Departures

The logistic transport that was supposed to take the outgoing rotation away came in at 1120. They also brought the new chef, who used to be a driver for MOT F, and, even more important, an electrician. We loaded the equipment of 9 soldiers onto the truck. 4 guys went with the log transport, 4 with MOT E and one with the PO patrol. There was an event for all signals personnel at CNL tonight, and we sent both our signals guys as well as MOT E’s signallist there. MOT D left for a long-range patrol to Khoram wa Sar Bagh and Ruy Do Ab. As there was relatively few personnel left at the safe house, I volunteered to take a Duty Officer’s shift, my first one for almost six months. The electrician stayed behind and looked for the problem well into the night. We had to run the backup generator on the roof during the time that he was working. As his work progressed and he made some new connections to the switchboards on each floor of the main building, the electrical failures suddenly stopped.

I sat down and talked with the guard that all the other guards have a problem getting along with. He is a good guard with combat experience with the ANA in Helmand province. But he is perhaps too self-confident and aware of his abilities, and he has a “sharp tongue”. Furthermore, he is Uzbek, and most of the other guards are Tadjik (there is one Pashtu, too). There is a good chance that the rest of the guards are trying to get him fired in order to get the opportunity to get one of their family members into the recruitment process for the vacancy. At four in the morning, as I was on my second movie for the night, the guards put up a table in the street and gathered for a meal. Today is the first day of Ramadan, and they won’t be able to eat, drink, chew gum or smoke between 0500 and 1900 during the next 30 days. The were scores of big frogs in our yard at night. I hope that they will eat some the beetles and locusts so that fewer of them enter the house.