It was an unexpectedly chilly day, or at least that's what it felt like. It must have been below 30 degrees in towards the evening, and barbecue time.

First Secretary of State

The first secretary of state of the Ministry of Defence of Sweden visited us today. In the media he as also been adressed as the deputy minister of defence, which I think is correct. With him was a delegation of three civilian advisors and two colonels. They asked me a lot of questions, some of which were difficult to answer even if I knew the answer. One has to bear in mind who one is talking with, and in this particular case it was a high-profile civil servant. They left after lunch, and I tried to recover from staying up late yesterday evening preparing for the visit and getting up at 0600 this morning to run a little, by taking a nap. In the evening there was a storm with strong winds and a little rain.

New Generators

Two of our generators have been down since yesterday. We have three, and normally we only need one, except for when the kitchen is using the oven, or when the sauna stove is on. With only one generator running, we could not keep the air conditioners on, except for in the accommodation containers, and the generator still tended to overheat. There was no sauna, and when the chef was cooking, we shut down most of the main building. Today the generator repairmen came with two brand new generators. They were accompanied by a local crane crew. First they had to cut open the roof of the generator shelter, and remove the tall exhaust pipe extensions. Then they hoisted the broken generators out and lifted in the new ones. The exhausts and the shelter roof were installed and welded, and the generators connected to the electrical system. It was really astonishing that the maintenance guys managed to do all of this in just about six hours! By dinner time the new generators were up and running. They have better output than the old ones used to have when they were working, and are much quieter. The only setback was that the peach (or apricot) tree in our front yard was destroyed by the crane.

At 1100 we went to talk with the chief of NDS. After the meeting as we were leaving the building, one of the NDS intelligence officers came running after us. He pulled a half-full tube of Norwegian processed cheese with shrimps from his jacket pocket, and asked us "Can you tell me what this is?". I told him what it was and asked where he had gotten it. He said that there were some men in the bazaar who are working at Camp Marmal and go through the garbage there, and sell whatever they find.


The peach (or apricot) tree had to give way for electricity.

Kafkaesque

At 0800 we called the chief of the Agricultural Department. He said that he was in a workshop and would not be available for four days. So, we called his boss, the provincial governor, and scheduled a meeting with him at 1000. Then we drove to the Agricultural Department to check whether the chief was telling us the truth. We met his deputy and the property officer, and after about 25 minutes' persuation the property officer agreed to join us to the provincial governor's office at 1000. The chief was indeed away, to the provincial council. So we drove there. The only female member of the provincial council received us, and we talked for a while about some development projects, such as buying sewing machines to women. But there was no sign of the chief of Agriculture. Then we drove to the provincial governor's office. There was a big meeting of village elders, about 200 people, arranged on short notice "to clear some misunderstanding". After waiting for about 40 minutes the provincial governor met us in his office. The property officer had waited with us for about 25 minutes and then disappeared, so went to meet the governor without any representative from the Agricultural Department. The governor said that he could not put his signature on which it says "the Government of Afghanistan". I reminded him that he is directly appointed by president Karzai. Then he said that he needed his subordinates to sign the paper first. We drove back to the Department of Agriculture. There we again interrupted the daydreaming deputy chief. He called in the property officer, and I requested that they should sign the declaration of land ownership so that the provincial governor could sign it. I also told the property officer that the had made a complete fool out of himself and his department by disappearing from the meeting with the provincial governor. My interpreter, however, would not translate it, saying that the property officer was stupid and would not understand what I meant. I didn't have the time to argue with the interpreter, so I didn't repeat what I had said. The property officer would not put his name on the land ownership certificate, because it was his boss who should do it. The deputy would have signed it, but he called the chief to ask if he was available. He was, and what's more important, he said that he had the copies of the land ownership certificate that I had given him yesterday with the signatures of himself and the Gadiste people. We all agreed that the property officer should drive to the Provincial Council office and get the papers, while we wait at the Agricultural Deparment. The property officer soon came back into the deputy's office and said that the driver had taken the car to be washed and that he had no vehicle. We agreed to take the property officer to the Provincial Council office. I didn't want to go inside a second time today, so I sent the IP in with the property officer. The chief of the Agricultural Department soon came into the street and apologised for not having the papers with him. We then followed his car to his house. He disappeared into his house for about 15 minutes without saying a word. When he came out again he said that he had been looking for the papers, but that he must have left them at his office. So we drove back to the Agricultural Department. There, in his office, I received the two copies of the land ownership certificate that I had given him yesterday, one in Dari and another in English, with the signatures of himself and the Gadister representatives. We then drove to the provincial governor's office to get his signature. The meeting was still going on and we had to wait for about 20 minutes before the governor could see us. He signed the certificates, and we drove to the safe house, arriving at 1225. I called HQ and told them that we finally have a signed document about land ownership at the PO.

The people from Khwaja Sang Bur village came to pick up their things. I had repeatedly told them to bring a truck that can carry at least 1000 kg. They came with a Toyota Hiace - but they only had to carry the other trouhg out by hand. Nobody knows how to load a vehicle like the Afghans.

In the afternoon we went to the shooting range to have a life fire exercise. I drank more than three litres of water in about three hours. Fortunately there was a breeze, which made the heat bearable. We found some UXO's (unexploded ordnance) IVO (in the vicinity of) the range and marked them for an EOD-team (explosive ordnance disposal) to take care of.

In the evening some emails and phone calls came in, which requied a team leader meeting. Then I had to make some phone calls and write some emails. It was past eleven when I had a shower and some noodles before going to bed.

Relocation

The vehicle from the Agricultural Department came in the morning to refuel, and set of for Mazar-e Sharif to pick up the gentlemen from Gadister. He said that they would be back at 1300, which I took as an optimistic estimation. So, I was surprised to see the vehicle and with 5 Afghan gentlemen at our gate at 1430. We drove off to the land area that we had measured just a couple of days earlier. The men listened patiently when I explained the borders of the area that we were planning to use. Then they looked at their hand-drawn maps and consulted their hand-written catalogues for about 30 minutes in the roasting heat of the desert. The final verdict was that the land that we were interested in is privately owned. It's owner is currently in Pakistan, and cannot be contacted. His brothers are in Iran.

I then asked the delegation wheter they were able to point out any land area that would meet our demands which is in public ownership. That they could, and we drove off. The new location was not nearly as good as the old one, but at this point I was willing to try it, as this was the first location in which the local authorities seemed to know (and agree upon) the owner of the land. Me and the second in command walked the perimeter of the area with a GPS reciever, and recorded the grids. No need to go to the gym tonight, then. We sent the grids to the safe house and there the signals officer T immediately started preparing a sketch of the area on the computer. By the time the patrol had returned to the safe house he had already printed copies of maps with the borders of the area. We sat down to sign the declaration of land ownership, but the chief of the Agricultural Department would not sign it and told us to call him in the morning.

The people from Khwaja Sang Bur village came to take a look at what we had for them: A water tank, 500 metres of water pipe, two troughs for the animals, and accessories. They said that they would come back for the material with a truck tomorrow afternoon. They were seemingly very happy. But before they left, one of the men could not hold his tongue, and burst out saying: "You must help us more in the future!"

Senior Civilian Representative

The Senior Civilian Representative, or SCR, visited us today. He is going to be the head of a new civilan structure, parallel to the military element of the Provincial Reconstruction Team. No-one knows exactly what the new organisation is going to look like, but it will consist of several more political and development advisors than are available at present. The SCR himself is a top diplomat with a 30-year career behind him, for example as the Swedish ambassador to Serbia and to the OSCE in Vienna, and as the head of the department of security policy at the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The visit went well. The delegation left early, because they had another appointment.

I had the IP call the office in MeS that deals with the land ownership issues. They were all ready to come and inspect the area that we are interested in, but they had only one problem: they have no vehicle. I called the chief of the department of agriculture, because he has a nice Toyota Hilux. He said that their montly quota of fuel, which is 200 litres, has now been spent. I told him that if he goes to pick up the people from Mazar today, we would be happy to fill up the tank of the Toyota. Then it turned out that his colleague the property officer was in Baghlan, and that his mobile phone was outside coverage area. The chief said that he would call us back as soon as he reached his colleague. Then I called the provincial governor, and requested him for a transport to the inspectors from Mazar-e Sharif. The governor's answer was quick: "I will immediately send a vehicle to get fuel from you and then to Mazar to pick up the inspectors!" The vehicle never came, and the chief of the agricultural department never called.

It was unbearably hot today, 45 degrees in the shade, and tomorrow is going to be no better:

Normal Friday

Nothing out of the ordinary happened today. I trained on the exercise bike for about one hour and then did some stretching on the sundeck. It was extremely hot. Then we did the usual maintenance work at the safe house, while updated some paperwork. We now get the football world cup on cable television, which is of course a popular pastime. Go Germany!

First Aid Training

The guys returning from leave arrived on schedule, and we met them at breakfast in the Norwegian mess hall. The medical training personnel from Finland had agreed to move our turn to participate in the training from tomorrow to today, which of course suited us perfectly. Now our cars were in maintenance while we could at the same time participate in the medical training. The training was built up of several cases, in which we used a casualty simulator. The simulator consisted of two life-sized dolls, which were controlled by computers. They breathed using pressurised air and had a pulse. The instructors would change the vital signs of the dolls during the cases with remote controls, depending on how we treated the patients. The dolls of course also had spare limbs with wound make-up, fractures, and fake blood. After each case we would sit down for a thorough feed-back on what went wrong and what was good, and the instructors showed us the correct treatments. It was a very practical and informative training session.

After dinner we drove to Aybak. The weather was still very hot, and there was a fierce wind blowing up dust over the road. After arriving in Aybak I went for a 40-minute run on the treadmill.


The SimMan has just suffered yet another wound.


The needle decompression of a pneumothorax, or thoracocentesis.

Early or Late?

Yesterday I told everyone at the briefing, that there would be no patrols the next morning. That decision lasted for about 30 minutes, which is not too bad in Afghansistan - most decisions are much more short-lived. The provincial governor told me, when I called in the evening, that the men from the Barakat office, which is some kind of land register, were in Aybak, and that they would be available to see me today at 1000. They weren't. At 0915, the chief of the Agricultural Department turned up at our gate and said that the men from Barakat were now here. I was busy writing the weekly operational update, so I told them that we agreed to meet them at 1000, if they would be so kind to come back then. We made up a patrol and got ready to go out and look at a land area that we had reconnoitred yesterday. To get a good satellite signal to the communications equipment, we rolled out the vehicles in the street at 1000 sharp. At 1048, the white Toyota Hilux of the Agricultural Department appeared.

We drove to the area. The gentlemen from the Barakat were the first Afghans around this issue that had any kind of comptence or interest to deal with it. I gave them both a camouflage-patterned ball-point pen of the Finnish Defence Forces as a sign of appreciation of the co-operation, which was much appreciated.

After lunch it was time to leave for Camp Marmal. Four members of the PO staff were going on leave, and three of us were staying at Marmal to take the vehicles for periodical maintenance, and to take part in some first aid training with the three guys who are coming from leave.


There was an old, Soviet sidecar motorcycle at Camp Marmal, that someone had in vain tried to disguise as a BMW. Not such a smart thing to try in a German camp.

Burning

Today we went out to look for possible locations for a new camp. It was a hot day, and some corner areas of the locations could be reached only by foot. The sun was almost directly above our heads as you could see your shadow only by looking straight down. We walked for a while with a GPS receiver and a laser range finder. There were some old Soviet empty shells on the ground. It was only when we came back to the cars, in which the air conditioning had been running, that I realized how hot it really was outside. It was hard to breathe, almost like when it's really cold. I almost burned my neck, because I forgot to put on sun lotion. (Just when we were leaving the phone rang, a guard wanted advance on his salary, etc. As usual.)

During the patrol we came across the place where our garbage man takes our garbage and should burn it. We found the place still burning, but most of the garbage was just spread all over and not burnt and buried like we had ordered the man to do. I have had to remind the garbage man once before about not doing his job properly, so today I gave him a second notice with a warning that there would be no third notice. We pay him a montly sum for disposing of our garbage that is so big that he can easily hire a man to stand there all day, six days a week and see to it that all the garbage burns properly. If he himself has no time to see to it that our garbage is taken care of and doesn't cause complains, he should hire someone who has time. In the afternoon MOT D sent a message that they had flipped one of their vehicles on the side. No-one was injured. Later they managed to get it back on its wheels and continue their patrol.

mr pika

The security meeting was held at the governor's office at 1000. The weather was not too hot, only 30 degrees, and the meeting informative and concise. I managed to deflect all accusations of discontinuing the water deliveries to the prison, anyway. On the way out of the meeting I had the privilege of recieving my most hilairous request up to now. I've had some pretty outrageous demands come my way during my time here, but this one is so personal and unabashedly self-righteous that it clearly takes the prize.



During the day I made and received some phone calls to PRT HQ, and tried to write the report from the security meeting, but was constantly interrupted. At 1515 the chief of the Agricultural Department turned up at our gate like we had agreed yesterday. What we had not agreed on was, that he wanted to borrow one of our vehicles, by himself, to collect his driver, whom he had just minutes earlier sent away - with his mobile phone! As he was on foot, it took him about 45 minutes to walk back to his office to get his driver and a vehicle. We were supposed to go out to look at some land areas that they were supposed to have planned to suggest to us, but instead they stopped by the roadside after driving about 15 kilometres and asked us where we wanted to go. You just have to stand in awe of the proficiency of the Afghan civil servants. Then it started to rain.

Sisyphus

This morning I had the IP call the provincial governor four times. That's the number of phone calls that were necessary to find out that I had to see him in person. We prepared a patrol and drove to his office. The provincial governor said that some villagers from the area in which we were interested in building a new compound in had visited him this morning. They had said that the Russians had had a camp near their village and one night 13 Russians and 36 people from their village had died, and that they didn't want any ISAF camp near their village because the same could happen again. I told the governor that it was very insulting for ISAF to be compared to the Soviets. Then the governor told me that we should have come in through the door and not through the window - the land ownership issue was not the mayor's business (like he had told us before), but the agricultural departments.

A delegation of officers from PRT HQ came to brief us - and to be briefed by us by lunchtime. The lunch was prepared by each soldier individually, because on of our cooks had been duty officer, and the other one had a sudden case of stomach flu. The same disease struck our operations officer, too, but fortunately no-one else. They had both been to the landlord's dinner and so had I, but I showed no symptoms of food poisoning.

The chief of the agricultural department came to see us at the PO in the aftenoon. It soon became evident that neither he or his colleague had nor the knowledge or the intellectual to help us determine the ownership details of any specified land area, let alone the courage to sign a certificate about the matter. They promised to return on the next day with a gentleman from MeS, who would know more about who owns land in Samangan. While we were discussing, a delegation from the Faculty of Education of Balkh University turned up at the gate. I had asked them to visit us because I wished to find out more details about the usage of the so called universty building in the outskirts of the city. They wished for the PRT to build a paved road to the building. I got my wish.

Excuses

I had the interpreter call the mayor four or five times today. I wanted the mayor to schedule a meeting with the provincial governor, the city engineer and the chief of the agricultural department, and to call me back and tell me where and when that meeting was to take place. Instead of calling me back, like he repeatedly promised, he had lots of excuses for not making the meeting happen: the city engineer had been in a car accident, the mayor was busy, and the phone of the chief of the agricultural department was off. In the afternoon the HQ called me again and asked how soon they would have the land ownership certificate. I told them that I was trying my best.

Then the chief of ANP came over to discuss some issues. He said that as we hadn't come to see him recently, he was forced to come and see us. I said that he is always welcome. He had a piece of paper which I wanted to have translated, but the IPs said that it was such bad handwriting that if you wrote it down in the sand the text would start walking away. It took them quite a while to decipher the text, and as the text was to be included in my report, I couldn't start writing it until it was late.

Maintenance Day

Before the brunch I went to the gym. After about an hour on the treadmill and crosstrainer I went to the sundeck to strech. It was 38 degrees in the shade, and on the sundeck it must have been more than 45. I drank more than two litres in about two hours. Still, the active morning gave me enough energy to clean my quarters in the afternoon. Then I cleaned my weapons and did some paperwork. In the evening we had been invited to dinner to the gentleman from whom we rent the PO safe house, or the landlord, to put it shortly. He has a huge garden with three big houses in the outskirts of town. His three brothers work in the UK, Germany and Saudi-Arabia, and send him money to buy realestate and build houses in Afghanistan. We had a plentiful meal and a long walk in the garden afterwards. It was very pleasant to walk outside without having to wear 30 kgs of equipment.


Plenty of everything - even before the main course was brought to the "table".

Diesel and Water

We sent a patrol to Camp Marmal to pick up our chef J, who was returning from leave. The patrol also took the opportunity to pick up the 'Suomi-food' and other necessities from Camp Northern Lights, while they were in the area. I stayed at the safe house in Aybak, because I have, to be honest, had quite enough experience of sitting in an armoured car for hours when it's 40 degrees outside. Whenever I have the possibility to share some of that experience to others, I feel oblidged to do so. There were three groups of visitors to our gate today. The first one was from the municipality authority. They still wanted 2000 litres of diesel fuel for their garbage trucks, but that proposal was disapproved at the HQ yesterday. They were dissappointed but not discouraged, and soon turned to requesting 25 wheelbarrows, rakes, shovels and uniforms (with wellies and gloves) for their 25 cleaning workers. They promised to send me an email with the details, and I promised to write a project proposal. The second group was led by an Australian EOD-contractor from Kunduz. He picked up some items that had been left behind by his American colleague, and told shared some of their future plans. The spokesman for the third and last delegation of the day was the chief of Aybak prison. He had managed to spend the money that we donated to the prison to pay for drinking water for the prisoners in less than half the time that it was supposed to last. I feared that this would happen. Fortunately we had signed a contract, in which it was clearly stated the when the designated sum of money was spent, the water the deliveries would and and the contract was no longer valid. The chief of prison was clearly disappointed. He said that tomorrow the prisoners would have no water and told me to call to the Red Cross for help, but called them himself. After he had left, my interpreter said that the chief of prison most likely puts half of the water money in his own pocket. I said that I was well aware of that, but that there isn't much that we can do about it.


Isaf came to say hello, although it was too hot to do anything, really. She must have meen trying to cool herself in the ditch, because her paws were especially muddy today.

Bureaucrats

I had great difficulties waking up and getting out of bed today. It must be the Malarone - it keeps me from falling asleep in the night and, consequently, waking up in the morning. Nevertheless, I had to get up, as always. Before lunch I did some paperwork and worked out at the gym. There was turkey steaks, ratatouille for lunch, and ice cream, cherries and whipped cream for dessert, which effectively cancelled the positive effects of the physical exercise just an hour earlier. In the afternoon we went to have a look at the prison, where the Hesco-bastions that we had donated them last week were still unused, piled up against the wall. From there we went to the office of the agricultural department. They were supposed to provide us with a document four days ago, and still they had the nerve to suggest that we should come back next week. I told them that their suggestion was unacceptable, after which they told me to call them tomorrow - just to remind them of what it was that I wanted. It is now very clear to me that whoever complains about bureaucracy in Finland, has never tried to get things done in Afghanistan. After that very frustrating meeting I had a much better one with the chief of NDS. Before dinner (grilled sausages, salad and bread) we had a quick meeting with the mullah next door. The evening was spent writing reports.

Sandstorm

To make up for yesterday's miserable failures and blatant inactivity, we took the iniative into our own hands today. We went to see the prosecutor at his office. He was a little surprised when we turned up without any warning, but seemed very happy that we did. During our short meeting, the prosecutor almost managed to pull something off that no Afghan has done before: To make a good first impression on me. Sadly, he spoilt his feat at the end of our meeting by presenting a wish list of items for his office. But he did it in a tactful manner.

From the prosecutor's, we drove to Dalkhaki village. There I sent the operations officer to have the meeting with the village elder for a change, and stood guard by the vehicles myself. A thunder shower was coming in over the mountains, and before it there was a wall of dust. Five minutes before it started to rain, the wind suddenly grew strong and the air was full of sand. It filled the eyes and mouth and blew through the alleys of the village like faster than the children running for cover. Then, as suddenly as it has started, the wind calmed down, and the rain started clearing the air.


The rain is still far away and the air is clear.

In the afternoon the chief of the IEC came to meet us at the safehouse. Over a cup of chai, we discussed the preparations that are being made for the parliamentary elections on Friday 17. September, 2010. Or 1389, as the locals would have it. That made up for some of yesterday's ineffectiveness. Of course, not going out at all yesterday brought some other, positive side effects: our ever energetic ordnance NCO and signals officer took the opportunity to clean the guest containers and wash the bedlinen the bunks. That would have most likely have been delayed had we been more active in other areas yesterday. It made me pleased, but the point of doing a task well should never be to please the boss. That is just a side effect.

Delayed

The deputy governor promised me last week, that he would have a document ready to hand over to us today, on Monday. When we called him today, however, he said that the paper wasn't ready yet, and that we would have to call him back in two days time. After that phone call I had the IP call the mayor of Aybak, but his excuse was that he was away to Mazar-e Sharif for two days on some kind of seminar. I would not have been surprised to see the mayor shopping in the bazaar in Aybak had we gone to the city. We then tried to call the prosecutor's office and the IEC (Independent Election Committee) to schedule a meeting, because they had both tried to make and appointment with us in the past weeks, but neither one was available. The OCCP mentoring team went to the OCCP meeting and then left for CNL to escort an MMT (Mobile Medical Team) to us. The swedish medics will stay with us for a while and support us with their capabilities. MOT E came back from their patrol to Firuz Nakhchir with a malfunctioning vehicle for the umpteenth time. They've had incredibly bad luck with their cars, for sure. So their next patrol will be - in true Afghan style - delayed.

Resources

At times we have just one medic at the PO. The other medics might be on leave, or out on long range patrols in other areas. When this occurs, the units that are staying at the safe house should not go out too far, because the only professional first aid personnel would be a too long time away should there be a casualty. Thus, in these situations patrols are made only in the immediate vicinity of Aybak. There is no point in taking unnecessary risks in this respect. The only way to help the situation is to wait for additional medical resources, such as other teams coming in from patrols, medics returning from leave - or medical reinforcements detached from other units and sent in to us by HQ.

Today's PO patrol was hot, dusty, short and resultless. We tried to find a village just outside of Aybak where there reportedly had been some kind of problem with the water reservoir. Once we found the village no-one there seemed to know anything about any problem with any reservour, but they had a multitude of other problems to share. None of the elders, who had visited the PO two days earlier were available to meet us, which speaks volumes. We confirmed that it was the right village, but soon both my interpreter and I got fed up with being lied to. We left the village without saying goodbye (khud hafiz, pronounced good office) and told the Afghans that if they want to discuss the issue further, they know where to find us.

Full Circle

Today the CO of the Finnish contingent for the next rotation paid us a visit. (That sounds familiar. Where have I read that before? Well, it seems that I have done a full circle.) I gave him the usual camp walk and the standard brief after lunch, and then we visited OCCP and the "university" of Samangan. There was a delegation from Hazrat-e Soltan district at the gate, who wanted construction materials to repair a school building that had been damaged in the recent floods. Or, if material was not available, they would settle for two or three thousand dollars. I also issued a written warning to one of our interpreters, who was absent for one day without prior agreement or notifying anyone.

Flag Day

There was a parade in Camp Northern Lights in Mazar-e Sharif, and all Finns were ordered to be there. We left early in order to make it there on time. The parade was like parades usually are, tedious and either hot or cold. This time it was hot, and I felt the sweatdrops run down my back. The lunch was something out of the ordinary to celebrate the occasion. In fact, it was suberb.



After the lunch there was the FIN-brief and an intelligence update for the team leaders. Then we drove back in a minor sandstorm.

A funny thing happened yesterday. There was, as so many times before, a delegation of Afghan gentlemen at our gate - asking for things, what else. This time the problem was that the drinking water dam in their village, Hasan Khel, had burst due to the floods, and now the villagers were running out of drinking water. I told them that we would not be able to visit them for the next few days, but we would be happy to come and take a closer look, before giving any kind of answer to their request. Then they presented their grand idea: they wanted us to take one of the T-55 tanks that are lying everywhere around here, to transport the tank to their village, and to put it in the dam to repair it! They were serious and thought that it was a great idea. I told them that the tank would certainly rust and eventually spoil their drinking water.


The delegation from Hasan Khel village.

Birthday

It's my birthday today. Nothing special happened, except that I finally got around to working out at the gym. The air was somewhat clearer after the rainy night, and it wasn't too hot either.


Poor Isaf suffers from the heat too. She is just lying around all day. But at night she is full of energy and defends our gate from all intruders!


There are no pictures so funny that a fitting caption does not make them funnier. If a caption is needed at all, that is.


Sundeck, 1. June 2010 at 17:35.


And to think that the men who did this are allowed to carry firearms.

Guests and Paperboys

Today we had quite a few visitors. After the new MOT D and the OCCP mentoring team had left for their patrols, the rest of us waited at the safe house for a transport that would bring the old MOT D to CNL. We were hoping that there would be enough room in their vehicles to take the PO's guys along as well. They needed a lift to Camp Marmal and the leave transport. We were, of course, prepared to give them a lift ourselves if the visiting unit could not provide the service. First up was the diesel delivery truck. It arrived early, filled our fuel tanks and left. The ISAF news delivery boy was also early. Our guards' commander told me a few days ago, that the delivery boy takes some of the ISAF news and sells them to shops in the city. I asked the boy how the system works: Where he gets the papers, who delivers them to him, where and how much he is paid for the delivery an so on. He said that sometimes when he is not paid he sells the papers. I continued to ask him questions about the receipts for the delivery and other details. Then I told him that the ISAF news is a gift from ISAF to the Afghan people, and that no-one should have to pay to read the ISAF news. The boy started insisting that he was not selling any papers, but the interpreter and the guards who were listening had just heard him say that he sometimes sold the papers. I told him that I had already reported his actions to Mazar-e Sharif two days ago, and that they would have to decide whether he could keep his job.

Then a delegation from the prison turned up at the gate. The outer wall of the prison was now in even worse condition than before and it is likely to crumble any day. They wanted more Hesco-bastions and concertina wire from us to reinforce the wall. A man from a construction company was also at the gate offering the services of his company. Then the sewage tank car came to empty the guards' toilets. The logistics transport arrived at the same time that the OCCP mentoring team was coming back to base. Then the tactical PSYOPS (psycological operations) team and the SUAV squadron (small unmanned aerial vehicle) came back from the shooting range. And during the whole morning the water delivery man wanted to come and go to fill our water tanks.

After lunch we went out to take a look at the prison wall, and having seen it, decided to donate all our remaining Hescos to the prison. It would, after all, be a major setback if the 150 prisoners escaped one night. Then we continued to look at a location where an anti-tank mine was found some time ago. It had been washed up by the floods. In the afternoon MOT B arrived from CNL, and even later MOT D came back from their patrol. On top of it all, as darkness fell it started to rain.

MOT D Farewell

The weekly security meeting was at the usual time but not in the usual place. Because the provincial governor is away to the peace jirga in Kabul, the deputy governor was chair of the meeting, and we had to gather in his office. It's much smaller, the sofas are less comfy, and there's no air conditioning. Poor us! The deputy governor is Pashto and has a reputation of being quite direct towards ISAF personnel. This time, however, he made only a couple of rude jokes and somehow managed to behave civilized throughout the meeting. The meeting itself brought little new information, but it gave me the opportunity to ask the chief of NDS a couple of details about previous issues. It was hot as hell outside: 38 degrees in the shade and up to 47 in the sunshine. Still we decided to have the evening brief at 1700 and have a barbecue on the sundeck just like it was Thursday, because it was the old MOT D's last night here. I handed each member of the team a locally made pocket knife with the inscription "AYBAK" and a Koskenkorva sauna seat cover. The team leader H and the second in command J got a watch and a tie clip respectively. Then, to my surprise, it was my turn to be on the receiving side: They gave me a Fällkniven F1 survival knife, and a book about the history of the Swedish coastal jaegers. Good stuff! After the barbecue I still had two reports to write.