Progress

It felt exceptionally chilly in the morning, the sky was cloudy, and as I was walking to the dining hall to have breakfast, it even rained a few drops. The thermometre showed, however, that it really wasn't chilly at all, but 25 degrees warm. It seems that I must be finally getting used to the heat. We went to the security meeting at the provincial governor's office at 1000. There was an argument about whether we should cancel the upcoming elections altogether in the few villages where the security situation is poor. I said to the meeting that if they are going to have the elections in Kandahar and Helmand, we should certainly be able to arrange things in Samangan.

When we arrived back at the safe house, we heard that the provincial governor had visited the construction site of the university road that we are funding. He had not been happy with the culverts of the road and said that they would have to be rebuilt and that the workers should stop working immediately. I got instructions to go and tell the workers to ignore the governor, to go on working until the road is finished to the standards stated in the contract, and then they can go home. My assesment is that the provincial governor is hatching a plot to delay the completion of the project and buy time to get the road widened or paved, like he has been saying all along. He seems to be of the opinion that a narrow gravel road is worse than no road at all.

We immediately went to talk with the road construction workers, but there was no-one there. Perhaps they were just having their lunch break, as the clock was half past twelwe. From the new road we went to look at three different development projects, that are all ongoing, or at least they should have been started since some time ago. At 1400 we had an appointment with the chief of NDS. It was very informative, like it usually is, and I know that my report will be eagerly read at the headquarters. One of our interpreters is a little slow in typing out his notes, so I didn't have his notes from the security meeting until late in the evening, and could barely finish my report during the 02AUG2010.