Jalalabad -- lessons learned

The picture in the heading is of a couple kids helping with the opium harvest. They score the poppy pods with a sharp implement and the poppy begins oozing opium – you can see it as a dark streak on the pod parallel to the stem. They come back later (as in the picture) and scrape it off with another tool – as the older child is doing. The dark stuff on the pods is opium as is the glob on the scraping tool.


Saturday and Sunday were uneventful. We went to Jalalabad Air Force Base (“JAF”)to work out at their Gym and eat at their cafeteria.

JAF is a huge installation that provides aviation services for this part of Afghanistan. Army helicopter of all descriptions are the aircraft most evident, but one also sees C-130s, King Air 200s, and Predator drones fairly frequently. I have seen no fighter aircraft. Down the road a mile or so is the Provincial Redevelopment Team (PRT). It, too, is a US military installation, but it is focused primarily on projects that advance the development of the province e.g., bridges, roads, irrigation, etc. The PRT also does counter narcotics public affairs ( PA) projects and provides PA materials, such as posters, balloons, tee shirts, etc., to CNAT for distribution. We use them in conjunction with the volleyball tournaments, football (soccer to us) matches, etc. The procedure is to stop all traffic while vehicles enter and leave these bases. This creates a large traffic problem. There is plenty of room to build a kind of ramp system to take vehicles off the road and feed them into the base gates, but this has not happened. The traffic just piles up day after day. Maybe someone should propose it as a AID project. I would certainly help facilitate commerce.

From the inside of a Land Cruiser, the town of Jalalabad is a great deal like Kabul in appearance, but there is much less traffic. Where there are spaces for sidewalks, there is mostly dirt. There are many pedestrians in the street along with the push carts, donkey carts, etc. Both Kabul and Jalalabad have far fewer motorcycles than I expected. While they are very plentiful in Thailand and even more so in Viet Nam, they are somewhat rare here. It seems to me that there are more bicycles in the streets than motorcycles. Only the main roads are paved. There is dust everywhere. Even where there is concrete or asphalt (rare except for road surface), it is covered with dust. The filling stations have gas pumps sticking up from dirt surfaces. When patrons show up for tea, the shopkeeper sweeps a spot on the concrete, or sweeps the dust from the hard packed dirt, for the customers to sit on.

This Jalalabad CNAT team is regarded as one of the most effective in the system. In addition to the training I am recieving from the resident IA I am, therefore, interviewing the CNAT team members, where possible, to try to ascertain what they think makes their team successful and how the IA’s can best contribute to the effort. These are some of the things I think they are trying to educate me about:

1. CULTURE Taylor your messages and project composition to the local situation. Be aware that Afghan culture is not Western culture. Here the beliefs and attitudes may differ markedly from valley to valley, even village to village, but they will all differ from those of a Westerner. Where education is highest, is where attitudes will be most flexible, but everywhere there will be some deep-rooted attitudes that must be taken into account. For example, Democracy in Afghanistan is often regarded as a system that encourages promiscuity – for better or worse that fact is very important. Further, it is seen as a system that gives as much weight to the opinion (and vote) of a degenerate, imbecile, or criminal as it does to a respected elder. The more educated the local people are, the more they will be willing to examine other characteristics, but they will also have a bit of that attitude. Maybe Democracy can not function properly until education is quite high. Meanwhile, plan your messages and projects within what is possible.

By the way, in the national election last fall, there were about 1.2 million persons who had voting cards – only 200,000 votes were cast. (I have not checked these figures)

2. LOCAL LEADERS The two most important persons in a community are the Mahlech (headman) and the Olemar/Moulah (religious leader). Try to make them a part of your efforts. The Mahleck position is usually familial – belongs to a prominent family. It would be very unusually for the Mahleck to be replace by a person from another family.

3. SURVEYS Periodically survey the communities and the districts for the purpose of determining what project and needed (and feasible). These surveys should be the basis for the formation of future plans – the development of project possibilities. Share the findings with other organizations (both governmental and NGO) so as to steer their efforts into productive channels and so as to get funding for deserving projects. Areas to look at are irrigation, electricity, access to media (esp. radio), drinking water, education, agriculture (better methods, crops, etc), PI possibilities (sporting events, Moulah (religious leader) counter narcotic training, developing good relationships with the media (explain our mission and request their support).

4. PLANNING. Based on the information above, have a plan for each CNAT division. Insist that the plan be reviewed regularly (probably weekly) as to A. work status and B. future goals. Here, at the weekly staff meeting, each division briefs what occurred during the past week and what they want/expect to do the following week – all within the context of an overall plan.

5. OPERATIONS Make sure each division has a plan (anual and weekly, more or less), that they know what the plan (and the plan’s purpose is), that they know what to do to implement the plan and, as security permits, THAT THEY SHOW UP, GET OUT OF THE OFFICE, AND DO THE WORK. This last was emphasized several times.

6. IA PROJECT VISITATIONS The IA’s benefit by having an understanding of what is happening in the field. As part of, #1, however, before going assess the effect on the project. IA’s are required to travel in body armor and with armed guards. In some situations this could seem to send the messages: A. we do not trust you; B. we are looking for a fight; and C. we feel immensely self important.

7. LIAISON AND FEEDBACK The IA’s provide a very useful function to the CNAT team by being a communications and advocacy link to the foreign entities that provide funding and other assistance. The are also the best source of feedback from these entities. IA’s need to remember to ask for this feedback and to pass it on to the team. If the team identifies a project which is handed off to one of the assistance agencies, the team needs to know if it becomes abandoned and why.

I returned to Kabul Thursday. Will fly to Mazar I Sharif (in the North) early Saturday morning in a funny looking Rusian fixed wing airplane. After a few day of familiarization, I will fill in there for the resident IA who is going on leave.