Day Off...it was nice!

Rocket Status:  One attack tonight, but didn't hear an explosion so it must have been far away.

Donations: I received a box from Brenda F.  Thanks so much for your shampoo, toothpaste and shirts.  They'll love them.

Today was nice.  I did laundry and checked some email, since Friday is our day off.  Of course went for an iced cappuccino at Tim Hortons, since the temp was 111F/44C.  I drank 8 bottles of water and don't think that was enough.

Here are some pics from Afghanistan in the 1960s...

Truck full of meat in 104F/40C

Rocket Attack:  1 tonight...far away...didn't hear any explosion.

When I was driving around the base today, I saw a truck full of sheep pieces.  They don't really use refrigeration in Afghanistan as much as we do.  Who knows how far the truck traveled before it got here...it would be at least 45 mins at best.

As I followed the truck to the back of the dining facility, I was greeted by a butcher, some soldiers, and a guy sharpening a knife.  The butcher is the guy laying down.  I'm guessing that chopping meat on wooden blocks is exhausting. LOL.

This guy here is really worried about getting his knife sharp...he's really going at it.

I went back to the logistics depot to see how the download of the convoy was going.  They have absolutely no concept of personal safety.

After I had coffee with a French Air Force Captain, I saw this big dust twister.  It must have been 500 feet tall.  It's hard to tell, but it was about 1/2 a mile away.  It extended above the picture another hundred feet or so.

Now time for the pics from Afghanistan in the 1960s.

The great Buddas were destroyed by the Taliban because they were for another god...that's what I remember.  There are some people rebuilding them now.

These are all pics before they were destroyed.  You get an idea of how big they were by the person walking in front of them just below the statue.

How interesting it must have been to travel here in the 1960s.  Just to be able to experience history.

Wednesday...fuel corruption

Rocket Status: None tonight.

Running Club: All three showed up...well, one stayed in bed so we went and got him.  He's the one on the left in the pic.  Hope he'll continue with the group on Saturday morning.

This morning a convoy of nearly 100 vehicles arrived, so the logistics depot was very busy.  I heard there was damage to some of the vehicles, so I wanted to see how bad it was.  As we were driving around to survey the vehicles, we (me and the interpreter) spotted two guys stealing fuel out of the truck.  We pulled up and took pictures and made them pour all the fuel back into the truck and I took their siphon hose from them.  As I was climbing onto the truck, I noticed there was a cardboard covering and when I removed it, there were quite a few containers of fuel.  I asked them who authorized them to keep fuel there and they said no one authorized them.  We called the logistics Colonel over and the fuels officer. They are filing a report to send to Kabul with these guy's names and the pictures I took.

These are the first two guys we caught.

This is the hose I confiscated...otherwise they'd steal it when we left...probably will anyway. I don't have much confidence that anything will happen to these guys.

This was the big stash of fuel that was covered with cardboard. The scam is they siphon all the fuel into these yellow containers out of their fuel tanks...then they come ask for more fuel and get topped off before heading out.  The last time a convoy came in, they asked for 150% of their alloted fuel because they had an off road section to traverse.  I think we're looking at where the extra 50% is going below.

Here are the first two guys putting fuel back into the truck.

This next guy had no idea we were there. The interpreter spotted him, so I got a good picture of him in the act. You can see he wasn't happy about being caught.

All fuel was returned to the tanks and I confiscated the siphon hoses that were being used.  At least they know now that they can't just brazenly steal the fuel and think we'll just ignore it.  These guys are wearing uniforms, but none are soldiers.  None of them are armed, so it's not as dangerous as it could be when dealing with soldiers that have weapons.  My weapon was loaded and ready and I was very careful about where I was standing and who was around me when this was all going on.  No one put up much of an argument...they didn't like losing their siphon hoses, but I'm sure they've got more.

Now for some pics of Afghanistan in the 1960s.

The best for last...pretty cool to see them before the Taliban destroyed them.

Tuesday was good too!

Rocket Attacks:  None tonight.

Running club status: 3 runners now.  I picked up the additional 2 running partners today with new shoes for both...what are the odds they were both size 9s.  Anyway, just wanted to share with you that they loved the shoes.  Word is starting to spread on the shoes, so hopefully we'll get a few more.  My goal is 10 running partners, but I'll be happy with 5 or above.

This morning I went into the office and decided to push the quarterly awards to get them wrapped up.  I believe it's vital to their survival to get this program running.  I spoke with the ANA Colonel about it and he gave me time with the soldiers that were on the board, so we could argue back and forth over who the winner was for the solider of the quarter.  We finalized all the names and the Colonel agreed...I really thought he'd want to recognize a favorite, but he was happy with the names.  Now we need to arrange for the pictures to be done for the guys, so we can put the plaques on the wall and set a time for the helicopter ride.  I'd like to set most of this up in the next few days.

The Colonel was telling me he had a real problem.  He was trying to account for fuel when issuing it to the convoy trucks, but had no way of measuring it.  I can't believe we've been issuing fuel for years and have not been measuring it.  There's also no way to take inventory of the fuel storage tanks at this time...I'm working that hard.  They're supposed to inventory every day, week, and month to ensure proper accountability.  The way they do their inventory now is to check the books and order what they think they issue as a guess.  We're working these issues and should have it resolved shortly...at least the measuring of the tanks.  Someone stole the pump off the back of the fuel truck, so the meter on the truck can't be used.  The truck just works off gravity feed...I'm amazed at the more I peel back the onion the worse it gets.  There are also no grounding rods on the fuel storage tanks...static electricity in dry air with temps of 120F+ is not a good combination with all those vapors.  work work work!!!

We also found out today that the chairs that were offloaded yesterday were not all offloaded.  Apparently the driver decided it was too dangerous for him to drive to the next destination, so we had to find a place for 60 tables and 375 chairs.  I grabbed 11 tables and 25 chairs for our new computer and literacy classroom, so that worked out great for us.

Today ended with a teleconference.  I think I was bumped off at least 10 times.  I finally got to say my piece and then was bumped off again and again and again, so I called it a day.

Sorry all, there are no pics today either because of the internet connection.  I've asked for them to come out an fix it, so tomorrow we should have pictures.

Good Monday

Rocket Attacks: One tonight...far away...didn't hear explosion.

Running Update: This morning at 5:30am I met this ANA soldier.  He was was way too excited for that early in the morning.  Taking an interest in him really made his day.  I brought him some toothpaste, toothbrushes and some jelly beans later that afternoon to show my appreciation for joining me.  Thanks to donations that have been mailed.  This young man needs a size 6.5 US men's, but I'm not sure if anyone has mailed those yet.  I know there were discussions, so please let me know.  He said he'd run with me every day.  I ran into another person who said they'd run...his size is a 9, so he should be good...I have 3 pair of 9s right now.

When I was driving out to the logistics depot this morning, I saw Americans acting like Afghans.  I think they could fit 3 or 4 more on the bumper.  At least they were driving slow.

There's a convoy that's been waiting to depart for four days now.  The ANA doesn't treat their soldiers well at all.  For the most part, they could care less if they have anywhere to sleep...these poor guys will be sleeping like this until they leave.  In fact, all the ANA convoys are treated like this with no where to sleep.  Of course, the convoy commanders are sleeping in rooms on the base...they have a lot to learn about taking care of their soldiers.  This is not how to build a proud, self-sufficient nation...the ANA need their leadership kicked in the butt.

When I was driving back to the base yesterday, a group of ANA soldiers flagged me down.  They started complaining there's no water, electricity, showers and they didn't know who dropped them off or who they belonged to.  The ANA leadership, as far as I can tell, doesn't care about what conditions their soldiers live in as long as they (leadership) are sleeping in air conditioning.  Makes me angry!

For the Canadians out there, here's a pic of your special forces (I think).  I'm guessing by the silencer looking thing on the end of the weapon and the need to stand up in the back of the truck.  I guess you gotta look cool, if you're special forces...comes with the job.

Here's my ANA logistics Colonel.  He has been taking care of business.  He met with the Corps commander last night to discuss issues of power generation, getting units to pickup their supplies, and getting our new office hooked up with phones and internet.  I was extremely pleased to see him knocking things out.  He had an issue that came up with tables and chairs being delivered and determining who should off load them.  He sent his lieutenant over to assist the download and it wasn't something he had to do.  He must have been in a good mood today...well, we both were after all the small things that got done by his efforts.  I had no idea he was even planning to speak to the General...that's great!!! Usually in the Afghan culture, they will normally not approach the higher ranking personnel with problems.  I'm guessing they used to shoot the messenger around these parts.  "NOPE no problems here...did you see what happened to the last guy that had problems"...LOL.

This is a pic of the off loading of tables and chairs.  There were 1,000 chairs and 250 tables.

One more for the Canadians.  Canadian AF Lt Col with ANA Captain.  They were working together to off load the tables and chairs.

Sorry, my internet connection wouldn't let me upload anymore pics, so I couldn't put the 1960s pics up.

Sunday with a farewell for some

Rocket Status: None today.

Here were a couple of cute dogs on the Afghan base this morning.  Looks like the ANA were drawing eyebrows on them both.  Anyone know what breed of dog they are?

It never ceases to amaze me that they'll pull a huge truck into the river and wash it.  I know if I tried to do it, the truck would sink to it's frame in mud and be stuck for good.  These guys are too funny.

Here I'm having lunch at the US base with my ANA soldiers and my interpreter (face blurred for his protection).  They love to eat here...even though the facial expressions really don't show it...particularly the middle guy...lol.  The middle guy is the one that is supposed to run with me at 5:30am tomorrow.

This afternoon, we had a going away for six of our US Army soldiers.  Here are a few of them relaxing and one have a faux beer.  The Heineken smells and tastes real, but it's 0% alcohol.  It's just cruel.

Today was fairly brief.  I talked this morning a long time about corruption with certain ANA personnel. We are trying to work it all out...we'll see.  Some of these guys are really good at it, so it'll be very difficult to catch them.  We also have to worry about personal safety when talking about corruption.  We had an advisor killed not long ago because he was trying to stop someone from stealing fuel.  Anyway, this took up most of the morning.  I found out that the accountability of fuel is almost non-existent, so we are going to work on changing that as soon as possible...carefully of course.

Here are some pics of Afghanistan in the 1960s...enjoy!

Can anyone identify this place? I have no ideas.

This one has a sign, so you have some idea where it is.  

Very interesting arch. Don't know where it is or what it is.

Saturday's Meetings...No Bazaar for me

Rocket Status: None today

Donation Status: 3 pairs of running shoes-size 9, 9 pairs of socks, 4 tubes of toothpaste, 7 pairs of blue jeans, 4 toothbrushes, 2 bottles of shampoo.

Run Club: This morning I was supposed to meet my two guys to run. I showed up at 6am and there was no one.  I ran alone.  I was a little upset because they said they'd be there and I was sure one of the guys was going to show up.  I found out later that the one guy that was excited to be there showed up at 5:30am to run and waited for me for 20 mins, but he thought I didn't show.  He misunderstood the time.  He is looking forward to running every time with I'd say our group if it was more than a couple.  We're getting there.  I have one more person I spoke with this morning about running and he said he'd run.  We're in luck...he wears size 9.

The rest of the day was all about meetings.  I had two personnel that dropped in last night and wanted to visit the logistics depot.  Then there was a US Army General that visited from 2:30-4pm.  Most of the day for the logistics depot was disrupted unfortunately.  The meetings were good, but they also at the same time slow down our advising.  It's great that everyone is interested, but it'd be nice to limit the amount of visits and tours we get.

My interpreter decided he'd leave at lunch and not come back without telling anyone.  He knew the General was coming and he knew I wanted him there.  I don't understand why these little things are so hard.  The General came with his own interpreter, so we didn't need him; but, it's the fact he just left.  We will have to deduct have a day's pay from him...I don't think that's happened to him before.  These guys make really good money compared to people downtown...you'd think he'd make sure to be there.  I'm sure he had some weird excuse or problem that suddenly arose.

I didn't take any pictures today.  I was too busy with the different tours.  I promise to get some tomorrow.

Here are some of the pics from the 1960s in Afghanistan.  I'm guessing these are from Herat.