On Tuesday we received the proper licensing for the hard cars. I was, therefor, able to go the the Ministry of Counter Narcotics and observe a meeting there (on the left, you see me ready to go to the meeting). I first put on my body armor (the battle helmet was not required) and proceeded to the hard car. I received a briefing from the head of our security element, a former soldier in the British Army, about what to do if we came under attack or encountered an improvised explosive device (IED). The basic instructions are to remain low in the armoured vehicle while the guards repel the attack, wait for the other armoured car to extract me if mine is disabled, and move within the phalanx of the guards if it becomes necessary to go to cover away from the vehicles. The Chief IA and I were then driven to the meeting spot in a two car convoy with four armed guards headed by the Brit. I felt like a Sultan, though it escapes me as to why I am not issued a weapon.
The meeting was like all government meetings. Some useful information and a lot of bogging down about things that would seem fairly easy to deal with. This meeting flailed around for fifty minutes about who, and under what criteria, would pay for tractors that are destroyed or damaged while engaging in poppy eradication (they sort of plow up the poppy fields with a cultivator on the back of a tractor). Anyway, the people with tractors want compensation if they get torn up or blown up, and the funding folks don't want a lot of junky tractors declared total losses in the poppy fields and compensated at new tractor prices.
The next day, I attended the closing ceremony for a week of counter narcotic public information training that had been provided by the Colombo Plan folks from Siri Lanka. There were some speeches and they presented graduation certificates to about 150 student, including ten or twelve mullahs who can now go back to their provinces and make convincing arguments against the use and manufacture of drugs.
Thursday I visited the local variety store and found a pleasant surprise. There was a very good stock of western snacks, toiletries, and other convenience items. I saw several things, including the 2 in 1 shampoo I prefer, like a decent non-anti perspirant deodorant, Planters peanuts, and Grape Nuts cereal, that I can not even find in Thailand. It seems incongruous, somehow, to put on body armour, drive in an armoured car with body guards through crowded potholed muddy streets replete with cars, guards, soldiers, humvees, pedestrians, push carts, donkey carts, wheelbarrows, beggars, etc. to a large store that has more Western convenience items than can be found in on of the best developed of the emerging countries. By the way, the low fat Coffemate was from Thailand and had to Thai writing on it just like in Bangkok.
I have finished my familiarization here in Kabul. Tomorrow (Saturday) I'm off to Jalalbad on a strange looking Russian helicopter.
The meeting was like all government meetings. Some useful information and a lot of bogging down about things that would seem fairly easy to deal with. This meeting flailed around for fifty minutes about who, and under what criteria, would pay for tractors that are destroyed or damaged while engaging in poppy eradication (they sort of plow up the poppy fields with a cultivator on the back of a tractor). Anyway, the people with tractors want compensation if they get torn up or blown up, and the funding folks don't want a lot of junky tractors declared total losses in the poppy fields and compensated at new tractor prices.
The next day, I attended the closing ceremony for a week of counter narcotic public information training that had been provided by the Colombo Plan folks from Siri Lanka. There were some speeches and they presented graduation certificates to about 150 student, including ten or twelve mullahs who can now go back to their provinces and make convincing arguments against the use and manufacture of drugs.
Thursday I visited the local variety store and found a pleasant surprise. There was a very good stock of western snacks, toiletries, and other convenience items. I saw several things, including the 2 in 1 shampoo I prefer, like a decent non-anti perspirant deodorant, Planters peanuts, and Grape Nuts cereal, that I can not even find in Thailand. It seems incongruous, somehow, to put on body armour, drive in an armoured car with body guards through crowded potholed muddy streets replete with cars, guards, soldiers, humvees, pedestrians, push carts, donkey carts, wheelbarrows, beggars, etc. to a large store that has more Western convenience items than can be found in on of the best developed of the emerging countries. By the way, the low fat Coffemate was from Thailand and had to Thai writing on it just like in Bangkok.
I have finished my familiarization here in Kabul. Tomorrow (Saturday) I'm off to Jalalbad on a strange looking Russian helicopter.
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