Wayward: Farewell Party

We left for a patrol around Aibak city at 0800. The plan was to visit the Provincial Council, the Independent Election Committee, and the Department of Women's Affairs. We had made no appointments - instead we just drove up to the gate and asked if they happened to have a few minutes to spare and were willing to meet us. Of course they were: No-one is ever really in a hurry in Afghanistan, and no-one certainly ever fails to be hospitable. In each meeting I introduced the new PO commander and second in command, and gave some kind of simple farewell present. At the receiving end, the Afghans could of course not keep from giving me some kind of present in return. The people from the Provincial Council had to come all the way to our gate to give their return gift.

In the afternoon we had a short defence exercise, and wrote reports on the morning's meetings. After an earlier than usual evening brief (which by the way may very well have been my last one!), we prepared for a foot patrol to the provincial governor's residence. He and the chief of police had insisted on organising a farewell party for me. Among the guests were administrative staff from the governor's office, police officers and some friends of the governor from the president's office in Kabul. The meal was excellent and the atmosphere relaxed.

When we arrived on foot to the gates of the safe house there were some men in the street who wanted to talk with me. They complained about Isaf the dog, saying that she was pissing and shitting in the ditch from which people take their drinking water and in which they wash themselves. I said that Isaf is a street dog: she can come and go as she pleases and she only likes us because we give her food and don't kick her like the Afghans do. I said that she is free like the birds and like the 20 other stray dogs that live in our street. One man, who turned out to speak English, was especially keen on getting rid of the dog. I said that it's not our dog and that we could shoot it but we have no bullets to spare. Later the guards told me that last night he had been trying to persuade our neighbours not to take part in our dinner, and today he had been angry with some of our neighbours who had been to our dinner party, saying that they should not have accepted food from the PRT. The man insisted that we at least take the dog house that Isaf lives in away from the street. That I agreed to do tomorrow - it's too hot in there anyway now and Isaf sleeps in a hole in the ground. Perhaps the guys can put it back out when it starts snowing.

There was parliament candidate speaking against the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan in the Mosque across the street yesterday. The man said that we are just driving around in our armoured cars, sitting in meetings with important people on soft couches and not doing any development projects. He's perfectly right, but at least we don't even try to please everyone. The locals campaign to soften up the new commander seems to have started just a few days too early. The moods here can change swiftly and one must never let one's guard down.

All put together, today I got two chapans, a handcrafted handbag and a box of dried fruit. After all the acclaim that came my way today I had to check that I was alive - in my experience only dead people are spoken so well of.