Holiday in the Southern Hotspots

Well it is not really a holiday, except for the local staff whom have been given half a day off for the inauguration of President Obama leaving the rest of us to deal with a tranche of emails. In my case, I was up early and on a plane to the south of Afghanistan, to a small provincial capital known as Lashkar Gar in Helmand province.

Helmand has the dubious distinction of being the center of opium production in Afghanistan and also a popular hangout for a large contingent of the Taliban. My protectors advise me that they are within rocket firing distance to the south of our compound and routinely fire them into the PRT base of which we are in between these two forces. It was a cheery thought to welcome me as if the hundred or so security personal that were at the airport to greet the dozen or so of us that arrived this morning was not foreboding enough.

There was a little time left before the staff went to lunch and with the afternoon off I decided we might go to one of the nearby projects to see how it was going. It has been a thorn in our side since it is well behind schedule and one to the reasons I had come down here.

In order to go there however I needed to go in the company of a team of security personal so was obliged to wait a few minutes for them to rig up. No mean feat considering all the equipment they carry. Even I was obligated to don body armor which I suppose made sense considering all the other protection that being afforded me.

Before I could alight from the car on site, Mike the security chief and his team conducted a recon of the building site to ensure that it was safe.

The site itself was like a thousand others I have been on, 20 or so local building labourers mixing and pouring concrete into the foundations of what would become a new court house in Lashkar Gar. The contractor needed some prompting since he has fallen behind schedule. He is the grey bearded gentleman to the right in the following picture.

Just beyond the fence behind me there was a lot of activity going on with several local police cars and policemen doing whatever policemen do in this town. Mike ( the Australian on the left of me) had indicated that the local intelligence was that there is a vehicle borne suicide bomber in town seeking out international targets. Again I felt a sort of cheery feeling in that my vacation day was being so well spent and the comfort of my own office and my own bed was a distant but desirable attraction.

The group above are the detail that accompanied me to site. They seem very well trained and everything else aside, I felt less intimidated by their presence.

Driving to the site was an experience. The escort vehicles take control of the road, blocking it in order that the vehicle I was in could pass unheeded. Their vehicle was heavily fortified with steel inner doors.

The job I hear you ask. Well the contractor needs a little supervision and and we reached an agreement that he would double his workforce and add additional machinery, hopefully before I leave the day after tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will go to our other project here in Lash at the Governors office where we are doing a complete renovation.

This was the contractor I had to convince he needed to do this job when I first arrive. By all accounts they are doing a great job and are receiving accolades from all concerned. I think I will be happy enough if it gets a little warmer and all I mean by that is if the sun comes out.

A moments inconvenience

The holidays are over, about a month too short and so it is back to work. The snow that I was hoping to avoid before I left is well and truly with us although it is intermittent. On some days the sun comes out and if you don’t mind the cold you can sit out in it for a few moments.

I have some new staff arrive about a week ago and I sent them to Jalalabad. Tom is to stay there and Shijo is there to look at the IT projects they have. It was meant to be a one day trip for him, there today back tomorrow however the inevitable happened. It snowed. A week later Shijo has returned and gained his first impression of the difficulties that Afghanistan poses. I have to go out this week to Lashkargar in Helmand province. Not only is there opium centre of the country it is also rife with Talibs. Outside the provincial capital is a no-go zone with routine fighting happening in almost all districts and most of it dominated by the Taliban. Lashkargar itself was the centre of a large three day battle about two months ago. The Australians and British are there I believe so that will be of some comfort. What is more troublesome however is the possibility I also could be stuck there for a week if the weather turns bad in Kabul.

I was sitting in my office yesterday talking to my dad who had called me on skype when a huge explosion went off behind me. It was a bit more than  half  a kilometre away but nonetheless, the windows shook violently as did the building. It was apparently at the German Embassy. Some suicide bomber had taken on a tanker killing himself and a couple of US soldiers while injuring several Afghans who happened to be passing. http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-world/attacks-kill-two-foreign-soldiers-five-afghans-20090118-7joj.html

For my part, I dived under my desk while Dad continued to chat away. I could see out of my window a large smoke plume rising into the sky in the vicinity of the new Spinneys supermarket I go to. During the day of course there were lots of news broadcasts around the world and we were locked down for the rest of the day. I was happy with that decision.

The program is going well however a lot of the projects are stopped at the moment due to the snow and will stay that way until between February to April. We have to the end of June as our target to get them all finished while the company is seeking a two month extension that will take the contract through to the end of November.

We have some some significant changes take place in the organisation over the last two months. I initially came here to manage  a specific project that included the construction of some large district centres. That part has now been canceled and bundled up in to one massive contract totally some 200 million dollars with a much longer time frame as I understand. Since then I have been reassigned as the overall Infrastructure Program Manager and chief engineer with overall responsibility for all the engineering projects within the whole program, now some 250 projects that we have underway that includes all the government buildings and lots of other new projects such as roads and bridges and schools and the like while trying to find a bunch of extra projects to do with the 12 million I now have to realign with the DC cancellations.

In all of this I am introducing new management systems which was our original brief that are creating some waves amongst the troops such that I find I need to be more gentle in introducing those changes. The difference between me and the national staff is that I know I am here for a one year contract and have to work towards completion and then on to the next contract while they are looking for job security and continued tenure so I am obliged to move in their favor at times. I am desperately waiting for some extra internationals who are designated for the regional offices and will take greater control over the processes we have to manage. I am going to Lash because to the generally poor quality engineering management that exists in that office.

To get the national engineers out into the field to do monitoring is problematic. They cannot travel with computers of phones or even any paper that might identify them since if they are stopped by the Talibs at a checkpoint they could well be killed as a western sympathiser. What tends to happen is that we engage a national who stems from the region however is lacking the necessary qualifications that would be available elsewhere. It is a compromise.

We have had projects canceled lately due to the insecurity. Contractors are having trucks burned and staff intimidated and even killed in some instances.

The good news is, the new bar in our compound has opened taking on the theme of the interior of a C130 with a mural at one end of commandos jumping out with parachutes. Chosen since it is on top of the security building and the predominant patrons other than myself are largely the security staff whom are all ex commandos.

Like I said at the start, my holiday was about a month too short.

Destiny Rules

Destiny rules! That is not the lead in to the introduction of another band of singers but a reflection of how limited is the control over the lives we lead. As I have mentioned in past posts I am in Afghanistan. Possible as lawless and unruly a place on earth at the moment as can be. I am reminded on a daily basis, sometime two and three times, that the dangers of going out without precaution can be fatal.
My job in this veritable wasteland is to assist the regional government gain some leverage over the influence of the people ahead of the Taliban and other levels of lawless power seekers in the country. More specifically, I am charged with building the infrastructure, the buildings and facilities upon which they can establish some pattern of democracy. The reality is that process is still a long way off. The very people I serve in the country are not necessarily democratically elected. Mostly they are appointed on the basis of what modicum of peace they can bring to the major section of their various communities. They are tribal leaders and more often than not, warlords who have gained their position through the imposition of violence and domination of an already cowered people.
At the moment my former employers when I was last here, the UNDP, are conducting a series of conferences for the District Governors at the Intercontinental Hotel. The regional mayors of the subsets of the provinces if you must.
At these conferences they are being instructed how to govern and apply the principles that will eventually see them turned aside if a democratic process is to prevail. A moral juxtaposition that they are in some ways bound to, but seek to pervert at all points possible.
My boss at DAI felt that we should attend a culminating dinner that followed three days of their democratic instructions. There was the off chance that the governors with whom we were having some difficulty on land issues with my projects might be there. That turned out to be mistaken so we sat through the speeches anyway. All in Dari mind you so I was obliged to have one of my colleagues translate the ratehr monotonous monologues. One thing is certain at these events, if you give an Afghan a microphone he will become an impassioned orator that does not understand the concept of time.
The Intercontinental however is on the other side of Kabul. It has attracted an unsavory reputation of providing the last meal for a great number of people who find drive-by assassinations and bombs to be their final course.
After the speeches we were offered a buffet meal that was typical Afghans fare of which, by now I have come to eat less and less each day.
It was a sit anywhere affair and I happened to sit next to a governor from down in Ghazni while Patrick my boss was sitting on the other side of him.
“This man has had twenty seven attempts on his life” offered Patrick, obviously having had that morsel of information passed onto him before I joined them. The governor was a large burly man, who talked with his mouth full. He was wearing only a short five day growth instead of the usual heavy beard that many Afghans wear. On his small finger he wore a large ostentatious lapis ring and his watch was either a very good replica of a Rolex or more likely, the real thing. For such a large man his coat had a passable cut to it.
“Yes twenty seven times.” He repeated in clear English, a smug look on his face. I thought to myself, he seems rather proud of that fact. I on the other hand have a healthy respect for having the least amount of attempts what so ever.
Last night I was at our own diner table and Patrick was again sitting next to me.
“Oh.” He starts, “You know that guy we sat next to who had had twenty seven assassination attempts against him.”
“Yes.” I replied.
“Well he was the one they got yesterday,”

GHAZNI  Dec 1 (Reuters)- Gunmen on a motorbike shot dead a district chief in Ghazni town on Monday, a provincial spokesman said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the incident.

The gunmen attacked the district chief, Abdul Rahim Desewal, as he left his house in the city of Ghazni, said the spokesman, Ismail Jahangir. Mr. Desewal’s bodyguard was wounded in the attack and died later at a hospital, Mr. Jahangir said.

Exercise and thin air.

I think I posted in an earlier post a photograph of the well equipped gym we have in the basement of White House. I used it once and found that after about 3 minutes and ten seconds I was gasping for breath. Not withstanding I am out of shape and perfectly happy with that condition, the air in Kabul it thin and lacking oxygen. We are at 1850 metres above sea level (about 6100 ft) and stuck in an area where there is no incoming air stream. Three thousand years of people sucking all the oxygen out have depleted the current levels. For the first few weeks I was getting a daily blood nose that I believe is due to altitude.

Every day I have to climb two levels of stairs to my office at the top of black office, not once but maybe a dozen times a day and find I am gasping for breath at the end. I figure that I climb up and down about 20 stories a day and that almost kills me. It is my own form of “step aerobics”.  I take solace in the fact that one of the young security guys who daily goes to punch something feels the same way.

I thought this might be an opportunity to show you my garret and the views from it.

My Office

When we recently had a big shift in where people sit I lobbied quite hard for a southerly facing office where I could expect to have some winter sun. The other attribute is we have a balcony from which I can look at the view of Kabul if the dust is not too much, or perhaps have an outdoor coffee.

View across Kabul

That is mostly dust blocking the view. You can see the yellow building on the right that is known as White House? It is the monstrosity I posted before.  On the other side of the building we have a large rose garden park that has changed a lot over the last four years. I can remember seeing it under construction back then. Lots of people get out and run around it as I suppose we could too. We don’t on the argument that there could be snipers on top of the hill. On the other side is a large informal settlement, slums if you will where a lot of unhappy poor people reside.

Rose Garden

Anyway, that is my excuse and I am sticking to it.

The never ending search for a safe place.

Security is one of those issues that never seems to go away. I wrote earlier that Kabul has changed a lot since I was last here. On every corner there is a police post with a bunch of blokes that look like they need parental supervision armed to the teeth with a variety of AK’s. The Ministry for the Interior has the unfortunate epithet of being the most corrupt of all ministries. What seems to be going on at the moment is power plays between the new ministry official and Minister ( who incidentally I was his senior adviser when I was with the UN) and the outgoing Ministry officials.

This is the B6 armored Toyota we get around in. Looks like any other I suppose however the windows are bullet proof 1 inch thick glass and the doors are lined with steel plates as is the floor and the roof. I believe they cost around $25,000 per month to hire.

I went shopping last Friday in Chicken Street. The usual souvenir strip where we used to stroll down quite nonchalantly when I was last here with the UN. Last week we had an hour. The car parked outside each shop we went into while a guard stood outside and the escort vehicle with two other armed guards sat nearby. Shopping with a difference.

One of my contractors comes in and causes some consternation with the guards. They always find his shoulder holster however he leaves his Glock in his car, fortunately.

Yesterday I met up with some old national colleagues from Kandahar for lunch. I am trying to employ some of them as engineers to work on these projects we are doing. None of these guys want to go back to Kandahar however. Seems just after I left, some bright spark in the office handed over the telephone numbers of them all to which they all received a phone call, quit or be shot. They all quit en masse.

At this point I want to point out my admiration for the guys from Edinburgh International who have the unenviable task of keeping us safe.

Pat Hokianga is head of EI, LGCD project of which we are part ( he is a Kiwi but he can’t help that, half the team are). He oversees a team of about a dozen internationals and some 240 nationals in all of our locations along the eastern border. Having been here before and experienced a number of colleague who were killed or kidnapped, I feel very secure with these guys looking after me.

Suffice it to say, I follow instructions and have little inclination to go out. If the last couple of weeks where a number of internationals have been killed and kidnapped just walking down the street are any indication, it is probably for the best.

What am I doing here?

Looking at this blog it would seem I have not been keeping pace with events. Can I plead being busy?

Anyway, it has been an eventful two months now while I anxiously countdown the days to when I can take some leave around Xmas time.

I thought I should update you on what I am doing  and where we work. The principal company is DAI however I am subcontracted through URS, both large US international companies. My function is Program Manager for the construction of the IDLG program. We have about 95 million in total and my part is around 33 million dollars. The map below shows where we are working. We are working in thirteen provinces, conveniently in the same areas where the Taliban are also working. They are proving to be almost as inconvenient as the building unions back in Australia.

If you can see the sixty odd pins, that is where my projects are. The five red pins are the biggest projects, each around two million dollars building new district centers in some of the most far flung places, some right on the Pakistan border where all the fighting is going on. They have been designed by another company in the US for USAid, however my criticism of the designs probably means I could never get a job with them, ever.  Anyway, we manage. I am in the process of expanding our contract and pulling in a new structural design engineer so we can rejig it all before it is too late. We have a couple of month over winter while the sites are under six foot of snow to piece it all together

We are also in the process of trying to work out how we are going to power them. The idea is to use alternate energy such as wind power or solar or hydro. We are even looking at geothermal if we can tap into the hot streams that exist here. A big ask for a forty odd room building. In that event we also need to pull in a electrical/mechanical guy who can coordinate the power components. The donor doesn’t want to install generators since that would require also supplying fuel ad infinitum.

All in all we are going to build around twenty new buildings and then rehabilitate and furnish another twenty five. Once that is done we are equipping them with IT and furniture. In the provincial governors offices we are also fitting them with internet by satellite and telephones.

We have just finished the groundbreaking at the new sites. A traditional Afghan custom with a new building. We have one left go for a few weeks since the US army and the Taliban decided to have a Bachelor and Spinster Ball near to the site, the Provincial governor decided his tux was no longer fashionable so we have to wait until the festivities are over before we can move back in.

Looking back over this blog, the guys at Lashkar Ghar in Helmand are back at work, again after the Talibs decided to send in a bunch deigning to upset things. That went on for about a week and slowed things down while it was sorted out. What was that I was saying about the unions….

Anyway we are moving forward so much so that the liaison at USAID was apparently singing my praise to the Vice President of the company who was here last week. Budgie point never hurt.

That may have something to do with my convivial approach with the contractors. My reputation around the office now is that I yell and swear a lot and I thought I was a calm sort of bloke.

It works however.

Just a look at the daily security reports I get

KABUL CENTRAL REGION (KABUL, LOGAR, PARWAN, KAPISA, PANJSHIR, WARDAK)

KABUL

Source/ Benawa News Agency
17 Oct 2008
Unidentified armed men abducted the son of an Azizi Bank senior manager from the Karte say area, District 3 of Kabul City.  The vehicle in which he was abducted has been recovered on the main north ring road, District 15 of Kabul City. ANP officers have launched a search operation in the area for his recovery.

LOGAR

Source/ Benawa News Agency
17 Oct 2008
AGEs attacked an ISAF convoy with heavy and light weapons on main Gardez-Kabul road, Purak area of Logar province. The firefight lasted for about one hour.  No casualties were reported.

KAPISA

Source/ Bakhtar News Agency
17 Oct 2008
Taliban militants ambushed an ANP patrol vehicle in Afghania area, Nijrab District of Kapisa province.  ANP repelled the attack and killed three Talib militants, two more were injured as well.  No casualties to ANP were reported.

EAST REGION (NANGARHAR, LAGHMAN, KUNAR, NURISTAN)

NSTR

NORTH EAST REGION (KUNDUZ, BAGHLAN, BADAKHSHAN, TAKHAR)

NSTR

NORTH REGION (BALKH, JOWZJAN, SAR-I-PUL, SAMANGAN, FARYAB)

NSTR

WEST REGION (HERAT, BADGHIS, FARAH, GHOR)

HERAT

Source/ Azadi Radio/ BNA/ Tolo TV
18 Oct 2008
During the morning a suicide bomber detonated his explosive filled corolla vehicle close to an Italian PRT convoy on the Herat airport road, Guzara District of Herat province.  Four Italian soldiers were wounded and one armored vehicle was damaged in the incident.  The area was cordoned off by IM forces.  No more information is available.

Source/ Yahoo News
18 Oct 2008
A former provincial official in Afghanistan has joined the Taliban and is now one of the Taliban commanders in Herat and says he wants U.S. forces out of the country.

SOUTH REGION (KANDAHAR, NIMROZ, HELMAND, ZABUL, URUZGAN)

KANDAHAR

Source/ Azadi Radio
18 Oct 2008
An ISAF spokesman said, two Bulgarians soldiers were wounded when a rocket impacted close to their base in the vicinity of Kandahar airport of Kandahar Province.  The wounded soldiers were immediately taken to hospital for treatment.

Source/ Benawa News Agency
18 Oct 2008
A former bodyguard of the Afghan President (Gul Ahmad Barekzai) and his father were killed by unidentified gunmen in District 4, Kandahar City of Kandahar province.  No arrest has been reported.

Source/ Bakhtar News Agency
17 Oct 2008
ANP elements discovered and safely defused a quantity of explosives placed in a pressure cooker in District 1, Kandahar City of Kandahar province.  No arrest has been reported.

HELMAND

Source/ Bakhtar News Agency
17 Oct 2008
One of the Taliban commanders along with his seven followers were detained during a joint operation conducted by ANP/ANA in Bolan and Ainak areas of Helmand province.  No casualties to Afghan forces were reported.  No more information is available.

Source/Bakhtar News
15 Oct 2008
ANP officers detained two kidnappers in the Lashkargah District of Helmand province.    The detainees are being questioned.

Source/Azadi FM
16 Oct 2008
AGEs fired a rocket towards Lashkargah city of Helmand province.  The rocket landed in a crowded market.  One man was killed and five others were injured.  No further details are available.

Source/ Bakhtar News Agency
17 Oct 2008
AGEs destroyed a newly built school using a bulldozer in Nad Ali District of Helmand province.  No arrest has been reported.

ZABUL

Source/ Azadi Radio
17 Oct 2008
Taliban militants attacked Shinkay District of Zabul province with heavy and light weapons.  Afghan forces repelled the attack and AGEs sustained casualties but the number of casualties is not known yet.

SOUTH EAST REGION (PAKTIA, GHAZNI, PAKTIKA, KHOST)

PAKTIA

Source/Edinburgh International
17 Oct 2008
At approximately 1905hrs a suicide bomber detonated his explosives filled vest close to the main Gardez city circle area, Gardez District of Paktia province.  An initial report indicates that just the suicide bomber was killed in the explosion.  No further details are available.

Source/ Tolo TV/ BNA
17 Oct 2008
One AGE was killed when an IED he was planting in the vicinity of Asad hotel, Gardez City of Paktia province, prematurely exploded.  The target was Afghan and IM convoy.

PAKTIKA

Source/ Azadi Radio
18 Oct 2008
A civilian vehicle was hit by a RCIED which left three civilians dead and two others (A woman and a child) injured in the Paktika province.

CENTRAL HIGHLANDS REGION (BAMYAN, DIA KUNDI)

NSTR

Chef’s Revenge by Willie Make’it

For the last few days I am beginning to grasp the intricacies of what I am doing and have been kicking a few goals sorting through some of the issues I face. The contractor who was going to quit on us and who would have been blacklisted forever as would have all of his cousins and nephews and his grandchildren has agreed to start work on Saturday. All I had to do was arrange some transport for his team of engineers with the American PRT air service so he could avoid the Taliban on the road to Helmand and the problem was solved.

The food however has not improved, in fact that person we call a chef has struck out at me in some sort of diabolical plot, perhaps as retribution to my previous post. I wondered about last night why I was the only one at the dinner table eating his variety of spaghetti and meatballs. Today I have been considering moving my desk into the bathroom so I can sit with my trousers around my knees all day long and save the extra work it has involved. The young Australian girl also working here at dinner time introduced the predominantly American team to the word “chuck” in describing my extra activities during the afternoon while I peeled a banana and had another coke. I am feeling better now, the can of coke has killed everything active in my gut.

The cats are doing well although the number seems to be growing. There must be seven or eight lining up for dinner these days.

I

It might be tougher than first imagined.

The last few days have been hectic in this country to say the least. Our program has been doing some good work with the Governor of Logar it seems and so the company is rather shocked that he was killed in a roadside bomb yesterday just a few kilometers out of Kabul. I saw this picture of his car in the New York times and thought what a complete mess it was.

I made a mistake just before I came here of watching some fairly graphic videos from the Washington Post about roadside IEDs, the sort that happened here. (In case you are interested, this is the video).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/specials/leftofboom/index.html

For the last week it has been mostly trying to work through all the projects and we have been having a series of negotiations with contractors who have bid to do some of our work, trying to screw down their prices. We are paying almost twice what we should be however the security situation in some of these regions is insane. This morning a contractor who had signed a contract to rehabilitate the Governor’s office in Lashkar Gar in Helmand province in the south, (good friend Homaira who has commented here knows the place well) indicated he wants to pull out of the contract citing security or the lack thereof. We have a meeting in the morning where I have to convince him it would be in his best commercial interest to make an effort……

I think the recent cockup in nearby Aziziabad where some 90 civilians were killed by US aerial bombing, turns out they were predominantly working with a British Security company, has created a bad feeling for the Americans in the region and I guess will have a flow on effect for our projects.

We are also trying to get into several locations in Ghazni not far from Kabul however just today the Talibs shot up a US led patrol and killed several Afghan soldiers. That might make it a little harder to get the contractors to go there. They were arguing today about their high prices that the security was tough. Not too tough for an extra twenty bucks a cubic meter of concrete however.

My next task is to recruit up to twenty local engineers to take on a role of monitoring all of these projects that may well prove to be an onoerous task. So far I have about forty eight projects of anything up to six hundred thousand US$ to rehabilitate some of the district centres and then another eight projects quoted around two million each to build brand new centres. These are relatively high tech brick buildings with solar and wind power, suspended ceilings and all manner of IT and communications setups in a village where every other house is made out of mud, a sort of US/Afghan Taj Mahal. Talk about casting pearls before swine (although that might be an inappropriate phrase considering where I am)?

The honeymoon with the food is over. The person we call the chef needs to be cauterized for his creation tonight. I need you to imagine prawns that have the texture of an artgum rubber blended in a mix of tomato soup and chilli. I am not sure where they get the rice from however they treat it in such a way that you could no longer even consider making paper from it. Then there was the desert, a triffle no less. I mentioned that it looked like it had been down before only to have one of the guys sitting opposite spit his mouthful that he seemed to be savouring all over the table.

I had the same reaction with a bottle of wine last night. It had unfortunately been left to stew all day in the heat. Not to be totally left without a solution, I have put it in the fridge proposing to make a beef bourguignonne tomorrow night and stick it up the chef. I learned how to make it by eating it occasionally at Yann’s place in Koh Phangan.

The upside is I will lose some weight since I am getting little time to partake of any serious beverage sampling and the food is slowly proving to be indigestible and unless I cook myself in my spare time, I am reduced to fruit. Do you know lady fingers, another name for occra, a sort of vile vegetable that seems to be staple fare when it is in season, we get them every second meal. The mistake you can make with the person called the chef apparently is tell him you like something. He seems to repeat it for the next several weeks apparently.

I just have to keep thinking that payday comes every month and then the American taxes go to work for me???

Day 10 and starting to get my head around it all

For better of worse I am back in Kabul in Afghanistan although this time not with the UN, I am with an American company that has a contract with USAid to provide support to the PRTs. Perhaps I need to explain that.

The US as you know are here fighting against the Taliban and Al Qaida along with a bunch of other forces, including the Australians.  In order to bring the locals around to their way of thinking, they have teams, the Provincial Reconstruction Teams talking with the locals and deliver new development projects to their villages in a sort of hearts and minds exercise.

I am not sure I agree with the principle as I feel it blurs the lines between the work of the humanitarian/aid workers and the purpose of the military. Since I left last time at the end of 2004 there had been something like 35 aid workers killed here, it is now something over 100 so I hear.

Anyway, my job is to build the things that they organize. We are working in all the areas where the fighting is ongoing including Kandahar, Helmand, Uruzgan, Nangahar, Paktya, Paktika, Nuristan, Kunar to name a few provinces. It is quite a large project where i have about 35 million to manage that involves rehabilitating and building new district centres, sort of local municipalities out in the regions where most of the action is happening or the provincial centres and then providing them with office furniture and IT and communications, to make them functional in a modern world. Whether it is ultimately beneficial is largely a matter of opinion. It is similar to what we were doing three to five years ago and I am not sure that has had any serious effect in changing the minds of the locals.

I was thinking it is like some dirt poor farmer in our own countries who is suffering because his farm output is low and he has no money to pay his bills and he see the municipality building a large brand new edifice with all the bells and whistles? I was trying to imagine his reaction and whether he would think he was going to be better off because of it?

Suffice it to say, I will build it but perhaps argue that there could be more positive ways to address the local issues than this. In future posts I will talk about this, for now I am introducing you to where I am living and what I am doing.

It is pleasing to see and I am sure it will please my Dad who was expressing concern, the security here is first rate. We have a bunch of New Zealand and Australian expats (five in fact) all ex military and generally all ex commando types managing the security service. They have about 90 nationals they have trained to guard over us. Considering there is only some 30 internationals in the company, we are well covered. These guys are driven by their purpose. They have a good budget and we have almost everything we need down to personal tracking devices that are about half the size of a phone that when you hit the panic button, it sends a signal to a central command and they alert ISAF while the thing sends back a signal of my location that they can see on a map of the city. It also has a one way conversation so they central command can pick up everything that is going on around me.

The guards to my house.

Our cars are fortified armour plated Toyotas with bullet proof windows and all the communications gear necessary.

Moving on, the accommodation is quite palatial. I am living in a large three bedroom house with one other guy. Downstairs we have a living area with wide screen TV if I ever get the time to watch it and a fully equipped kitchen and dining room that I hope to utilize.

Main Dining Room

Main House

Everything is provided including the meals and the booze is obtainable by contribution, not that I am getting a lot of time to partake.

So far I have only been out of the compound once as generally I have no need for the moment however it is Friday today so I might got to the supermarket. There are some cats here that need some proper cat food instead of the scraps a few of us pass on to them and I need to get some new razors and some chocolate.

Today I have set my self the exercise of taking some photos, it is Friday and generally the day off so I will have a little time to myself.

It is a one year contract and after 10 days I already I am missing Akiyo being with me. I will need to see if I can organize to get her a job here.