Baby Steps in Afghanistan

Rocket Status: none tonight.

This morning I took care of contracting paperwork and assembling a digital layout for the new logistics yard with containers setup in a more efficient manner.  The main effort was done by my ANA Colonel, although it took him a month to commit to doing it.  I had to cancel the operation to move them twice before he did what he agreed to...sometimes it's like taking care of kids.  I'm happy to say that he did the overall design with just a couple of recommendations added from me for efficiency.

I also found out that our weapons person will finally be sending old weapons back to Kabul...of course not sure when, but the process of paperwork request have started, so this is a small step of encouragement.

There was a security concern at one of the locations managed by the ANA, but my team took care of it today.  They replaced the entire gate with a sturdy and secure gate.  It goes against everything I'm trying to do, but we had to do it for security.  We couldn't wait months for the ANA to be convinced it was extremely important.  It's done now and it's extremely secure.

We also go the generators placed in the interpreter's camp.  The electrician (not sure of his qualifications, which makes me nervous with $200K+ of equip) came today to see what he'd need to hook the generators up.  I'm hoping we can get them up and running tomorrow.

All is well here with a good day planned tomorrow. We'll label some containers, or let me rephrase that, we'll be there while they label the containers.  They have to own this or it won't matter to them.  We will be, unfortunately, moving the containers using US Army equipment and personnel...but at least they did all the planning.  Baby steps.  Can't push too hard, but have to push them outside their comfort zone.  That's difficult, since it's all based on rapport.  We have to rack our brains every day to try to figure out how to approach projects or problems with them so they'll first fully understand, which is difficult enough, but then figure out a way to get them to want to do it.  I have to say, the ANA Colonel has been surprised me with his willingness sometimes and also his stubbornness other times; I'm Italian, so I definitely get the stubborn part.