A Year in Afghanistan

What's next?

2008-07-08T19:18:00.003+04:30

I began this blog in October 2006 as I was preparing to go to Afghanistan for a year. After a 7-month extension, I've finished my contract and am now back in the US. It doesn't make much sense to continue posting on a blog called "A Year In Afghanistan," so this is likely to be the last thing I write here. I did promise several people I would show them what I look like without a beard, so here is a picture of Jacqui and me at a cousin's wedding that I attended 2 days after my return to the US, and 24 hours after the beard's removal.

What's next? First priority is for Jacqui and me to live together for a while. We've seen each other once every 3 months for the past 21 months, and that has gotten a bit old. We are considering a move to London, where Jacqui could work as a stained glass artist and I could work in some aspect of international affairs. We're in the process of getting UK visas now, and if that comes through I'll be looking for a London-based job. If it works out, great; if not, then we'll come up with another plan. If turns out to be something interesting enough to write about, that will be for another blog.

Preparing to Ship Out

2008-06-28T16:11:00.005+04:30

I traveled from Tirin Kot to Kabul on Tuesday. It was a sad trip as the plane rose over TK and I took a few last pictures of the town from the air. It would be a surprise if I ever got a chance to return.

Now I have a few days in Kabul to check out: ship my things home, stop by the medical office, turn in my equipment, submit my 75-page handover memo and 3.5 GB of files, etc.

Goodbye Tirin Kot

2008-06-21T20:48:00.003+04:30

For the very first time, I saw ice in Tirin Kot, so I had to take a picture. Yes, there is some electricity, and I knew there was some refrigeration, but I never saw any ice here before -- certainly not a big block being broken up to cool drinks.

This has been my last full week in TK. I said my goodbye at the last weekly meeting of provincial department directors. Many things that I've worked on are still in progress. Some may never see progress. There's been some good news: my proposal for a project to teach literacy to police has been accepted. Now there might someday be at least one person at each police station who can take inventory or write a report. Two radio stations have been installed in the outlying district centers of Oshay and Dihrawud. Several small projects that were funded less than a month ago have been completed very quickly. But I won't be here to see a new bank built, or the roads. Someone else will have to take over from here.

Next time I write, I'll be giving an update about my outprocessing in Kabul. Now it's time to pack.

Roads between district capitals

2008-06-14T20:26:00.004+04:30

A few weeks ago I wrote about an engineering team that had come to survey roads and had gotten a very warm reception. This week, in the next step of the consultation process, I helped to organize a 90-minute fly-in visit of the program managers. They met with the Governor and explained how over the next 2 years, there will be a program throughout the south and east to build roads that connect the district capitals, including several in Uruzgan. He was happy to hear, of course, and wants the construction to start as soon as possible. But in which areas will the construction actually be able to take place, and how will they build it in areas that have been insecure for years? Well, they'll be working with communities along the roads in order to make this possible. If people remain as enthusiastic about roads as they did when the advance survey team was here, then there is a good chance that they'll help to provide security for construction in some places.

Agricultural Extension Training

2008-06-07T15:41:00.008+04:30

One project that I'm excited about is a training course for agricultural extension workers. This is a course we're funding in several provinces, and it just recently began in Uruzgan. Here is the class out in the field. I smudged the faces to avoid trouble for them.

And here is another picture from town, showing some of the two-story buildings.

Cobblestone Roads

2008-05-31T11:50:00.013+04:30

This week I asked the staff of the Municipal Strength-ening Project to give me an update on the work

they have done so far in Tirin Kot. They have been working here for a year, and they showed me pictures of

the improve-ments to the water systems, the drainage ditches, and the roads. I've included some pictures of the process of building one of the cobblestone roads.

Cobblestone roads are strong, long-lasting, and very cheap to build. Unfortunately, there are a lot of local people that complain about them. They want to have the asphalt roads that they see in other places. Those roads are not more useful in the city, but many people consider them a sign of status. They also a lot more expensive to make.

The question of functionality versus status is a difficult one. A given budget would build far fewer asphalt streets in the city than cobblestone ones.

The Municipal Stregth-ening Program aims to enable the City

Government to improve city services. Part of the program is to make the people aware of the improvements and make them proud of their city, so the effort includes an advertizing campaign with these posters. They say approximately: Our City Is Our Home.

Not a Luxurious Office

2008-05-23T14:22:00.006+04:30

One request that I hear often from many provincial government officials is for a new office building. Some of them don't have much space, and some are in rather decrepit structures. I was able to get a blurry picture of the Directorate of Transportaion building -- too blurry to read the green sign. However, the rather basic nature of the building is pretty clear.

I also got a picture of this stark billboard nearby. [Addendum: In response to the question from Kevan: the billboard shows two street scenes. One is a man with a large bundle of helium balloons to sell, a common sight around holidays. The other is the aftermath of an explosion. In Pashto and Dari, the sign reads something like, "Don't let insurgents destroy your future."]

US Delegation in town

2008-05-17T14:03:00.004+04:30

We have a parade of visitors at the PRT, and this week was time for a US delegation. It included General Douglas Lute of the National Security Council and several other DC-based officials. This was part of a multi-PRT tour, and NATO did post an article about their stop in Herat, but it doesn't mention the stop in Uruzgan.

Pictures for this week: (1) Why is that flag in the tree? (2) Kids at the water pump. (3) Roses bloom in the Gonvernor's garden.

Roads deep into the countryside

2008-05-10T21:30:00.004+04:30

There is a regional project to build several hundred miles of roads in many provinces, and a few of these roads will be in Uruzgan. A group of engineers went to the town of Chora, about 20 miles north of Tirin Kot, to see how far they could survey. The people of Chora were very excited to see a road project starting a survey there. They don't see much in the way of road work. It's public knowledge that as you head farther north from here, the problems with opposition forces become more acute - so after 15 miles or so going north, the villagers told the engineers that this would really not be a good time to go any farther. So when will be a good time? That's part of the puzzle of development projects in an unstable area. The security of areas is always changing. The project staff will have to keep in close contact with the communities to find out when a window of opportunity opens up, and then they'll have to take advantage of that time to do more surveying.

Food prices

2008-05-02T17:52:00.002+04:30

The news this week was full of the assassination attempt against President Karzai, but for most people it is the rise in food prices that is the problem foremost in their minds. The information in this BBC article matches very closely to the price trends we've seen in Tirin Kot. We asked a few officials and "men in the street" how people were coping with the high prices. For that we got a variety of answers: Some people are substituting low-quality rice, as it is a bit cheaper. Some have decreased the amount they eat at each meal. Some are eating the dried stored food they keep for emergencies. Official reports that people who used to be able to afford food with their income are now borrowing money to buy food at the end of the month. Most dramaticaly, there is a report of at least one person taking a bag of flour from a shop at knife-point, saying that his children had not eaten for 3 days.

Oddly, the latest information about prices is that they have started to decrease. I have not found any reason why.

Where to build a bank?

2008-04-26T20:58:00.003+04:30

I wrote on February 23, 2007, about my visit to "The Only Bank in Uruzgan." It is a facility so inadequate that they keep the computers supplied to them by the national bank's headquarters in a box under a bed. I had started working on the idea of constructing a proper bank facility in my first week in Afghanistan in November 2006. Over the course of the the last 17 months we've made a proposal, gotten approval, identified and surveyed a site, got the building plans approved, and made ready to choose a contractor. There are a lot of steps, and each takes a long time. And then last week there was news: another government office had started building on the site designated for the bank. So now after some further conversations with an unhappy bank director and an exasperated mayor, we're identifying a new site.

Agricultural Opportunities

2008-04-18T20:38:00.004+04:30

As security improves in some areas of Uruzgan and the quick projects such as repairing canals and small roads have been done in many areas, it's time to look at more long-term projects. One of these will be improving the agricultural economy -- the only real option for economic improvement in the forseeable future here. We had an opportunity to acquire several thousand almond tree seedlings and give them to the Governor and Director of Agriculture. Unfortunately, the opportunity presented itself on short notice, and it was not the optimal time for transplanting the trees. The Director of Agriculture did eventually put them in a tree nursery (see pictures), but he's still not happy about having to scramble. That's an ongoing issue -- what to do when there is an opportunity that is less than perfect. We'll see how well the trees survive and if they can be transplanted next season to orchards around the province.

Building Out of Mud

2008-04-12T22:11:00.002+04:30

I'm back in Tirin Kot once again after a week of meetings in Kabul. I was attending the NATO conference that is organized every few months. This time I learned quite a few things about how the government agencies are progressing in their plans, and some new ideas from other development organizations.

One of the most interesting presentations was by the Turquoise Mountain Foundation. They work on re-establishing traditional skills, one of which is architecture based on mud and straw. We saw how these materials can be used to build schools and hospitals more easily than with imported cement, and most of the money is spent on local labor. However, there are many people in Afghanistan who see a mud building as inferior, and to have a cement building gives status.

The Turquoise Mountain Foundation was founded by Rory Stewart. I strongly recommend his book about his walk across Afghanistan in 2002: The Places In Between.

Return to Kabul

2008-04-04T21:55:00.002+04:30

After a relaxing vacation in London, I am back in Afghanistan. One of our tourist activities was to take a boat ride down the Thames. Here are Jacqui and I in front of the Tower Bridge.

A Brief Note from London

2008-03-18T01:15:00.001+04:30

I'm on my 3-monthly leave, this time back in London again. If you don't see a post in this space for the next 2 weeks, it is because I am too busy enjoying my holiday.

Provincial Development Plan meetings in Kabul

2008-03-09T18:32:00.005+04:30

On short notice last week, we learned that the next round of consultations on Provincial Development Plans would be held in Kabul. This is where the national government and the provincial governments get together to agree on what will be the highest priority development projects for a province, and how they will be funded. The last such consultations for Uruzgan were held in Tirin Kot in August 2007. So for this round, the PRT arranged for the Governor and several of the provincial Directors to fly to Kabul. I sat in the back row with some others from the donor community, as we provided information about our programs when asked, so that national government programs could be properly coordinated. The conversation ranged from the ridiculous to the sublime. Most ridiculous: the national Ministry of Public Health had no record of 12 new health clinics that it had approved for Uruzgan in 2007. Most interesting discussion: What is the highest quality of school building that can be constructed by the people of a village, so that they feel a level of ownership that motivates them to prevent opposition forces from burning the school? You may have heard that out of thousands of schools built, a few score have been burned. Those were usually the highest quality buildings, constructed by outside contractors. It is indeed an important question, and one that the Afghan government has to decide.

This week's picture is from the TK farmers market, where a small improvement has now been accomplished. Compare this view to the mud pit that the market had become in early February.

Shura in Sorkh Murgab

2008-03-01T20:32:00.007+04:30

About 15 km north of Tirin Kot, the area on the east bank of the southward- flowing Darefshan River is known as Sorkh Murgab. This area suffers from even more fragmented leadership than most areas of the district, and as such it is very susceptible to influence from opposition forces. It also makes it difficult to do any development projects in the area. As a step toward improving the situation, the Australian Reconstruction Task Force that works here with the Dutch PRT has built a small base in the area and met with a lot of local leaders. This built up to a higher-level shura (gathering), where provincial officials and international military and civilians took the short helicopter trip to meet with people in the area, and I was fortunate enough to join the outing. The meeting was in the middle of the sand -- an area next to the new base that could be made secure.

It was as hot and dusty as you might imagine. I've posted a picture of the meeting site, me at the top of a nearby hill, and the cloud of dust kicked up as the helicopter landed to take us back to TK.

Islamic Investment and Finance Cooperative

2008-02-23T21:23:00.003+04:30

The World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) has established 12 community-owned financial cooperatives in Afghanistan since 2004, in the north and east of the country. Now they are moving into the south, and we are working with the WOCCU staff to establish links with a broad cross-section of the Uruzgan community. If this goes well, people here should have their own cooperative functioning in a few months. This is a relatively new type of organization. There are some financial transactions that are allowed by most interpretations of Islam, while other transactions are not. Financial cooperatives that work within these interpretations originated about 30 years ago. When this is established, people in Uruzgan will have a chance to save money someplace other than under their mattress, and borrow money from someone other than an opium dealer.

Transportation still not good

2008-02-16T12:46:00.002+04:30

The airstrip has dried out enough for a couple of flights to arrive from Kandahar, but ongoing bad weather in Kabul means that we've been unable to get some important local officials from there to TK for 3 weeks. The staffing of the Uruzgan government, as I've noted before, is not deep. If a couple of people are out of town, there is often no one else to talk with, and nothing to be done but wait. The process of "capacity building" for government staff is a problem of both quality and quantity. Even if there are some trained and competent people in office, the whole government can grind to a halt if those few people can't travel as they need to.

Muddy times in TK

2008-02-09T10:49:00.000+04:30

The snow continued up to Tuesday this week, followed by a melt that turned TK to mud. A colleague gave me some pictures of the TK farmers' market as of a few days ago. You can compare these to my visit there when it was still dry (pictures in the December 8, 2007 post). We weren't able to start the drainage project in time to avoid the market turning into a mud pit, but we hope we'll be able to prevent this from happening next year.

Reviving the PDC

2008-02-02T18:09:00.000+04:30

If you have heard anything about the weather in Afghanistan and the surrounding countries lately, you'll know there has been a lot of snow. We had no snow in TK when I was here last year, but this year we've had 2 snowfalls in a week. Last night's was 5 inches. I had to climb up on top of a shipping container to brush the snow off my satellite dish so that I could regain internet access. People around the country are saying they haven't seen this much snow in a decade or more.

We were able to take advantage of a break in the weather to attend a meeting of the Provincial Development Committee (PDC). This is a government body that has not met for some time, though it is supposed to be the main mechanism for making decisions about development in the province. One of the projects I've worked on has placed several Afghans in Uruzgan government offices as management advisors. They now help these offices get their budgets, plans, records, etc. in order, and they have been working with the provincial officials (and the PRT) to revive dormant government processes, such as the PDC.

On the way back from the PDC meeting we did have a slight delay due to camels crosing the road.

Market improvement and government administration

2008-01-27T15:10:00.000+04:30

My first week back at Kamp Holland after my rain-delayed return was a chance to get some projects moving again. After meetings with TK city officials, the project to improve the drainage in the farmers' market is about to start (see December 8). The break in the weather has also allowed a group of Afghan management advisors to arrive in TK. They have now started to teach staff in some provincial government offices how to improve their budgeting, administration, and planning. There has been little training for most government staff here up to now, so this could lead to more effective delivery of government services.

The weather breaks -- and I return to Kamp Holland

2008-01-19T22:15:00.000+04:30

After a week of hunting for flights and spending my days working on the wireless internet at a cafe -- and washing the other set of clothes I wasn't wearing at the time -- the weather has broken in my favor. It stayed dry long enough for the TK runway to open again, and I flew from Kandahar to TK this morning.

But before I leave Kandahar behind, let me leave you with a few images from the base. Since a lot of people spend a lot of time at the Kandahar Air Field, and a lot more (such as me) transit through there, it's been structured to afford some of the comforts of home. Case in point: the string of food vendors along the boardwalk. Here's a few pictures of the main ones.

Muddy runways and circuitous travel routes though Kandahar

2008-01-13T22:06:00.000+04:30

After returning from leave and spending a few days having meetings in Kabul, I tried to get back to Tirin Kot on Saturday. Unfortunately, the rainy and snowy winter has hit Afghanistan hard, and the TK runway is too muddy for most planes to land, so my flight was cancelled. I decided I could be stuck in Kabul for a long time, so I was lucky to find that Saturday afternoon there was a C-130 (flying warehouse) going to Kandahar Air Field. From here I might be able to take either a military plane or a helicopter to TK.

It can be difficult to find lodging at Kandahar, but once again my Dutch colleagues have taken care of me and put me up in the room they have reserved for a "political advisor." Right now I'm the closest thing to that description in town, as all the other PRT civilians are in TK -- and having as much trouble getting out as I am getting in.

From DC to Boston

2007-12-29T20:56:00.000+04:30

Jacqui and I have spent a relaxing week of vacation in DC with her side of the family, and yesterday we arrived in Boston to spend a few days with mine. If you happen to be around Boston between now and Jan 2, send me an email and let me know.

Arrival in Washington

2007-12-22T22:01:00.000+04:30

On Thursday night I arrived in Washington, DC. Thanks to all those who were able to visit me at the happy hour in Rosslyn last night. For those who didn't get to come by, feel free to send me a note. Jacqui and I will be in DC for about a week, then to Boston for a few days, and then I go back to Afghanistan. If our mutual schedules allow, we'll see if we can get together.

Announcing a happy hour in Rosslyn

2007-12-14T16:20:00.000+04:30

The day before I left for Afghanistan in November 2006, I had a chance to say goodbye to many friends at a happy hour at the Continental in Rosslyn (http://modernpoollounge.com/). It worked well then, so for my brief appearance in the DC area for the holidays, I invite you to stop by there again. I'll be there on Friday, December 21, from 6pm to 8pm. This is at the corner of North Moore Street and Lee Hwy, a block north of the Rosslyn Metro station.

I'm posting this week from Kabul, as I am here for a few days of meetings before I fly back to the US. The trip from TK to Kabul was as interesting as ever. My morning flight was cancelled yesterday, but I managed to get on an Australian C-130 in the evening. If you've never been in one of these, it's like flying in a dark warehouse that a giant grabs everyone once in a while and shakes. One of my poor travel-mates was so dizzy by the end that I had to help him off the plane.

This week's picture is a nighttime view of the hallway in my office block at the TK PRT, decorated for the holiday.

Going to the market -- and to jail

2007-12-08T20:36:00.000+04:30

I was able to take a trip to visit a couple of spots in Tirin Kot that may be involved in projects soon. I have been discussing improvements to the farmers' market with city officials. They would like to improve the drainage -- it's a mud pit in the rainy season. Next door is the mechanics' market. The Dutch are working to improve the judicial system, and as part of that program we visited the jail. Here are a few pictures of the markets, the streets nearby, and the prison yard.

Carrots and Sticks to Stop Poppy

2007-12-01T17:57:00.000+04:30

October and November are the months when poppy is planted in southern Afghanistan. You may have seen a few news reports about the extent of poppy production during the 2006-2007 growing season. The UN Office of Drug Control released quite an extensive report here: http://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghanistan-Opium-Survey-2007.pdf. They report that 93% of the world's opium came from Afghanistan.

The strategy by the Afghan government for the 2007-2008 season is to try to convince religious leaders and farmers not to plant poppy, but rather some other crop such as wheat. It's a carrot and stick approach. Farmers are given seeds and fertilizer, and they are asked to sign pledges that they will not grow poppy. They are also warned that if they do grow it, in April the Ministry of Interior's Poppy Eradication Force will come to town and cut down their crop.

I attended the meeting that the Governor of Uruzgan and several other provincial officials held with over 200 farmers. 3 of these pictures are from the gathering. In one picture the Governor and Deputy Governor are walking among the farmers as they take their seats. In another the Chair of the Provincial Council is speaking. The other picture is a view of the fields behind the Governor's compound -- sown with a non-poppy crop.

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-24T16:24:00.000+04:30

Aside from the large numbers of Dutch and Australian soldiers on the base here in TK, there are also some US soldiers. They kindly invited me to their Thanksgiving dinner, a full traditional menu with turkey, ham, roast beef, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green beans, and 4 kinds of pie -- including pumpkin, of course. The decorations were an amazing hodgepodge of Easter and 4th of July. Here's a couple of pictures from the feast.

It was Thanksgiving Day in 2006 that I first arrived in TK. Nov 23 was my 1-year anniversary.

Radio Stations

2007-11-17T17:52:00.000+04:30

After months of anticipation, we are now very close to installing radio broadcast equipment in 2 of the outer districts of Uruzgan. This is one of those national projects where each province must wait its turn, and that turn finally came with a visit from Internews (www.internews.org) to plan for the shipping and installation of equipment and broadcast towers. There are currently small stations in these district capitals that reach only a few kilometers. The broadcast area should increase significantly with the new equipment.

In areas such as these where literacy is less than 10%, radio is one of the most effective ways to spread information. An announcement can bring scores of people to a health clinic day. Teachers, students, and religious leaders often speak or read aloud on the radio. This turns out to be quite popular, and stations in the rural areas receive requests for more such programming.

I spoke too soon -- and am alone again

2007-11-10T11:46:00.000+04:30

My joy at finally getting my own interpreter/advisor last week was shorter-lived than I ever imagined. He was here on an interim basis while the last administrative issues were sorted out -- and then we learned that those administrative issues were insurmountable. So again I have no partner to work with here and must resume requesting interpreting services from others at the PRT. And now we try again to hire someone. At this point, I am likely working to hire someone to work with my successor.

Some of you may have seen the news about the large military operation that has been going on in Uruzgan to open up more of the province to development. There was a photographer from Reuters who traveled with the military, and many of his pictures are posted at www.reuters.com. If you go to that website and search for: Tomasevic Uruzgan, you will see on the right side of the page a section of Pictures Results.

It took only 11 months to bring in an interpreter/advisor

2007-11-03T21:24:00.000+04:30

Here's a picture of me in my office, where my computer and I spend many quality hours together.

The big news of this week is the arrival today of the interpreter/advisor I have been trying to hire since last December. You may recall my post of May 12, 2007, when I wrote about interviewing candidates and hoping that I would have someone in Tirin Kot by July. Instead it took 4 additional months -- a total of 11 months. Now I'll have a Pashto speaker at my side, and communication will be so much easier.

Two Ambassadors in One Week

2007-10-27T16:45:00.000+04:30

Some weeks are full of visitors. This week we first were visited by the US Ambassador and an entourage from the Embassy, and then we had a similar visit from the German Ambassador, with a smaller entourage. Here's a picture from the first visit, with the US Ambassador speaking with one of the members of parliament from Uruzgan.

My part during the US visit was to take a group to see several of the things that go on around Kamp Holland. First we stopped by the police training program. Then we went to a hospital on the base that had just finished a clinic morning for local residents. Finally we took a tour of the Australian-run Trade Training School -- something I have posted pictures of before.

The German visit focused on possible projects that their government organizations may begin in Uruzgan. The Dutch PRT has been speaking with the Germans about this for several months, about expanding their programs from other parts of the country into this part. That could be quite soon, and a welcome addition to the international development effort here.

A New Governor and a New Contract

2007-10-20T20:01:00.000+04:30

I arrived back in Tirin Kot this week and immediately met the new governor, Assadullah Hamdam. He has experience in development, as he's been the head of an Afghan NGO for the past 5 years. So we were immediately able to start discussing his ideas about where we should focus our efforts, e.g. agribusiness and generating career opportunities for young people.

This is a good time for me to take time to re-focus. I just signed an extension to my contract, and within a few weeks this blog will begin to be increasingly misnamed. I now plan to stay up to the time when Jacqui will finish her second year of art school, i.e. to June 2008. Then again, maybe the title isn't too bad. "A Year-and-a-Half in Afghanistan" doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

Return to Kabul

2007-10-13T20:06:00.000+04:30

This week I finished my vacation in Switzerland and arrived back in Kabul. I'm working here on several project issues, meeting with people to plan work in areas such as agriculture, roads, marketplace development, and literacy. Soon I'll return to Tirin Kot to push forward on these. I'm planning to extend my contract, and I'll post more information when that is final.

The Matterhorn

2007-10-02T14:01:00.000+04:30

Jacqui and I decided to be typical tourists in Switzerland and go see the Matterhorn. We stayed in Zermatt and took the train up to Gonergrat, at over 10,000 feet in elevation. Here we are with the Matterhorn in the background. I didn't plan ahead for going up into the snow, and you may notice that those are indeed socks I am wearing on my hands. I also haven't gained as much weight from the Swiss chocolate and cheese as it may appear -- I'm just wearing 7 layers to keep warm.

Vacation in Switzerland

2007-09-25T14:29:00.000+04:30

After a week-long conference in Kabul I am now on vacation. I'm visiting Jacqui at her art school in Switzerland and will be here about 2 weeks. I'll post some photos from our travels later. More from Afghanistan in October.

Canals, watermelon, and the Dutch PM

2007-09-16T23:05:00.000+04:30

Kamp Holland was busy with VIPs this week, including a suprise visit by the Prime Minister of the Netherlands on September 11. I have a picture of him speaking with soldiers at the camp.

I also hosted a visit by the head of the Kandahar office of our Local Governance and Community Development program. I've been working for months to get projects started in Uruzgan through this program. There are grand plans to refurbish and construct government buildings, improve roads and irrigation systems, and train officials their staff in public administration. This visit culminated in commitments: hiring staff, scheduling visits by engineers, designating space for a computer training center. When the project staff went to look at an irrigation system, they brought me back some other pictures: a spot where seasonal runoff damages the canal each year, mountains behind cornfields, curious children, and a watermelon snack. It was the last day for such a treat for a while, as Ramadan started the next day, with fasting during daylight hours.

Decentralizing education

2007-09-09T12:07:00.000+04:30

I don't spend enough time talking about some of the other projects around here that I am not part of. This week I was invited to observe a meeting that Dutch officials had with representatives of the Ministry of Education. Several donors fund the Ministry to improve the education system by establishing and supporting school management committees. A community chooses a committee, which either oversees the building of a school or the upgrading of a current facility. It has been noted that the more a community is involved in the operation of a school, the less likely that that school will be attacked. The Ministry also establishes Parent-Teacher Organizations that oversee and advise on the running of the school. It is a move to decentralize what has been a very centralized educational system, and it is already in progress in dozens of schools in Uruzgan.

Agriculture and Water

2007-09-03T17:00:00.000+04:30

Here's a picture of a random thing you can find in the market: a green stone telephone. There are a lot of stone goblets and chess sets, and I don't think any of these are made in Afghanistan. I've actually never seen anyone buy one of these stone products.

This week's focus was agriculture and irrigation. A couple of visitors and I held a series of discussions on how to help communities organize themselves to get more farm income, and how to help the provincial government support the farmers. Since these are proposals we're just working on now, I don't expect any actual projects to be starting soon. It will be a few months before we install drip irrigation systems on farms, or help a group of farmers organize themselves to share assets such as tractors.

Generator operation and Villages choosing their own projects

2007-08-25T15:15:00.000+04:30

I was invited back by the Australian Trade Training School to see the monthly 3-day workshop on generators. Here are a couple of pictures. The class appeared to be all teenage boys, and they seemed to be enjoying themselves. If you look closely, you'll see that even in rural Afghanistan teenage boys wear their hats differently than adults. Usually the open part of the hat is worn at the front, but these guys were making their own fashion statements by turning them sideways or backwards.

There was good news this week that a proposed project will now become reality. We've been working since December to give grants to Afghan NGOs. They would go to villages and consult with the local people to choose a small project that is important to them. Then the NGOs would work with the villagers to build it. Last week, after 8 months of working toward this, the grants were finally signed. Projects that will start soon include a gravel road, a security/privacy wall around a school, and a flood mitigation wall.

Cobblestone roads and learning to saw straight

2007-08-18T15:06:00.000+04:30

If last week was about telecommunications, this one was about city management. Cities are the levels of government that deliver services: decent roads, garbage collection, sewage disposal, water, power, etc. On June 9, I wrote about a program to mentor city officials. That project is now underway, and now we have started programs that train municipal staff in how to deliver services effectively. The road building and maintenance program has already begun, as pictured. There will be a need for skilled workers for the city to hire, so we visited the Trade Training School operated by the Australians and took a look at the students learning carpentry (also pictured). It was a good week for pictures, as I also got a shot of a kite being flown over the city. Kite-flying was famously made illegal by the Taliban.

There was a question about what will happen to my institutional memory in 2 months. I've decided that I'll stay a bit longer than one year, but I haven't determined how long yet. Right now my stay here is open-ended. Eventually, I will have to hand over my position to a successor, so I spend a lot of time writing notes from meetings and assembling files. I expect to overlap with my successor for a couple of weeks when the time comes for me to leave. I try to keep everything I know on paper or an electronic file to be prepared for that day.

How far to the nearest phone?

2007-08-11T21:15:00.000+04:30

It's not easy to communicate within Uruzgan. Outside of Tirin Kot, there are no connections to phone wires and no access to cell phone service. The only choices for Afghans to send messages are (1) satellite phone and (2) a guy on a motorcycle -- or in a car or on foot, etc. The second method is slow, and the first is prohibitively expensive. So one national-level project is to advise and assist the Ministry of Communications to link districts and villages to the national communications networks. This takes several ingredients, such as equipment, and buildings, and trained personnel, and the security to transport all the goods and people to the right places.

We've been interested in what we can do to assist on the provincial level. How best to help the Ministry set up a system that they can then continue to operate on their own? So this week I arranged for a Telecommunications Advisor to travel from Kabul. We met within the PRT and with local officials, and now the Advisor will draw up a set of recommendations on how donors and the government can work together to expand and maintain the communications system. There is a large percentage of people in Afghanistan who have never used a phone. This type of project may give them opportunities they never had, such as finding out when and where to bring crops to market, or to arrange for health care. And when the provincial governor can afford to call his subgovernors at the district level, that can only serve to improve the effectiveness of the government.

New arrivals at Kamp Holland

2007-08-05T12:53:00.000+04:30

This week at Kamp Holland, Task Force Uruzgan 2 completed its 6 months of work and handed over control to TFU 3. TFU is the overall command for the camp, which includes the PRT and all the people that provide security for the operations. It was the second change of command since I arrived; the last one was at the end of January. We have begun the third six-month staffing of the Dutch-led operation, now commanded by Col Nico Geerts.

The new staff means a lot of new people to explain things to about development projects: what we're doing, and how, and why. There are the inevitable hiccups, such as when people come to my office believing that I am in charge of an issue that I know nothing about. Luckily the PRT staff does not follow the same rotation schedule as the TFU staff. I think the staggered system lessens the amount of institutional memory that is lost.

I met some other new people at the camp, some interpreters who just arrived from the US. At various times during the years of upheaval in Afghanistan, they had emigrated. As with many immigrants, they've had to work long hours in the US at one or more low-wage jobs. They have been working in restaurants, grocery stores, factories, and driving cabs. In the US, few of us are many generations removed from immigrant ancestors with similar stories. I asked one man why he decided to come back to Afghanistan as an interpreter. He rubbed his fingers together. In the US, his difficulty with English is a handicap. Now his skills in Pashto and Dari have given him the opportunity for a much higher salary.

Ready, Set, Spend

2007-07-28T22:00:00.000+04:30

This week was moving along with its usual pace of emails and cell phone calls when I got a message: a section of the US military suddenly had millions of dollars to spend on certain kinds of development projects anywhere in the country. Where did it come from? Turns out it was orginally intended for Iraq, but they couldn't spend it in time. In time? Yes, the contracts through which the money would be spent have to be signed by September 30. Contracting is not straightforward or quick, so the projects proposals should be submitted by July 31. I first heard of this on July 24. Thus, I've dropped some of the less time-sensitive work and started gathering all the details needed on projets that others and I have wanted to do but haven't had the funds available.

Every pot of money has things it can and can't be used for, so the first order of business is to determine which projects can fit into these particular requirements. And I've now been spending a lot of time typing project proposals and tracking down people to let them know about these funds. The type of projects that most easily fit are small village works projects, where people work on roads, irrigation systems, flood walls, etc. That means a lot of proposals for small projects to type up. I worked on 52 today.

There are small windows of opportunity in the bureacratic funding cycles. We'll see how well my colleagues and I are able to take advantage of this one.

A few pictures from Kabul

2007-07-21T21:45:00.000+04:30

I'm back in Tirin Kot this week, but I've been looking through the pictures I took the previous week in Kabul. I don't get to tour around, but whenever I'm being driven between meetings I keep my camera in my hand and take as many pictures out the window as I can. I'd like to show a bit of a sample of what I see. I thought I haven't shown enough of the commercial heart of city, so here you can see Afghan Fried Chicken and a Bride & Groom store. There are often traffic jams from cars, but as you can see the cars sometimes share the road with horse-drawn carts. And the problem of water in the city is clear whenever I see someone taking water from the ditches beside the street, such as the boy in one of these pictures.

Land use and private business

2007-07-14T20:42:00.000+04:30

I finally downloaded the pictures from our vacation. Here we are in front of the London Eye on a typically soggy day. The shoes that I bought on our last vacation to Spain in April had disintegrated and were acting more like sponges than foot protection. We'll see if the pair I bought in London last longer.

The New Yorker had a very interesting and long article about the poppy eradication in Uruzgan in May. I think you can see it here: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/07/09/070709fa_fact_anderson

This has been a full week of consultations in Kabul, and I have been here a bit longer than I'd hoped due to lack of flights to Tirin Kot. But it is always useful to have time to track down new people. This time I was searching for land-use experts. It appears that the city governments in Afghanistan hold tight control over the use of privately-owned land. It also seems that this control might be exercised to the point of stifling business. Since we're trying to encourage economic development through increased private business activity, this is a significant obstacle. So now I know some experts who can assist me. Maybe we can get the Tirin Kot city government to relax a bit.

Return to Kabul

2007-07-08T21:59:00.000+04:30

Today I arrived back in Kabul after a week and a half in London. I took the opportunity to look up quite a few people, including Windmueller relatives, as Ernie suggested in his comment on the last post. In fact, I stayed with the Josephs on my last trip to London in 1998, and Jacqui and I visited them this trip as well.

And after 10 days of cold rain, Jacqui tells me it is now sunny and hot. But I'll get plenty of that weather here, especially in Tirin Kot for July and August. Kabul itself is cool and pleasant right now.

I have not seen the footage of Tirin Kot that Dan mentioned in his comment, but I knew there were US journalists around at the time of the suicide bombing, including reporters from the Washington Times. I wasn't familiar with the TV journalist.

Vacation in London

2007-07-03T16:53:00.001+04:30

Jacqui and I are currently in London on vacation. Like our last vacation in Spain, there is a lot of rain. However, it is quite a bit warmer, so we're not cold and uncomfortable as we were in Barcelona. I don't have a lot of computer access during this trip, so I'll likely resume posting when I get back to work.

The work doesn't end when a project is cancelled

2007-06-23T22:09:00.000+04:30

One of the chronic annoyances of a job such as mine is dealing with projects that did not go as planned. I think this past week I may have finally put the issue of one such project to bed -- at least to an extent.

I arrived in Uruzgan in November 2006. Soon after, I began to meet the local officials, and one such meeting was with the Director of Power. He informed me that there was a project planned to set up an electricity distribution system in Tirin Kot. He was not pleased to hear that I knew nothing about this. He showed his frustration, and the discussion became a bit more heated. I said I would investigate.

My initial inquiries revealed that such project had been considered, but there had been problems and it had been scrapped. Was there money to do such a project now? After several weeks of asking, the answer was no.

However, such a simple answer would not satisfy the Director of Power. He showed me a document that did indicate an electrification project had been planned at one time. This meant more investigation over more weeks. At last I had put together a history that explained all the documents and claims I had heard. In brief, such a project had been planned for 3 cities in 2005. In early 2006, changes in the program needed to make it effective caused the project to be expanded in 2 of the cities and cancelled in the third: Tirin Kot. Yet somehow the Director of Power had not been officially notified.

So I set to work putting together a letter of explanation that would be signed by a senior official and delivered by me to the Director of Power. Moving paper through a bureaucracy takes time, and it was April when the letter was ready to be delivered. The Director and I kept missing each other, so it took me until the beginning of June to track him down and give him the letter.

I waited for the reaction, and I was not disappointed. At a regular provincial government meeting on development issues, the Director of Power held forth with vehemence and stamina as he contradicted parts of the history recounted in the letter he had received. After about 20 minutes, the chair of the meeting and I were able to convince the Director of Power to continue this conversation in a private meeting.

So you may imagine that I was not looking forward to this promised private meeting, but I wanted to get it over with. I set it up for earlier this week, expecting a long argument about each point in the history of the canceled project. But the arguement never came. In this meeting, the Director accepted that the project was cancelled, and he asked that we work to start a new project. Perhaps he didn't bother to argue because he didn't have enough of an audience for his oration. Perhaps he had read the letter more carefully (translated for his convenience into both Dari and Pashto). Perhaps he will revert to his previous position in the next public meeting. But for the first time I can now say that the topic of the cancelled electrification project has been thoroughly investigated, explained, and discussed. Next topic, please.

Suicide bomber attacks Tirin Kot

2007-06-16T18:24:00.000+04:30

Since I arrived in Uruzgan in November, there have been several attacks throughout the province. Many people have died in those attacks. Friday several more people died in the first attack in the provincial capital Tirin Kot since last summer. A truck drove up to a military convoy and exploded, killing several people, including many bystanders. Here is a link to a BBC article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6755779.stm.

I learned about the attack about an hour after it occurred. I was escorting a visitor toward the front gate, and we met a boy of around 14 who had just escorted some injured children to the base to be treated at the military hospital. He said that 2 people from his family had been killed and 4 more injured. Clasping his hands to give my condolences was one of the saddest moments I've had.

This incident was not really unusual. There are fighting and casualties around Afghanistan, and even around Uruzgan. Since bombing attacks happen in Kabul, there is no reason to believe that Tirin Kot would not also be targeted.

We foreigners are here to help Afghans build a secure and prosperous future. That is not easy, nor will it be quick. We hope that a combination of defense operations, diplomatic initiatives, and development projects will help convince people that they have more to benefit from the government than from the opposing forces; that eventually there will be so little support for bombers that they will no longer be able to operate. I hope that we stay long enough and act wisely enough to do this right. I see no change in what I think about our work here. I do feel that pausing to reflect is how we can mourn and honor the dead.

Developing city management

2007-06-09T20:43:00.000+04:30

This was an exciting week in Tirin Kot. The visitors whose plane was sent back to Kabul last week due to a blocked runway were successful in their second attempt to travel here. As I mentioned last week, this group focuses on training city leaders on how to manage their infrastructure and services. One recurring problem with the development projects here is that after a donor has funded the construction of something, or donated some equipment, there is no one around who has the skills to keep the project in good repair. So the idea of this project is to train city officials and staff in administration and management, in order to keep the infrastructure in good shape, or at least to control its inevitable depreciation. The visitors met with the Mayor of Tirin Kot and got to see some of the roads, generators, pipes, and public structures in town. And now they will set to work on bringing in the people who can start this training.

I thought I would respond to one of the questions in the comment section. I was asked what the menu is like here, and what there is for entertainment. The food is not bad. Every mornning there are eggs, bacon, porridge, hash browns, yogurt. There are meats and cheese for sandwiches available at breakfast and every other meal. Lunch is usually one entree and some cooked vegetables. There is always a salad bar of tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions at lunch and dinner. Sometimes the entrees come in little airline-food packages, but usually they are in pans, like most institutional food. Dinner usually has two entrees. Though anyone who knows me will say that I am really not the person to ask about food, because I eat just about anything and it tastes fine to me.

For entertainment there are a few options. There is a cafe that has a pool table and a foosball table. There is a gym with a good supply of cardiovascular and strength-training equipment, and there is a volleyball court. In fact, I just played an hour and a half of volleyball with my some colleagues. Sometimes there are movies shown on Saturday nights, and people do organize other activities. I don't always know what they are, as the announcements are in Dutch.

Pictures this week are of some of the local youth. The one with the saw is in a course at the Trade Training Center which is run by the Australian engineers. There is a shortage of skilled labor within Uruzgan (as I believe I've written about before), so vocational training will mean that there is more local talent and less need to bring people in from other provinces.

Another way to shut down an airfield

2007-06-02T20:22:00.000+04:30

Above are a couple of pictures I took in Kabul. One is of a group of girls in their school uniforms -- waiting for transportation, I guess. The other is a bakery with the long flat bread loaves hanging in the window.

Here's a"frustration of the week" story: There's a program that trains municipal officials and staff to provide city services. I've been trying to get representatives of that program to come to Tirin Kot for weeks, so that they can do an assessment and perhaps start that program here. There are many things the municipality could use a lot of help with, such as disposal of sewage and trash, provision and monitoring of potable water, and general maintenance and repair of city buildings, roads, and other infrastructure. So I've got all the details of the visit lined up, and I go to the runway to meet the visitors. There I find a large military plane sitting in the middle of the runway. I call the air control tower, and they tell me the plane is "broken" and will likely not move for 3-4 hours. Therefore, all flights had been diverted. My visitors had flown an hour from Kabul, and then they had to turn around and fly an hour back. So I set to work on trying again. Maybe next week?

6 days of meetings in Kabul

2007-05-25T16:37:00.000+04:30

Every three months NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) holds a 2-day conference in Kabul. And there always seem to be a lot of additional meetings before and after -- in this case 4 extra days. There's nothing like 6 full days of meetings in Kabul to make me want to get back to Tirin Kot as soon as possible.

But there are always some useful minutes floating in the sea of tedious meeting-hours. Afghanistan has a lot of hoops to jump through to get helpful things such as debt cancellation. One thing the government needs is a decent development plan, and this will be known as the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (www.ands.gov.af). In Uruzgan, we'll be spending the summer assisting the provincial government in putting together their contribution to the plan. It will be interesting to see what this turns out to be.

How I Insulted Local Officials

2007-05-20T22:47:00.000+04:30

In Afghanistan I have found that messages don't get through very well. There is always just enough miscommunication to make some important logistical element go awry. This week we were supposed to have some visitors from UN Habitat, but they had to cancel at the last moment. So we decided to cancel the meeting we had scheduled with a large group of local leaders, and instead we would schedule a smaller meeting to discuss some administrative issues. I worked with an interpreter to make the call, and it seemed all was set.

Working on a military base, there are always security procedures for visitors. These vary according to the visitor, but for people we know well we can make the entry procedures faster and the searches less intrusive. So I showed up at the camp entrance to greet my 2 visitors -- and instead there were 8. The message in the phone call had been completely garbled. (See last post on the need for a good interpreter.) I had made the preparations to expedite the entry of 2 visitors, but I had not filed the papers necessary to expedite the whole group. I apologized for the miscommunication, and told them they were welcome, but the full search procedures would be required.

This did not go over well. Before my interpreter finished talking, several former mujahadeen (one with a prominent bullet scar in his forehead) were now shouting at me. This was an insult, they insisted, and they would not accept it. I immediately got on the phone to a colleague and asked if he could rush through the expediting procedures for these additional guests while I talked with them and tried to have them wait. I was not very successful, as by the time he got there about 3 had already left. The rest he convinced to stay.

So that is my story of the clash of security, communication, and local customs and honor for the week. I think a lot of foreign workers here find themselves stuck in such situations on a regular basis. My lesson: always call at least two people to make schedule changes. At least one will be likely to get the message.

Hiring an interpreter/advisor

2007-05-12T21:46:00.000+04:30

Hiring someone to work in Uruzgan is an adventure. I've been working since December to hire someone to be an interpreter and advisor, and we found several pitfalls along the way. The job announcement was part of a larger search to fill several jobs in several provinces. Candidates were asked to indicate which provinces they were interested in working in. There were also some minimum criteria in the announcement. Well, it turned out that none of the people who said they might be able to work in Uruzgan actually met that criteria as stated in the announcement. So it was time to take another close look at the criteria, to see if any could be relaxed, and to have another good look through the resumes. We decided there were some people that might fit the position, so we invited 5 to interview. Of that number, only 2 accepted. I guess they decided they didn't really want to work in Uruzgan after all. Luckily we did find a good candidate, and if we are able to make a hire, I might have an interpreter to work with by July. That will come to 7 months elapsed time from my request to its fulfillment.

Having a good English-Pashto interpreter will be very useful. The PRT has a few good Dutch-Pashto interpreters, but English-Pashto ones are a bit scarce. People are often surprised when I mention the Dutch-Pashto interpreters. It seems to be an effect of the Dutch immigration policy during the war years in Afghanistan. A lot of Afghans were able to move to Holland and learn the language. And now they are back in Tirin Kot working for the Dutch military.

Tour de Force in Tirin Kot

2007-05-06T18:15:00.000+04:30

I had a good set of meetings with various officials here in Tirin Kot. We're now to the point where we're actually submitting proposals -- and someone in Kabul is actually reading them (I think). We're concentrating on projects to train officials and staff how to run the government bureacracy, as well as projects for improving the banking sector. It sure does take a while to get these things rolling. I'm 6 months through my year now, and there has always been something that slows each project idea down. It could be that the program is not ready, or the right people are not available to speak with. It's clear that a year is a short time, and getting any but the shortest project finished is out of the question. For most projects of significance, I'll be glad to get them off to a good start.

I've posted 3 picutures this week. One is a dust storm that blew through the camp. I think this picture gives an idea about how low the visibility gets -- plus you can't really open your eyes. It's a good time to be wearing glasses. Another picture is a good example of the local highly decorated trucks, known as "jingle trucks." I am told that this is also very common in Pakistan.

The third picture is from the very first concert I attended at Kamp Holland. The Australians have a program called "Tour de Force" that brings performers out to entertain the troops. The group included some comedians and a country music singer who is pictured with her band. Here's an Australian press release about the tour -- we're just one stop: http://www.defence.gov.au/media/departmentaltpl.cfm?CurrentId=6600.

Poppies are Blooming

2007-04-28T17:46:00.000+04:30

This may be the best weather of the year in Tirin Kot. The mornings and evenings are in the 70s, the middle of the day in the 90s. It's not raining, so we're not sinking into the mud. If you stay out of the sun in the middle of the day, the rest of the time is quite pleasant.

It is the season for a few things. There were not many flies around here in the winter, but they have recently shown up, especially around any site involving waste disposal.

It is also the season for poppy -- the fields are in bloom. Thus one of the exciting events this week was the arrival in the province of the government's Afghan Eradication Force. These guy have been cutting down the fields and will continue doing so for several more days. That will only get rid of a small fraction of the poppy, but the idea is to turn poppy-growing into a gamble. If people think their poppy field might be the one cut down next year, will they plant something else? That's the theory. If you are really interested in the poppy situation here, check out the UNODC page for Afghanistan: http://www.unodc.org/afg/index.html.

Visit to Ministry of Communications

2007-04-22T22:16:00.000+04:30

This week I visited the Ministry of Communications in Kabul and saw the nerve center of the goverment networks. I had no idea what was already set up: a system for internet, telephone, and video conferencing that connects Kabul and the Ministry of Communications offices in all 34 provinces. We got a demonstration of the system by having a video conference with the Tirin Kot office. It works pretty well. The next steps are for the system to be extended to other government offices in the provincial capitals, and from the provincial capitals to the district capitals. There are several donors working with the government on this project -- part of the overall plan to build infrastructure to support economic development.

From Spain to Afghanistan

2007-04-16T19:32:00.000+04:30

I've returned to Kabul from soggy Spain. We did have breaks in the rain a couple of times, enough to see the highlights, such as La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and the Alhambra in Granada. Here are a couple of pictures from the trip. Despite the bad weather, it was quite a relaxing vacation and I'm ready to get back Uruzgan as soon as I can.

Barcelona and Granada

2007-04-09T19:18:00.000+04:30

Jacqui and I continue our vacation in Spain. After 3 rainy days in Barcelona we´ve had 5 rainy and/or cold days in Granada. We have heard it has been the wettest ¨Semana Santa¨ -- i.e. Holy or Easter week -- in a century. This has given me a bit of a cold, so we are hanging out at our host´s house as I recover. We have gotten to spend a lot of time exploring the old city and seeing the processions where church groups carry carved figures of Jesus or Mary through the city. We saw a bit of sun yesterday, so perhaps our remaining week here will be a bit better weather.

The rain in Spain

2007-04-03T02:23:00.000+04:30

Here´s a short post just to let everyone know I´m fine. I spent last week in meetings in Kabul, and now I have met Jacqui in Barcelona for vacation. I´ll write more about the trip later and add some pictures. It´s been quite rainy here -- not the usual weather pattern, I am told.

Uruzgan hit by floods at New Year

2007-03-24T08:47:00.000+04:30

Some of you may have noticed reports about flooding in Uruzgan this past week. There were heavy floods along the Helmand River, which travels through the western part of Uruzgan. The Dihrawud district saw river levels almost 2 meters higher than normal. International forces used helicopters to rescue hundreds of people from roofs of houses and tops of trees. Then the Government of Afghanistan put the people up in shelters and delivered relief supplies. There were reports of deaths in the flooding, but so far there are no reliable numbers to report. Here is a link to a more detailed article: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70815.

The pictures I have posted were provided to me by the Public Information Office here at Kamp Holland. The photographer is WO Hilckmann of MOD Netherlands.

These floods struck during "Nawroz," which is the New Year for the calendar used by Afghanistan and Iran. The use of the vernal equinox as the beginning of the year in this region dates to pre-Islamic times. The numbering of years begins at Mohammed's flight from Mecca to Medina, so we are now in the year 1386. Here's a pretty nice explanation of the calendar: http://www.ortelius.de/kalender/pers_en.php.

Guess the VIP

2007-03-16T20:43:00.000+04:30

I thought this was a nice view looking down the hill toward Tirin Kot -- a maze of walled compounds. It is getting a bit green here with more sun to go with the rain. But there are enough goats around to keep it from getting too green.

This week I've definitely assumed the role of the fixer: Getting people in and out by air. Getting people around on the ground, and finding a place for them to stay. Arranging series of meetings. I even spoke from Tirin Kot to Kandahar to direct lost people there to there to the right air terminal. That part of the job could be outsourced to a call center. In fact, maybe we need a call center to help these desperate lost souls that somehow end up calling me.

One small success this week was the upgrade to the small radio station run by the provincial Government. We have a project to increase the range of programming at some stations in Pashto and Dari by installing satellite receivers that allow them to broadcast a feed from Kabul. So now they'll have something to play besides the music tapes from the market. Of course, it will still only broadcast 6 hours per day. All the electricity here is from diesel generators, and that is an expensive way to supply power. There's no sign yet of when Tirin Kot might have a cheaper power supply.

And in tabloid moment of the week, who was the mystery VIP that came here on Wednesday? You'd be forgiven for missing it -- I don't find many articles about it. Australian Prime Minister John Howard happened to stop by. He visited both Camp Holland and the contiguous Camp Russell where the Australian engineers live. I didn't get close enough to see him. Here's one report: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/howards-secret-afghanistan-visit/2005/11/22/1132421625882.html

CORRECTION: I'd like to thank the reader who pointed out that the link above refers to a visit that Prime Minister Howard made to Afghanistan in 2005. I meant to put in a link to the March 2007 visit. Here is one: http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/howard-makes-surprise-afghanistan-visit/2007/03/15/1173722655305.html

Most expensive ad space in Kabul?

2007-03-11T19:18:00.000+04:30

Answers to comments from last post: It did occur to me on this last trip to Kabul that there is really not a lot Ican expect to see in a year in Afghanistan, at least as far as human changes. I might see see many things built, but even that takes a while. Even if a project to build a new building were approved tomorrow, I don't know if it would be done by the time I would leave here. A road project for less than 100 miles in Uruzgan has been planned since mid-2006, just started March 4, 2007, and is scheduled to finish in fall of 2008 -- if it is completed on time. So will I see more than baby steps, at least in the programs I am working on? I doubt it. Progress may be perceptible but small.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) does hold a quarterly conference, but it's not really a training. The training I went to was a separate event to encourage officials to expand their range of deliberations. Most military people do not stay more than a year, and many stay less than that: 4-6 months. We have no one in Tirin Kot to my knowledge that have been here a year. Two of us civilians are scheduled to be here a year, and one will be here two years. Indeed, the turnover of international workers is a recurring issue. Handovers are often problematic, to say the least, and information gets lost.

I only got back to Tirin Kot from Kabul on Friday, due to the flight schedules. There is not a lot to talk about with meetings in Kabul, but I do have a nice picture of the fort on top of the hill in the middle of town. It seems to be one of the prime billboard spots in the city.

Conferences and Trainings in Kabul

2007-03-05T18:53:00.000+04:30

Every 3 months the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) holds a conference for the military and civilians who work on Provincial Reconstruction Teams, so dozens of us fly into Kabul for 2 days of lectures and discussions. As with most conferences, there are only a few bits of wheat in this pile of chaff, but they do the best they can.

The more interesting part of this trip has been a 3-day training together with Afgan government officials and civil society organizations. Most meetings in Afghanistan involve sitting around in a circle, and talking in a circle. This training's goal was to teach people how to lead groups in focused discussions, workshops, and building action plans. There's a long way to go before the meeting structure in the country is changed, but I now have a chance to work with the Uruzgan official who attended to incorporate some new elements into the government planning processes. Building the capacity of government is supposed to be what we're all about here. And this is one baby step.

The Only Bank in Uruzgan

2007-02-23T22:33:00.000+04:30

I got to do two fun things this week. One was to visit the Tirin Kot branch of the Afghanistan Central Bank, the only financial institution in the entire province (see picture). They work in a borrowed 4-room building (and keep the money in a safer separate place), where the bank records are kept in piles next to the firewood. The building doesn't really keep out water, and the mice are eating the records. So they need a new building. And I think I wrote before that they can't get enough staff -- because it's hard to find people to come to work in Uruzgan. This is a problem that has to be addressed in Kabul before anything can be done here.

The other fun event was a two-day visit from a partner development organization that hopes to start working with the Uruzgan provincial, district, and village governments. The idea is to train officials and elders in administration, financial management, community mobilization, good communication, etc. There are so few non-military projects here that is will be quite a coup to get them started.

Tie Down That Cargo

2007-02-19T21:00:00.000+04:30

Some weeks seem to be all preparation all the time. There are field offices to be set up, visits by project officers to see how they might start their work in Uruzgan, and proposals to write. In many cases the one time I get to leave my computer is to run around Camp Holland through a chain of references until I finally find the person to address the issue of the day. Instead of running up and down hallways, I'm crunching through gravel.

This culminated in another trip to Kandahar to pin down some of these issues through face-to-face meetings. And after that was done, I got to take my first flight in a C-17 (see http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/c-17.htm) to go back to Tirin Kot. The fun part of that was watching the crew chain down the cargo in the middle, a rather large truck, while I sat along the wall.

Would anyone like to work in Uruzgan?

2007-02-10T20:36:00.000+04:30

Here are a few pictures from the past few days in Tirin Kot: kids in town, the ad council's take on poppy production, and the first rainbow I've seen in Afghanistan.

I was much more fortunate in getting meetings this week. The overwhelming impression from these has been the problem of the labor force in Uruzgan. As far as "white collar" jobs are concerned, it doesn't exist. Whether the issue was the bank, the judicial system, or the health system, I must have heard the same story four times this past week. It always goes something like, "We have 3 employees in our office for the province, and we should have 15 [or 80, or 140]. We cannot find qualified people in Uruzgan. Qualified people from other parts of the country refuse to move here." So there you have one basic problem in training the civil service to be more effective -- there is no one to train. That drives the idea that it would be a good time to upgrade the educational system. There are adult literacy and teacher-training programs that have been done in other parts of the country, and I'm working to get them set up here.

We went from dust to mud again this week as the 3-month rainy season appears to be kicking off. It's also the flooding season, since the rains fall at the same time that the snow melts on the surrounding mountains. I think it would be interesting to poll the camp and find out who prefers mud and who prefers dust. Some days I'd rather just pave the whole camp.

Someday they'll return my calls

2007-02-03T21:53:00.000+04:30

It was another week back as an office worker surrounded by dust. Main issues: adult literacy, seed and fertilizer distribution, and banking. Well, those were supposed to be the issues, but one thing that is always hard to do here is to get in contact with the people you need to meet. So far I have been unsuccessful at getting a meeting with the department of education or the local branch of the central bank. There are a number of difficulties setting up meetings. I'll list a few. (1) Either I have to get an armed escort to go to an Afghan office, or they have to come to me at the PRT. (2) I need to find an interpreter to call to set up the appointment, and there is always a shortage of interpreters. (3) Officials have very few support staff, so they often don't get around to returning calls. Or they can't find transportation. Or some other situation arises and they can't get to a meeting that's been scheduled. You probably get the idea. But if I can get together with some people soon, there will be a lot more to write about next week.

The place that we have meetings at the PRT is the PRT House. The picture is of the formal opening. The woman in the picture is the Dutch Minister of Development, and left of her in the picture is the Governor of Uruzgan province. Note I even captured the presence of media coverage. There are always Dutch media here. As far as Holland in concerned, the province of Uruzgan IS Afghanistan.

A visit to KAF; and what are those square things?

2007-01-28T17:46:00.000+04:30

I should explain the aerial shot from the last post. The square things you see are the walls of family compounds. Each family (often extended) lives in a compound surrounded by walls. One purpose of this is religious/cultural: it provides a space where the women can be outside without being seen by a man who is not a member of the family. Most women in this part of Afghanistan still wear burkas when they go outside the walls of the compound. This is a very conservative area. You may also notice that you don't see houses within the walls in the foreground. I understand that the compound walls are often built first, and the buildings built inside afterward.

I'm writing from Kandahar Air Field (KAF), my first time here. This is for a conference of the reconstruction and development workers from the Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Uruzgan, Zabul, Helmand, and Kandahar provinces. There's not much here besides a big runway and a lot of warehouses. (Though there is a larger convenience/grocery/pharmacy/clothing store -- or "PX" -- here than in most places.) This was a useful exercise for me, because we are a bit behind in Uruzgan. A lot more has been done in the other provinces. I take a look at what everyone else has done and see what's worth copying. Someone here described Uruzgan as the Appalachia of Afghanistan. Indeed, it has economic problems reminiscent of the "hollers" of West Virginia.

First flight in a helcopter

2007-01-21T10:41:00.000+04:30

I've been back in Tirin Kot for a bit more than a week now. Almost immediately when I returned I was able to be part of a delegation who went to the town of Oshay in the northwest district of Shaheedi Hassas in Uruzgan. This is part of a series of trips where the Provincial Reconstruction Team assists officials from the provincial government to visit other parts of the province and hold "shuras": gatherings of village elders for speeches and discussions. It was the first shura I attended, and it was surprisingly short -- just a bit over 2 hours. Most of that time the provincial officials gave speeches to the local elders, encouraging them to cooperate on development and security issues. There was a little bit of time when local people got up to speak about the needs for certain projects and the problems with security. It is quite stage-managed, but I get the idea that a lot of more serious consultation goes on outside of the formal gathering. It was a good attendance -- about 250 local elders came. I have included a picture of some of them.

This trip also marked my first flight in a helocopter, which was very exciting. I've never flown so close to the ground before. There were some great views of the town -- I'll post one of them.

I've also added some pictures to previous posts, so you can see some shots of Hungary and of my training on how to eat Afghan-style.

Back in Afghanistan

2007-01-10T16:28:00.000+04:30

Jacqui and I wrapped up our trip to Hungary with a day in Budapest, and then I returned to Afghanistan on Sunday. I've been here in Kabul since then, visiting just about everyone that I had been in touch with by phone or email previously, but had not yet had a face-to-face conversation about projects for Uruzgan. After 3 days of doing that, it's time to return to Tirin Kot with a very long to-do list, investigating projects that may involve: training local government officials, improving the banking system, providing short-term work in economically depressed areas, improving electrical systems, developing fruit tree orchards, etc. And then I'll have more interesting things to write here.

New Year's in Hungary

2007-01-02T20:34:00.000+04:30

In what may be the earliest vacation on record, I am currently on the first of my 4 vacations for my year in Afghanistan. This was mainly determined by Jacqui's academic breaks while she studies stained glass art. For this trip we have met in Hungary, where Jacqui is visiting her friends from her Peace Corps days for the first time since she finished in 1997. We have been to Telekgerendas, Budapest, and now Papa. Jacqui as the quintilingual member of the family can communicate quite well. I read a phrase from my guidebook now and then for comic relief.

I hope to catch up on adding pictures to the entries once I have a computer situation again that facilitates that. Also, I noted in the comments a question about forwarding the blog link to others. Feel free to disseminate the address, and anyone is welcome to email me at ithambo@lycos.com for further details on anything.

How to eat like a respectable guest

2006-12-24T10:09:00.000+04:30

After 3 weeks in Tirin Kot, I went back to Kabul for a 4-day training. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) is the lead coordinating agency for all donor work in the country, and this was the second time they had put together a training for new Provincial Reconstruction Team workers. It was quite an international event. I believe there are 37 countries who are doing assistance work in Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). That is led by NATO, but there are 11 non-NATO countries also involved. One of these happens to be South Korea, which has a group of army engineers doing construction and training. One of the highlights of the training was a "practice Afghan dinner" at the European Union office, where we sat on the floor and ate with our hands. I was sitting next to a Korean officer when the staff brought out a plate of dumplings, and the officer said, "looks like 'mandu.'" It turns out the dumplings were indeed called "mantu." Afghan food has strong links to East Asian food.

The other main parts of the meal included rice with carmelized sugar, raisins, and carrots. There was plenty of beef and mutton, and spiced chick peas. Rules of etiquette include never pointing your feet at someone. If you can't sit cross-legged, you need to stick your feet to the side or put a blanket over them. My training at Ahn family dinners is coming in handy. Even though I have never been good at sitting on the floor compared to Koreans, I do well in comparison to many of the non-Afghans here. Also remember that if you go to an Afghan dinner, excuse yourself from the room before you blow your nose.

How did I get this short?

2006-12-15T18:51:00.000+04:30

It was pointed out in the comments that the list of gaps is really a list of huge holes. Well, that is the situation in Uruzgan in a nutshell. There is so much to be done that it's going to be a huge job identifying what the top priorities are. The new Provincial Development Councils are supposed to be the way that the "SPQU" (would that be "Senatus Populusque Uruzgani"?) are to set the priorities locally. The "people" part of these councils has been tough -- and I may have had my first success on this issue. There had been no representation by businesspeople to the Subcommittee on the Productive Sector, so I tracked down the Chair of the Uruzgan chapter of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce. I had an advantage there, since the Chamber was established through a USAID project. The Chair was surprised when I met with him: "Can a private businessman go to a meeting of Ministers?" he wondered. I'm always surprised by what others are surprised by. And so now the Chamber is sending representatives to the Council meetings. We'll see what effect that has.

Something I've been meaning to point out -- maybe I have already but I forgot. The Dutch are TALL. According to Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height, they are on average among the tallest people on earth. So I just disappear in any group I stand in, and if I get to a meeting late and have to stand in the back, I am out of luck.

Tirin Kot Pictures

2006-12-09T09:48:00.000+04:30

One of the US projects here is to bring radio stations to Uruzgan province, so I went on the trip to see the progress of the station. Unfortunately, my camera went on the fritz, at the station, but I do have pictures from a couple of trips through the town of Tirin Kot. Here are a few of them. I'll try to get pictures later in better weather.

After two weeks and not really getting deep into projects yet, my work really just seems like another office job. My office is a metal container in a construction site; the restroom is a porta-john surrounded by 1/2 inch of mud; and I go to meetings at government buildings with a military escort. Because there are so many Dutch and Australians here in Uruzgan, and just a couple of Americans, it seems I will be looking to fill in the gaps left by their programs. But I don't know how long it will take to decide what those gaps are and what we're going to do about it. The short list includes roads, banking, electricity, agricultural training, radio stations, and teaching government officials and staff how to make budgets, plans, and strategies.

Settling in

2006-12-02T21:42:00.000+04:30

I now enter the multimedia blogging world by posting my first photo. This is me at the entrance to Kamp Holland in the dry, sunny weather when I first arrived. One of the first things that struck me about here was that there must be some geology that is different from other places I've been. The dirt here is a fine dust that gets into everything when it's dry. Then as soon as a little rain falls the dust immediately turns to an ice-slick mud. It will take several more tons of gravel to make it easy to walk around here in the rain.

My main goals for the first week were to find the meeting and processes I would fit into. The Dutch commander is very interested in making sure I am included in everything and getting me a place at the table -- literally, as I have my own reserved chair. There has been a question about learning about Dutch beer here, but that won't happen anytime soon, as it's a dry camp. The Dutch have to concentrate on their coffee and cigarettes instead -- which they do with gusto. I've also had a couple of meetings with some of the most active Afghan provincial officials. There are a lot of things they want to do -- the next phase for me will be to figure out where to concentrate my time.

Arrival at Kamp Holland

2006-11-26T15:38:00.000+04:30

On Thursday I had my first ride in an 8-seater plane that took us from Kabul to Tirin Kot. The Dutch are in charge of reconstruction for Uruzgan province, and their base is Kamp Holland. I have been installed in an office and given living quarters, but the camp is very much a construction site. New buildings are going up everyday. Currently I live in a 5-foot by 20-foot container that has four bunk beds -- but I have it all to myself for now. Thanks to a satellite hookup, I now have internet access and can post on the blog again.

Onward to Uruzgan

2006-11-18T21:46:00.000+04:30

On Thanksgiving Day I'll be traveling to my assigned post: the city of Tirin Kowt in Uruzgan province, sort of center-south of the country. This will be especially interesting because the Dutch are in charge of this reconstruction team. There will also be an Australian contingent.

So now my meetings in Kabul involve me soaking up as much information about Uruzgan as I can. One nice thing I get to do is have meetings at various restaurants. So far my only tourism here has been food tourism. First there was Lebanese food at the Grill. Then it was Mexican at La Cantina: www.lacantinakabul.blogspot.com. This could be the very first Mexican restaurant in Afghanistan -- founded by two Australians. Finally I had a brunch meeting at the Serena Hotel (www.serenahotels.com/afghanistan/kabul/home.asp) with a USAID grantee, the Wildlife Conservation Society. This project is run by a former colleague of mine from the AAAS fellowship.

Arrival in Kabul

2006-11-14T15:33:00.000+04:30

This morning (Tuesday) I completed the Washington-Paris-Dubai-Kabul trip I started on Friday. I got to see Jacqui in Paris for the weekend, and then I got to spend a day in Dubai. I think the coolest thing there is the water taxis that you take back and forth across Dubai Creek for USD 0.15. Now I am going through the admin processing in Kabul, and I should be here for about a week before I go -- to a still undetermined location. More on that later.

Thanks for seeing me off!

2006-11-10T08:45:00.000+04:30

I was very happy to get to say goodbye to so many people who came to my pre-departure happy hour today. Thanks for all who stopped by, and all who wrote in lieu of being able to. Some people asked for my mailing address. It is: USAID, 6180 Kabul Place, Dulles, VA 20189-6180.

My next posting should be from Kabul. Watch this space.

Pre-departure happy hour

2006-11-06T05:08:00.000+04:30

My journey to Kabul should begin on Friday. So Thursday, November 9, I'm planning a happy hour. I'll be at the Continental in Rosslyn (http://modernpoollounge.com/) from 6 to 8 pm. This is at the corner of North Moore Street and Lee Hwy, a block north of the Rosslyn Metro station. If you have time to stop by, I hope to see you there.

Pre-Afghanistan training -- week 2

2006-11-05T07:00:00.000+04:30

The second week of training built on practicing the skills we started learning in the first. I'm much happier about my level of knowledge about what kind of dangers to look out for, and what to do in various emergency situations. It weighs on my mind that it will not be my primary responsibility to deal with these dangers, but it will be the responsibility of the 250 Navy people I trained with, whether they go to Afghanistan, or Iraq, or Djibouti. May they all return unharmed.

Pre-Afghanistan training -- week 1

2006-10-30T22:11:00.000+04:30

I'm halfway through my 2-week training in South Carolina. Here I'm learning to wear the protective gear I'll have in Afghanistan (vest and helmet). I'm also learning what to do in case of emergencies when I'm driving in convoys to see projects: first aid, GPS and map reading, etc. It has been extremely interesting and useful so far.

This training has always been for military personnel in the past. Given my 3-month beard among the clean-shaven, lots of people come up to me to find out who I am and what I'm doing here. I am the first civilian to get this training, and there are constant challenges in figuring out how to integrate me. All the trainers and organizers here have bent over backwards to let me participate to the fullest extent possible. Fellow trainees have donated their extra boots and other gear to me so that I don't have to wear my Timberlands, or be the only one hatless. I couldn't have asked for a more welcoming environment.

On my way -- but with no location assigned

2006-10-20T00:06:00.000+04:30

I've been waiting to write my first post. I planned to announce where I would be located when I get to Afghanistan. Today I received word that the decision will not be made until after I arrive in Kabul. Two possibilities are Uruzgan or Laghman provinces. If you have any information about either of these places that you'd care to send my way, please do so.

On Monday I'll start two weeks of training in South Carolina. Immediately after that, in the first week of November, I'll depart for Kabul.