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.