Teamwork Progress...Sort of!

When I arrived today at approx 8:40am, the soldiers had already arrived on time or early and had started clearing debris and digging holes.  I was very impressed.  There were approx 10-12 soldiers and the Colonel that worked for at least two hours on digging.  They dug 5 more holes for a total of 7...only about 20 left.  I'm hoping we can get more done on Sunday.  They don't work on Friday, it's their day off and Saturday they will be taking literacy classes...don't want to mess with that.  Sunday we will meet them at 8:30am and start again.  Hopefully we'll be close to done with the digging on Sunday, but I'll be there until the end.  I don't want them to think it's not important and if I leave, I think they'll think I don't care.

Okay, today was a closer call than usual.  There was a rocket that landed a few hundred meters from our office, but it was a dud.  That could've hurt my ears at that distance.  Luckily the Taliban's QC work is horrible.  I think it's hilarious that the rocket attack happened in early afternoon, since today is Thursday and they only work half a day.  They usually happened after the sun goes down.

Now about my ideas of building esprit de corps.  I talked to the Afghan Colonel about doing PT with the soldiers and he said they are too busy...it's not true, but I'll fight that battle a little at a time.  I found an Afghan Major that goes running at 5:30am, so I will join him.  I'm hoping the others will see or hear that the Americans are running with him and it will cause others to want to do it.  I need to work out anyway, so there's no loss.

The next part of the plan for today was the quarterly awards program.  The Colonel agreed that the quarterly award program would be great and we are implementing immediately.  We already have the first group of award winners for the first 3 months of their year.  I'm now working on photos to hang on the wall, certificates to present in front of everyone, an incentive ride on an Afghan Army Air Corps helicopter and a day off for them...he agreed to all the rewards.  Of course, I'm going to have to do the leg work at first on the helicopter piece, but the rest is too easy.

Here's a pic of the Colonel at the work site this morning.

These are the guys working pretty hard.

The Colonel and Major are making sure the holes are straight.

The guys needed to move a conex out of the way, so they grabbed the piece of equipment not meant to do the job because they don't have something that will move it.  It worked though.

Here's a guy on a Humvee with his ammo strung around his neck like Rambo.  He posed for the picture when he saw my camera.  Unfortunately, I had to take it through the window.  My window stopped working.

     

Here you can see the wind picked up for the afternoon.

Afghan Teamwork Day :)

Today I planned to have the Afghans setup concertina wire along a boundary.  I told them we had some personnel that would show them how to install it, so they could install the majority of it on their own.  I'm sure some of them know how to do it, but they agreed.  We met this morning and it was a larger turn out than expected, which was good.  We had four officers and approx six enlisted...even the Colonel was out there moving equipment around.  I had high hopes things would go smoothly and that we'd accomplish something together.  First, the Afghans didn't have any pick axes to dig with, but did have a shovel and some type of axe.  My personnel brought one small pick axe, since we were expecting the Afghans to provide the equipment we agreed upon yesterday.  Anyway, we had one person digging the hole with the pick axe...the ground is harder than any ground I've seen before.  It took nearly two hours to dig two 10 inch holes.  While the digging was going on, two other Afghans jumped to action by getting two forklifts to help move equipment and trash out of the way.  I was impressed that everything was going well, then the big forklift broke down and that slowed the momentum of progress.  One by one, personnel started disappearing.  I spoke with the Lt Col and he told me they would bring pick axes from home and we'd start again tomorrow at 8:30am.  I'm hoping the momentum will continue.  We'll see when I show up tomorrow.

Here's what I'm observing so far:  in general, the Afghan National Army does not have any cohesion or camaraderie and they are not filled with pride to wear the uniform. The officers don't trust their lower officers or their enlisted.  It's just a job, plain and simple.  There is no reward for working hard or doing a job well that I can see.  There is no national unity amongst the National Army.

My Plan through the Afghan Colonel (don't laugh): 1) institute a PT program, where they can become a team and the Americans can workout with them, 2) setup contests to see who can drive the forklift through a maze of cones the best...winner gets a day off and a certificate presented in front of everyone, 3) develop a test on their supply system and the personnel that score above a certain score (don't know yet) would get a day off and maybe 2 or 3 days depending on how they do (literacy could be a factor here), 4) create an NCO (enlisted) of the quarter, Senior NCO (enlisted) of the quarter, company grade officer of the quarter to promote achievement with days off for a reward, a certificate, and their name on a big board showing their photo as quarterly winner, 5) challenge other units on base to some type of sporting event, probably cricket, since that's what they like; hoping this will build teamwork and trust.

I don't see them doing well in their job unless they are proud to be doing what they do and are confident in their ability.  I'm hoping this will help build esprit de corps...it's badly needed.

Here's one of the holes being dug.  You can see the pick axe is not really the right type, so hopefully tomorrow will go better.  They were using a fork lift to remove the trash in the background...not really the right tool for the job, but Afghans are not usually too worried about the right tool...they like to just do it with what they have readily available.

These are the mechanics trying to fix the forklift after it broke.  They did get it running well after about 30 minutes.

Here's a guard watching as these guys work.  I'm thinking he should be looking out towards the enemy...silly me...digging a hole is much more exciting.