I'm sitting on the ground in the terminal with my computer plugged into the wall. I look up and who should be passing by on the conveyor belt but Kelly, the emergency response preparedness consultant I just spent a week with in Pul-i-Khumri. I called out to him and he made his way back here after getting to the end of the belt. He's now gone on to make his connection to Dushanbe, where he'll be for a week before heading back to DC. I should head toward my gate in a minute, myself, but couldn't not put that up. Too funny.
Also, I made it out into Dubai today, on the metro. Saw the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall. For the time being, I'll just say, wow.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
food
Forgot to mention another highlight from yesterday: Eating lunch with a good chunk of the board of AKRSP. Apparently it's Izhar's (the director's) last week, so a bunch of board members converged on the Serena. I got invited because I'm attached to Karim N, who used to be, if not the head, then at least very high up in AKRSP. Anyway, most of the conversation was in Urdglish, so I couldn't really follow a lot of it, but I did get to chat for a while with the woman to my right, Samssa, who's the director of AKES Pakistan and also on the AKRSP board. She was very nice. The food was the normal buffet food: blah.
And then, tonight, I finally broke out of the mold and went to Al-Maghreb, the Lebanese-Moroccan place in the hotel. I am stuffed and content. I had an eggplant thing (not baba ganouj, something else) with fresh bread and harissa, a ridiculously good filet mignon, especially for the price, and a cup of decaf. Everything was good except the potato wedges that came with the steak. But the steak was wonderful. And it only cost 0.000000000016% of US federal tax revenue. Roughly.
Now I'm fading and it's time for sleep.
And then, tonight, I finally broke out of the mold and went to Al-Maghreb, the Lebanese-Moroccan place in the hotel. I am stuffed and content. I had an eggplant thing (not baba ganouj, something else) with fresh bread and harissa, a ridiculously good filet mignon, especially for the price, and a cup of decaf. Everything was good except the potato wedges that came with the steak. But the steak was wonderful. And it only cost 0.000000000016% of US federal tax revenue. Roughly.
Now I'm fading and it's time for sleep.
reallocation
It's been raining here! Last night there was another thunderstorm. The lightning was very dramatic, very Fantasia-esque, flashing out of sight below the buildings to the east. It looked like some enormous person was hard at work welding the earth back together. After five (count 'em, five) attempts that turned out blurry, I took a video. Stupid camera.
Yesterday, Karim and I met with Mark the OFDA guy (I'm all about epithets today). The meeting went well, we cleared up once and for all the blanking shelter issues. He took another trip up north to see our sites last month and was very pleased. I think he likes us as a semi-local partner. Did other stuff, too, but that was the highlight.
Spent all day today with Faisal and the AKPBS guys, Nadeem the AKF finance guy and Athar the AKRSP guy. Our mission: Figure out how to reallocate the various savings and shortfalls within the flood relief project budget. Mission accomplished. Now, the next mission: Get a grant modification from OFDA allowing us to do that. The total amount of shuffling around exceeds 10% of the overall project budget, so my next month or so is gonna be taken up trying to extract a formal modification out of OFDA. Next week's meeting with Margo, my contact at OFDA, will be interesting.
So a good day in all: I really like Faisal and Nadeem and the new AKPBS guys were also friendly. Faisal and I spent most of lunch talking about Islamic and Christian history and the religions' historical attitudes toward each other, among other things. Most enlightening. I learned that ancient-Greek-style man-boy love is commonplace in some Pashto areas. Apparently, there are places in western Pakistan where, in late afternoon, men parade around the market hand-in-hand with their young boys and compete to see whose boy is the most beautiful. This is apparently set to music or drumming of some kind. Faisal said he didn't believe it until he saw it with his own eyes. Mind blown straight out the back of my head.
I also didn't know that Muslims think that Adam and Eve were Muslim, as were Abraham and all the other biblical prophets. The prophets' message was to bring the Jews back to Islam, from which they'd strayed. Jesus is included in this lineage, which I guess I knew, but hadn't processed that to Muslims, Jesus wasn't just a prophet of God, he was a Muslim prophet. Muslims believe that Jesus never died -- not that he's divine, but he was taken to heaven by Michael and Gabriel and a guard was given his appearance and executed in his place. At the end time, he'll come back, wet and clean as though he'd just gotten out of a bath, and join a congregation at prayer. The imam (in the Quran the imam of all Jews; how this will work in contemporary Islam is unclear), recognizing him, will offer for Jesus to lead the congregation in his stead, but Jesus will refuse. Once the imam dies a natural death, Jesus will take over the congregation. Fascinating.
Wrapping things up with a few emails here and then I'll mosey back on over to the Serena for my last night in five-star-land. On the menu: a workout, a meal at one of the sit-down restaurants (NOT the buffet), and Jane Jacobs. Tomorrow I'll come into the office in the morning, just for an hour or so. My flight leaves at one so I'll probably head out of the hotel around 10:30 or 11. And then, airplanes.
Oh, I've resolved to do the tour bus thing in Dubai. Decided it'd be ridiculous to spend nine hours in the airport DURING THE DAY. Can't wait to see what that's like.
Yesterday, Karim and I met with Mark the OFDA guy (I'm all about epithets today). The meeting went well, we cleared up once and for all the blanking shelter issues. He took another trip up north to see our sites last month and was very pleased. I think he likes us as a semi-local partner. Did other stuff, too, but that was the highlight.
Spent all day today with Faisal and the AKPBS guys, Nadeem the AKF finance guy and Athar the AKRSP guy. Our mission: Figure out how to reallocate the various savings and shortfalls within the flood relief project budget. Mission accomplished. Now, the next mission: Get a grant modification from OFDA allowing us to do that. The total amount of shuffling around exceeds 10% of the overall project budget, so my next month or so is gonna be taken up trying to extract a formal modification out of OFDA. Next week's meeting with Margo, my contact at OFDA, will be interesting.
So a good day in all: I really like Faisal and Nadeem and the new AKPBS guys were also friendly. Faisal and I spent most of lunch talking about Islamic and Christian history and the religions' historical attitudes toward each other, among other things. Most enlightening. I learned that ancient-Greek-style man-boy love is commonplace in some Pashto areas. Apparently, there are places in western Pakistan where, in late afternoon, men parade around the market hand-in-hand with their young boys and compete to see whose boy is the most beautiful. This is apparently set to music or drumming of some kind. Faisal said he didn't believe it until he saw it with his own eyes. Mind blown straight out the back of my head.
I also didn't know that Muslims think that Adam and Eve were Muslim, as were Abraham and all the other biblical prophets. The prophets' message was to bring the Jews back to Islam, from which they'd strayed. Jesus is included in this lineage, which I guess I knew, but hadn't processed that to Muslims, Jesus wasn't just a prophet of God, he was a Muslim prophet. Muslims believe that Jesus never died -- not that he's divine, but he was taken to heaven by Michael and Gabriel and a guard was given his appearance and executed in his place. At the end time, he'll come back, wet and clean as though he'd just gotten out of a bath, and join a congregation at prayer. The imam (in the Quran the imam of all Jews; how this will work in contemporary Islam is unclear), recognizing him, will offer for Jesus to lead the congregation in his stead, but Jesus will refuse. Once the imam dies a natural death, Jesus will take over the congregation. Fascinating.
Wrapping things up with a few emails here and then I'll mosey back on over to the Serena for my last night in five-star-land. On the menu: a workout, a meal at one of the sit-down restaurants (NOT the buffet), and Jane Jacobs. Tomorrow I'll come into the office in the morning, just for an hour or so. My flight leaves at one so I'll probably head out of the hotel around 10:30 or 11. And then, airplanes.
Oh, I've resolved to do the tour bus thing in Dubai. Decided it'd be ridiculous to spend nine hours in the airport DURING THE DAY. Can't wait to see what that's like.
Monday, June 27, 2011
hat tip to andrew
My friend Andrew sent me an email with this quotation:
Good lord, I can't stop giggling over here. That's just too fucked up and twisted to wrap my mind around. Jesus.
EDIT: There is no way that's accurate. No way. Total direct spending on both wars is ~$170 billion. It's inconceivable that 12% of that would go just for A/C. But it's interesting that my automatic reaction was to believe it.
NPR: The amount the U.S. military spends annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan: $20.2 billion.
That’s more than NASA’s budget. It’s more than BP has paid so far for damage during the Gulf oil spill. It’s what the G-8 has pledged to help foster new democracies in Egypt and Tunisia.
Good lord, I can't stop giggling over here. That's just too fucked up and twisted to wrap my mind around. Jesus.
EDIT: There is no way that's accurate. No way. Total direct spending on both wars is ~$170 billion. It's inconceivable that 12% of that would go just for A/C. But it's interesting that my automatic reaction was to believe it.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
sweet lassi
My favorite Pakistani foodstuff, for sure, is sweet lassi.
Thought I was going to the office today because Afghanistan's weekend is Friday-Saturday and for some reason I remembered it being that way here, too. I spent 10 minutes with the beshotgunned guard of the Serena Business Complex, waiting for him to talk to the right person to figure out what the f I was doing there. Then I realized there was no one in the office and he realized that I hadn't understood that before. So instead I bopped around, worked out twice (jumping and lifting in the morning, light jogging core and stretching in the evening) and hung out by the now-open pool (next time I will remember my bathing suit).
Just had dinner in the buffet place. I'm not sure I'd ever sent food back before, but the guy at the pasta station made the exact opposite of what I asked for -- only olives instead of everything but olives. I repeated myself several times, pointed at the various ingredients. All the staff here speak English, although this guy obviously not well enough to understand an order. The fact that I was so irritated about it is kind of embarrassing. Ties into the whole discomfort I talked about the last time I was here with the staff-as-servants thing that I guess comes with that fifth star.
Thought I was going to the office today because Afghanistan's weekend is Friday-Saturday and for some reason I remembered it being that way here, too. I spent 10 minutes with the beshotgunned guard of the Serena Business Complex, waiting for him to talk to the right person to figure out what the f I was doing there. Then I realized there was no one in the office and he realized that I hadn't understood that before. So instead I bopped around, worked out twice (jumping and lifting in the morning, light jogging core and stretching in the evening) and hung out by the now-open pool (next time I will remember my bathing suit).
Just had dinner in the buffet place. I'm not sure I'd ever sent food back before, but the guy at the pasta station made the exact opposite of what I asked for -- only olives instead of everything but olives. I repeated myself several times, pointed at the various ingredients. All the staff here speak English, although this guy obviously not well enough to understand an order. The fact that I was so irritated about it is kind of embarrassing. Ties into the whole discomfort I talked about the last time I was here with the staff-as-servants thing that I guess comes with that fifth star.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
shave
Just got a hair cut and a real wet shave -- my first. I feel so manly and adult. Plus the haircut looks very sharp. And even in this five-star hotel, the whole thing plus tip cost $14.
coffee
Woke up at 5 AM and packed the rest of my stuff. Karimbaksh got there at 5:30, right on time and we drove to the airport. Good LORD is there a lot of security. They frisked us and checked in our carry-ons while were boarding the plane. What, you mean the three x-ray checks, metal detectors and various (3 or 4) pat-downs on the way to the plane weren't enough? Sheesh.
Flight was in a little turboprop. I was in the front row, all by myself, so I got to stretch out, which was nice. The whole thing took a bit more than an hour. There was no one at immigration so I sailed through, and because I wasn't declaring anything I didn't have to go through customs. Strong controls there, Pakistan. The driver was waiting for me and we sailed on to the hotel.
Hadn't eaten yet so as soon as I checked in and got my room, I went down to the sandwich place and got a spicy-beef-and-cheddar sandwich and a POT OF FRESHLY BREWED COFFEE.
Let me say that again:
A POT OF FRESHLY BREWED COFFEE.
Not quite as earth-shaking as the famous pot from my last first day at the Serena, but pretty damn delicious and on a totally different planet from god-damn should-be-illegal Nescafe.
The only other customers, if you could call them that, in the sandwich place were the guy I took to be the GM of the Serena, Peter Hill, and a couple of other hotel management types. I eavesdropped a bit: they were talking about all kinds of plans, for a new staff break room and whether there should be separate rooms for men and women -- evidently they were going to seek guidance from the staff on this, for a new restaurant, for renovations to the gym(s). Twas interesting. The older white guy, who I think was Hill, was wearing beautiful shoes.
Now it's just about noon and because it's Saturday and I haven't heard from Karim, I think I'm at loose ends for the rest of the day. Will definitely visit the gym later. For now, I'll enjoy the just-right temperature in the room.
Flight was in a little turboprop. I was in the front row, all by myself, so I got to stretch out, which was nice. The whole thing took a bit more than an hour. There was no one at immigration so I sailed through, and because I wasn't declaring anything I didn't have to go through customs. Strong controls there, Pakistan. The driver was waiting for me and we sailed on to the hotel.
Hadn't eaten yet so as soon as I checked in and got my room, I went down to the sandwich place and got a spicy-beef-and-cheddar sandwich and a POT OF FRESHLY BREWED COFFEE.
Let me say that again:
A POT OF FRESHLY BREWED COFFEE.
Not quite as earth-shaking as the famous pot from my last first day at the Serena, but pretty damn delicious and on a totally different planet from god-damn should-be-illegal Nescafe.
The only other customers, if you could call them that, in the sandwich place were the guy I took to be the GM of the Serena, Peter Hill, and a couple of other hotel management types. I eavesdropped a bit: they were talking about all kinds of plans, for a new staff break room and whether there should be separate rooms for men and women -- evidently they were going to seek guidance from the staff on this, for a new restaurant, for renovations to the gym(s). Twas interesting. The older white guy, who I think was Hill, was wearing beautiful shoes.
Now it's just about noon and because it's Saturday and I haven't heard from Karim, I think I'm at loose ends for the rest of the day. Will definitely visit the gym later. For now, I'll enjoy the just-right temperature in the room.
Friday, June 24, 2011
kabul serena
All other internet options having failed (well, guest house, Focus office, Serena lobby wifi), I'm at the Serena business center. Might grab some dinner here while I'm at it, especially if I can rope some people into joining me.
Today was very uneventful. Turned out Noor had a wedding to go to so no call with Tameeza. That plus difficulty getting online after the power went out around 10:30 AM meant low productivity. But that's okay. I got up around 8:30, stretched and did mobility stuff for an hour, then practiced doing handstands and did various jumping exercises for another hour. Watched a little TV, went and ate breakfast, watched some more TV, ate lunch and chatted with Christine and Shafiq (the formerly nameless taciturn fellow, who it turns out is not taciturn but actually pretty nice: he just invited me to poker night with some other Americans) and Hanif. Read some, watched some more dumb TV and some great TV (the original "The Italian Job," which I've not seen and will need to watch in full when I get home). Then got fed up with the lack of internet and began a three-hour-long odyssey to find some access.
So yeah, pretty boring day.
Anyway, I'm glad I did finally get online, if only to keep my head above water with work emails. Driver leaves for the airport at 5:30 tomorrow morning and then it'll be bye-bye Afghanistan for the near future.
Still no word on the heli, which is a bad sign. Oh well. Next time, Gilgit, next time.
Today was very uneventful. Turned out Noor had a wedding to go to so no call with Tameeza. That plus difficulty getting online after the power went out around 10:30 AM meant low productivity. But that's okay. I got up around 8:30, stretched and did mobility stuff for an hour, then practiced doing handstands and did various jumping exercises for another hour. Watched a little TV, went and ate breakfast, watched some more TV, ate lunch and chatted with Christine and Shafiq (the formerly nameless taciturn fellow, who it turns out is not taciturn but actually pretty nice: he just invited me to poker night with some other Americans) and Hanif. Read some, watched some more dumb TV and some great TV (the original "The Italian Job," which I've not seen and will need to watch in full when I get home). Then got fed up with the lack of internet and began a three-hour-long odyssey to find some access.
So yeah, pretty boring day.
Anyway, I'm glad I did finally get online, if only to keep my head above water with work emails. Driver leaves for the airport at 5:30 tomorrow morning and then it'll be bye-bye Afghanistan for the near future.
Still no word on the heli, which is a bad sign. Oh well. Next time, Gilgit, next time.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
a few photos
Just a little teaser. Most of my photos from this trip suck because, well, this camera sucks. I'm no great shakes as a photographer but by golly I'm better than the bulk of what I've taken here. Click to see bigger versions.
A guy washing his bus at a roadside stand
View from the AKF livestock training center where we had day 1 of the ERP workshop
Jamshid translates Kelly's presentation
A guy washing his bus at a roadside stand
View from the AKF livestock training center where we had day 1 of the ERP workshop
Jamshid translates Kelly's presentation
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
back in kabul
Yesterday morning at 8:40, I climbed into the Focus Hilux, driven by Akhtar. Here are my favorite Focus drivers, in order of preference:
Karimbaksh
Hakim
Haji Ahmad
Nabi
(Blank)
(Blank)
(Blank)
(Blank)
Akhtar.
The guy drove like a freaking pansy, I couldn't even count how many beat-up Corollas passed us or how many times we got stuck behind a truck doing 30 kph because he wouldn't pass. Then he kept asking if it was okay to get lunch, to which my thought was, No, we're already going to be late, plus there's no way in hell I'm eating from some roadside restaurant. My bowels have done quite well on this trip despite earlier warnings to the contrary and I had no desire to see that change. Finally, I just said okay. Turns out that meant a stop at a place where you sit down and they bring you food, not the carry-out I was expecting. This pissed me off. Then the guy who was sweeping up after people (eating took place on a raised concrete ledge covered by a long carpet, which was covered by a plastic tablecloth) kept trying to ask me what I liked to eat. I kept saying, Sure I like rice but I don't want to eat anything right now. The guy just kept asking and finally I snapped at him and he stopped. In case it's not obvious, I was not in a good mood.
Had I not been in a hurry to get back to Kabul and had we not already been running late, the drive would have been quite nice. And actually, all complaining aside, it was okay. The road, as I mentioned before, is very good by Afghan standards. We didn't have to wait at all to go through the Salang. The scenery is interesting on the Pul-i-Khumri side of the mountains and actually pretty on the Kabul side.
Of course, once we got to Kabul, the final strike against Akhtar: He got lost and couldn't find the office. Bah. Anyway, had to push my meeting at AKF back, which turned out to be fine. We got to the office around 3, instead of 1:30. Beth and I did some work on the M&E stuff, they brought me a pizza, which I surprisingly ate in its entirety, I went to AKF, I came back, I did some more work, I went back to the guesthouse, I went out for dinner and a beer with Beth and Noor at the Lebanese place, I went home, I fell asleep.
Salman Rushdie, in his Moth piece about going to the civil war in Nicaragua, says a wonderful thing. He describes how this particular woman was the most hated person in the country, despite the fact that she hadn't yet done the thing for which she most deserved to be hated. He says that proves that Nicaraguans have "a very elastic sense of time." Something about that turn of phrase delights me.
Now I'm back in the office, working on M&E stuff and catching up on emails. Tomorrow's the weekend I think Tameeza mentioned that she wanted to do brunch at the Serena as soon as she and Kelly get back from Pul-i-Khumri.
One last thing, very sad, which has been gnawing at me. Two days ago a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the governor's compound in Charikar, the capital of Parwan. I drove through Charikar yesterday and, actually, that's where we stopped for lunch. The suicide bomber was trying to kill the governor and some of his guards. Instead, he killed a little girl and a woman who were nearby. And himself, of course. People die violently all the time in this country. ISAF soldiers have killed plenty of civilians, mostly unintentionally but sometimes carelessly and sometimes, I'm sure, on purpose. Fuck anyone who does that. In particular, fuck the guy who, two days ago, decided that the best way he could fight for his cause was to kill a schoolgirl and a woman who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time in a po-dunk provincial capital. It almost goes without saying that none of the people the guy tried to kill actually died. There's nothing like proximity to an event to drive the point home that war fucking blows and that killing civilians blows most of all.
On that cheerful note, I should get back to work.
Karimbaksh
Hakim
Haji Ahmad
Nabi
(Blank)
(Blank)
(Blank)
(Blank)
Akhtar.
The guy drove like a freaking pansy, I couldn't even count how many beat-up Corollas passed us or how many times we got stuck behind a truck doing 30 kph because he wouldn't pass. Then he kept asking if it was okay to get lunch, to which my thought was, No, we're already going to be late, plus there's no way in hell I'm eating from some roadside restaurant. My bowels have done quite well on this trip despite earlier warnings to the contrary and I had no desire to see that change. Finally, I just said okay. Turns out that meant a stop at a place where you sit down and they bring you food, not the carry-out I was expecting. This pissed me off. Then the guy who was sweeping up after people (eating took place on a raised concrete ledge covered by a long carpet, which was covered by a plastic tablecloth) kept trying to ask me what I liked to eat. I kept saying, Sure I like rice but I don't want to eat anything right now. The guy just kept asking and finally I snapped at him and he stopped. In case it's not obvious, I was not in a good mood.
Had I not been in a hurry to get back to Kabul and had we not already been running late, the drive would have been quite nice. And actually, all complaining aside, it was okay. The road, as I mentioned before, is very good by Afghan standards. We didn't have to wait at all to go through the Salang. The scenery is interesting on the Pul-i-Khumri side of the mountains and actually pretty on the Kabul side.
Of course, once we got to Kabul, the final strike against Akhtar: He got lost and couldn't find the office. Bah. Anyway, had to push my meeting at AKF back, which turned out to be fine. We got to the office around 3, instead of 1:30. Beth and I did some work on the M&E stuff, they brought me a pizza, which I surprisingly ate in its entirety, I went to AKF, I came back, I did some more work, I went back to the guesthouse, I went out for dinner and a beer with Beth and Noor at the Lebanese place, I went home, I fell asleep.
Salman Rushdie, in his Moth piece about going to the civil war in Nicaragua, says a wonderful thing. He describes how this particular woman was the most hated person in the country, despite the fact that she hadn't yet done the thing for which she most deserved to be hated. He says that proves that Nicaraguans have "a very elastic sense of time." Something about that turn of phrase delights me.
Now I'm back in the office, working on M&E stuff and catching up on emails. Tomorrow's the weekend I think Tameeza mentioned that she wanted to do brunch at the Serena as soon as she and Kelly get back from Pul-i-Khumri.
One last thing, very sad, which has been gnawing at me. Two days ago a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the governor's compound in Charikar, the capital of Parwan. I drove through Charikar yesterday and, actually, that's where we stopped for lunch. The suicide bomber was trying to kill the governor and some of his guards. Instead, he killed a little girl and a woman who were nearby. And himself, of course. People die violently all the time in this country. ISAF soldiers have killed plenty of civilians, mostly unintentionally but sometimes carelessly and sometimes, I'm sure, on purpose. Fuck anyone who does that. In particular, fuck the guy who, two days ago, decided that the best way he could fight for his cause was to kill a schoolgirl and a woman who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time in a po-dunk provincial capital. It almost goes without saying that none of the people the guy tried to kill actually died. There's nothing like proximity to an event to drive the point home that war fucking blows and that killing civilians blows most of all.
On that cheerful note, I should get back to work.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
computer about to die
And I'm really enjoying sitting outside, so this'll be quick. It's lovely outside right now: warm, light breeze, crickets chirping away, the occasional cell phone ring from one of the guards and outburst of Hindi from the TV in the room behind me. The concertina wire glows softly in the lamplight.
Today was very full. This morning we kicked off the workshop with great success. A gentleman recited some verses from the Quran to get everything started. The provincial Director of Finance came to get us started, lend credibility to the proceedings, thank us for what we're doing and offer his support. Kohzad, the provincial head ANDMA, introduced everything and also lent his support. There were a camera crew and reporter from the local news!
Anyway, not gonna bore you with too many details but long story short, Kelly and Jamshid, then Ali seemed to be doing a good job keeping everyone interested in the introduction and then facilitating a lively discussion. Kelly's obviously done this many times. Tameeza and I left at lunchtime to go back to the office. We spent the afternoon going over the work plan and budget, which was a bit tedious but absolutely had to be done while I'm here. I think we both felt better after finishing. We also just chatted for some time. She's very easy to get along with, although I think she intimidates the people who work for her a bit. We see eye to eye on a lot of things about the Network but bring different perspectives on it, so we were both surprising each other.
Came back to the guest house and did some more work, now I'm doing this. And now I'm being told it's dinner time, right as the muezzin starts calling.
Today was very full. This morning we kicked off the workshop with great success. A gentleman recited some verses from the Quran to get everything started. The provincial Director of Finance came to get us started, lend credibility to the proceedings, thank us for what we're doing and offer his support. Kohzad, the provincial head ANDMA, introduced everything and also lent his support. There were a camera crew and reporter from the local news!
Anyway, not gonna bore you with too many details but long story short, Kelly and Jamshid, then Ali seemed to be doing a good job keeping everyone interested in the introduction and then facilitating a lively discussion. Kelly's obviously done this many times. Tameeza and I left at lunchtime to go back to the office. We spent the afternoon going over the work plan and budget, which was a bit tedious but absolutely had to be done while I'm here. I think we both felt better after finishing. We also just chatted for some time. She's very easy to get along with, although I think she intimidates the people who work for her a bit. We see eye to eye on a lot of things about the Network but bring different perspectives on it, so we were both surprising each other.
Came back to the guest house and did some more work, now I'm doing this. And now I'm being told it's dinner time, right as the muezzin starts calling.
Monday, June 20, 2011
dunning-kruger
I mentioned the Dunning-Kruger effect a few posts ago in the context of my ongoing professional self-worth issue but it's something I keep coming back to when thinking about myself and other people. I first heard about it on Lyle McDonald's forum (not the regular one, the other one), probably when someone was hating on some really idiotic stuff that Gary Taubes or Loren Cordain or someone like that had written.
The idea is that incompetent people are likely to make poor decisions or draw incorrect conclusions, but their own incompetence deprives them of the ability to be aware that they've reached the wrong conclusion or made the wrong decision. Therefore, they are likely to overestimate their own ability and knowledge. The flip side is that competent people are likely to make good decisions or draw correct conclusions, but their competence leads them to believe (falsely) that all others are equally or more competent. To quote Wikipedia quoting Dunning and Kruger, "The miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others."
Now, this is obviously an appealing concept to me in the context of my professional life, for obvious reasons. It's nice to think that my constant second-guessing and lack of self-confidence arise not from actual incompetence but rather from the belief that everyone around me knows better and that I am constantly at risk of exposing myself. In reality, when I think about it, my actual competence is probably about average -- by definition, most people are average and I don't see any reason why I should think I'm otherwise in this context. Dunning and Kruger studied discrete skills, in logic, grammar and humor, so maybe the effect doesn't apply neatly to more complex things like professional performance. But it's funny to think that maybe I'm actually competent in the areas where I think I'm weak and actually incompetent in the areas where I think I'm strong. Except verbal standardized testing. That I know I'm pretty good at.
I wonder, too, what relationship there is between self-evaluation of competence at a particular skill or skills and overall "self-confidence" as perceived by others. Take this guy Salim, who I talked about last week. In the short time I spent with him, I found him to be clearly convinced of the value of his work and of himself, a dominant personality often oblivious to social context (what I trying to say is that when he had a question, he would barge into the room and just start talking, regardless of whether the people in the room were already in the midst of something else), and very sociable and comfortable in groups and in small talk. How does he think of himself? What is his self-perception like? I've got no idea but I would love to know.
Apparently Dunning-Kruger isn't as applicable to Europeans or East Asians -- true to Dunning and Kruger's environment, the effect was tested on undergraduate psychology students at Cornell. But I'm a lot like those students, presumably, so it's still relevant to me. Part of the beauty of being in my 20's and having gotten a BA: a lot academic research actually applies to me because I'm the population they test. Hell, I participated in a lot of psych and econ research at Michigan. Makes things interesting from an omphaloskeptic point of view.
Oh, and I found out what the Ghorband unrest means for me: nothing. All that stuff was going on in a different part of the province. Whew!
The idea is that incompetent people are likely to make poor decisions or draw incorrect conclusions, but their own incompetence deprives them of the ability to be aware that they've reached the wrong conclusion or made the wrong decision. Therefore, they are likely to overestimate their own ability and knowledge. The flip side is that competent people are likely to make good decisions or draw correct conclusions, but their competence leads them to believe (falsely) that all others are equally or more competent. To quote Wikipedia quoting Dunning and Kruger, "The miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others."
Now, this is obviously an appealing concept to me in the context of my professional life, for obvious reasons. It's nice to think that my constant second-guessing and lack of self-confidence arise not from actual incompetence but rather from the belief that everyone around me knows better and that I am constantly at risk of exposing myself. In reality, when I think about it, my actual competence is probably about average -- by definition, most people are average and I don't see any reason why I should think I'm otherwise in this context. Dunning and Kruger studied discrete skills, in logic, grammar and humor, so maybe the effect doesn't apply neatly to more complex things like professional performance. But it's funny to think that maybe I'm actually competent in the areas where I think I'm weak and actually incompetent in the areas where I think I'm strong. Except verbal standardized testing. That I know I'm pretty good at.
I wonder, too, what relationship there is between self-evaluation of competence at a particular skill or skills and overall "self-confidence" as perceived by others. Take this guy Salim, who I talked about last week. In the short time I spent with him, I found him to be clearly convinced of the value of his work and of himself, a dominant personality often oblivious to social context (what I trying to say is that when he had a question, he would barge into the room and just start talking, regardless of whether the people in the room were already in the midst of something else), and very sociable and comfortable in groups and in small talk. How does he think of himself? What is his self-perception like? I've got no idea but I would love to know.
Apparently Dunning-Kruger isn't as applicable to Europeans or East Asians -- true to Dunning and Kruger's environment, the effect was tested on undergraduate psychology students at Cornell. But I'm a lot like those students, presumably, so it's still relevant to me. Part of the beauty of being in my 20's and having gotten a BA: a lot academic research actually applies to me because I'm the population they test. Hell, I participated in a lot of psych and econ research at Michigan. Makes things interesting from an omphaloskeptic point of view.
Oh, and I found out what the Ghorband unrest means for me: nothing. All that stuff was going on in a different part of the province. Whew!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
pabitra
...is my Indian colleague's name. And now, a post I wrote earlier today:
On the way from Kabul to Baghlan, you drive through Parwan province. At one point, the road crosses over the Ghorband River, which bisects Ghorband district in the western part of the province before merging with the Panjshir on their way to Kabul. This morning we got an email from AKDN security saying that, due to some AOG (armed opposition group) activity in the Ghorband Valley, all AKDN staff are restricted from moving around on the roads in the area until further notice. No attacks in the province in a couple of weeks, but apparently the AOGs are just moving around freely. Nobody likes that except them.
Now, I don't have any idea what that means for me, because the Ghorband Valley is mostly west of the Kabul-to-Pul-i-Khumri road. Also, the report arrived three days late and I'm not leaving until Wednesday, so it's very possible that the situation will be completely different by the time I need to head back through there. Some folks, including Beth, Yousef and Noor N (the latter two were here to meet with Tameeza about the no-cost extension we'll propose to OFDA), left just now. So I guess everything is alright.
Beth bought everyone some pastries before she left, which was very sweet. I had a piece of a dry pound-cake-type thing and a puff pastry with lemon sugar icing in the middle and sesame seeds on top. Not bad and now, for the first time in days, I’m not craving Coke.
In other news, the internet is down again. Nasim the AKF IT guy came by and apparently Focus’s ISP is down. Seems the issue is that Focus has a shitty ISP and very little bandwidth, because they don’t want to pay for better service. At least, they haven’t wanted to. They’re finally looking into upgrading. Hopefully it’ll get resolved soon -- i.e. they’ll upgrade their damn service -- and they can go about doing work without having to deal with stupid little issues like the ISP crashing. For what it’s worth, Nasim seems to know what he’s about and his English is quite good, probably better than most or maybe all of the staff here.
Having no internet sucks because it really limits what I can get done, but at least it’s the weekend so I won’t reconnect to find that 84 billion unread emails have invaded my inbox.
In the meantime, I’ve been fiddling with the information/data flow chart I made the other day, per a suggestion from Tameeza to include the stockpiles. Kind of a brain fart that I forgot about them earlier. It’s still a work in progress and is of course not of very much use on its own. Also, I started trying to write up parts of an MIS manual, basically just cribbing from the manual developed for another project. Not a good way of going about things but A) I can’t do anything else because everyone’s gone for meetings and, as I said, no intertubes; and B) it’s probably better than nothing and when, someday, they do hire an M&E person it will be a starting place.
Tameeza, Ali and Jamshed went to meet with the provincial head of ANDMA just now, to try to make sure he’s really on board for this workshop. Although I have nothing personally or professionally riding on it, I do want the workshop to actually be helpful and useful. [REDACTED] I think it will be.
Also, I managed to talk with Claire last night and the connection via Skype was brilliant! We could see each other, movement was a bit delayed but we had nearly an hour with only the slightest hint of choppy reception. Talking to (and seeing) her was lovely, obviously. I vented a bit and dominated the first part of the conversation, then she gave me her update. Her last day at work was on Friday and she leaves for New Orleans, with her family, in a matter of hours, so it was a good time to catch up. Gonna try to call home in a few hours, when I get back to the guest house, so I can talk with Dad on Father’s Day! Dad, if for some reason we don’t connect:
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY FROM PUL-I-KHUMRI!
Two-point-five days to go.
On the way from Kabul to Baghlan, you drive through Parwan province. At one point, the road crosses over the Ghorband River, which bisects Ghorband district in the western part of the province before merging with the Panjshir on their way to Kabul. This morning we got an email from AKDN security saying that, due to some AOG (armed opposition group) activity in the Ghorband Valley, all AKDN staff are restricted from moving around on the roads in the area until further notice. No attacks in the province in a couple of weeks, but apparently the AOGs are just moving around freely. Nobody likes that except them.
Now, I don't have any idea what that means for me, because the Ghorband Valley is mostly west of the Kabul-to-Pul-i-Khumri road. Also, the report arrived three days late and I'm not leaving until Wednesday, so it's very possible that the situation will be completely different by the time I need to head back through there. Some folks, including Beth, Yousef and Noor N (the latter two were here to meet with Tameeza about the no-cost extension we'll propose to OFDA), left just now. So I guess everything is alright.
Beth bought everyone some pastries before she left, which was very sweet. I had a piece of a dry pound-cake-type thing and a puff pastry with lemon sugar icing in the middle and sesame seeds on top. Not bad and now, for the first time in days, I’m not craving Coke.
In other news, the internet is down again. Nasim the AKF IT guy came by and apparently Focus’s ISP is down. Seems the issue is that Focus has a shitty ISP and very little bandwidth, because they don’t want to pay for better service. At least, they haven’t wanted to. They’re finally looking into upgrading. Hopefully it’ll get resolved soon -- i.e. they’ll upgrade their damn service -- and they can go about doing work without having to deal with stupid little issues like the ISP crashing. For what it’s worth, Nasim seems to know what he’s about and his English is quite good, probably better than most or maybe all of the staff here.
Having no internet sucks because it really limits what I can get done, but at least it’s the weekend so I won’t reconnect to find that 84 billion unread emails have invaded my inbox.
In the meantime, I’ve been fiddling with the information/data flow chart I made the other day, per a suggestion from Tameeza to include the stockpiles. Kind of a brain fart that I forgot about them earlier. It’s still a work in progress and is of course not of very much use on its own. Also, I started trying to write up parts of an MIS manual, basically just cribbing from the manual developed for another project. Not a good way of going about things but A) I can’t do anything else because everyone’s gone for meetings and, as I said, no intertubes; and B) it’s probably better than nothing and when, someday, they do hire an M&E person it will be a starting place.
Tameeza, Ali and Jamshed went to meet with the provincial head of ANDMA just now, to try to make sure he’s really on board for this workshop. Although I have nothing personally or professionally riding on it, I do want the workshop to actually be helpful and useful. [REDACTED] I think it will be.
Also, I managed to talk with Claire last night and the connection via Skype was brilliant! We could see each other, movement was a bit delayed but we had nearly an hour with only the slightest hint of choppy reception. Talking to (and seeing) her was lovely, obviously. I vented a bit and dominated the first part of the conversation, then she gave me her update. Her last day at work was on Friday and she leaves for New Orleans, with her family, in a matter of hours, so it was a good time to catch up. Gonna try to call home in a few hours, when I get back to the guest house, so I can talk with Dad on Father’s Day! Dad, if for some reason we don’t connect:
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY FROM PUL-I-KHUMRI!
Two-point-five days to go.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
indian soaps
We're going on three hours now of my Indian colleague watching a soap opera about a guy from Rajasthan who had a child marriage, then went off to the city to go to school, became a doctor, fell in love with another doctor, married her, then came back to his hometown to find that his family still expected him to be married to the original bride. He's actually said to me at several points that he wishes it would end. But it's a soap opera. It doesn't end. This is very funny to me, the guy is so hooked. As I mentioned previously, the show is easy for me to ignore because it's in Hindi. I can understand "acha" and "teeke," which mean, roughly, "got it" and "okay." I think.
Anyway, this morning Kelly, Beth and I went into the office. Beth had some work to do with Khan Mohammed (as did I, although less) and Kelly with Jamshed. We came back at lunchtime, though, because it's still a weekend day and the guys here have been working Saturdays for a few weeks in a row now. Got a bit more work done this afternoon after yet another silly connection issue -- they changed my username and password for the network but forgot to tell me. Ha! Nothing to do but laugh about it.
Not much else to report, I'm afraid. Took some video on our commute and a couple of photos. Had a conversation with my Indian colleague (I should just call him MIC until I get his actual name again) about the odd disconnect between the fact that:
Sexism in both cases, of course, but the Afghan version seems much worse. How do people hold both of those in their heads at once? Enjoying Bollywood and Indian music videos while still believing that women shouldn't leave the house with anything but their hands showing? Does not compute.
Tomorrow, we've got a 7 AM start to go over the workshop plan because Tameeza has a meeting from 8 until at least 11. At least I've been waking up early on my own.
Glad I wasn't in Kabul today, just found out they had a security lockdown because of a suicide attack on a police station. Nine people killed. Scary.
Blah, now I'm distracted, gonna stop writing. More later, I think.
Anyway, this morning Kelly, Beth and I went into the office. Beth had some work to do with Khan Mohammed (as did I, although less) and Kelly with Jamshed. We came back at lunchtime, though, because it's still a weekend day and the guys here have been working Saturdays for a few weeks in a row now. Got a bit more work done this afternoon after yet another silly connection issue -- they changed my username and password for the network but forgot to tell me. Ha! Nothing to do but laugh about it.
Not much else to report, I'm afraid. Took some video on our commute and a couple of photos. Had a conversation with my Indian colleague (I should just call him MIC until I get his actual name again) about the odd disconnect between the fact that:
1. Many women in Baghlan still typically wear burqas or stay at home during the day, and
2. Many Afghan families have satellite TV and can (and, I assume, do) watch Indian shows and movies, in which women are often wearing very little clothing.
Sexism in both cases, of course, but the Afghan version seems much worse. How do people hold both of those in their heads at once? Enjoying Bollywood and Indian music videos while still believing that women shouldn't leave the house with anything but their hands showing? Does not compute.
Tomorrow, we've got a 7 AM start to go over the workshop plan because Tameeza has a meeting from 8 until at least 11. At least I've been waking up early on my own.
Glad I wasn't in Kabul today, just found out they had a security lockdown because of a suicide attack on a police station. Nine people killed. Scary.
Blah, now I'm distracted, gonna stop writing. More later, I think.
Friday, June 17, 2011
gang fight, gang fight
The gang is down to fight. Have I brought this chicken for us to eat?
Gang fight, gang fight, the gang is down to fight. Have I brought this chicken for us to thaw?
Odd sort of day today. On Fridays, the power for the whole city shuts down around 5 AM and stays that way until noonish, apparently so that they can clean the dam in the middle of town. We have a generator here so the fans and lights still worked but the internet connection relies on the grid. So this morning I finished Morning and Evening Talk and also read the few prose poems after the end of Illuminations, then re-read the intro to the latter. I also did some work, drafting up an information/data management flow-chart for CBDRR.
After lunch, which was a strictly expat affair -- I guess the Afghans all go out and do stuff on Fridays -- Beth and I met for a couple of hours about the M&E tools she's been developing with the staff, the log frame overhaul they did and my draft flow chart. Very interesting and productive. She's been very busy. I had a brief chat with Claire, who I woke from her final pre-work in-car nap a little after 7 AM. It was great to talk but the connection ended up getting a bit choppy. Still, way better than last year.
After that did several more hours of work, mostly emails and a couple of Skype chats, and a couple more brief tete-a-tetes with Beth about the M&E stuff, just answering questions she had. Around 3 I got a hankering for some Coke and asked, through another guest here who's Afghan but grew up in Pakistan, for one of the staff to get some. He brought back a couple of liters of Afghan knock-off Coke, which tastes as much like Diet Coke as any sugary soda I've ever had. Oh well. Still refreshing. Tameeza and I had a few rounds of (real) Coke yesterday during our rather intense talk about
Now it's 8:15 and I've still got a bit more work to do, including an update for Jo on how things have gone since Monday. I'll also try to put this flow chart into a slightly more presentable form. It's currently pen on notebook paper with some nice scribbles here and there. A vast improvement over my first draft, though!
I've been working all afternoon in the TV room. Most of the day no one else has been in here (except Beth), but a few times people have cycled in and watched TV and/or tried to chat. I don't mind the TV because it's all in Hindi or Urdu or Dari and I can't understand it, it just raises the background noise level. People trying to chat is a little more irritating and I'm afraid I was a bit short with my Indian colleague, whose name I forget. I feel a bit bad about that but, then again, I was obviously concentrating and he jumped in asking about my family... not a good time, man. He seems really nice, though. We talked for a while last night about a bunch of random stuff, including golf and the relative talents of George Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Also, on the name-forgetting, I think I'm just bad at remembering people's names. Doesn't help that with accents and people speaking softly, I often can't hear their name the first two times they say it.
Alright, guess that's enough for now. Perhaps I will have more-interesting things to report tomorrow or later.
Gang fight, gang fight, the gang is down to fight. Have I brought this chicken for us to thaw?
Odd sort of day today. On Fridays, the power for the whole city shuts down around 5 AM and stays that way until noonish, apparently so that they can clean the dam in the middle of town. We have a generator here so the fans and lights still worked but the internet connection relies on the grid. So this morning I finished Morning and Evening Talk and also read the few prose poems after the end of Illuminations, then re-read the intro to the latter. I also did some work, drafting up an information/data management flow-chart for CBDRR.
After lunch, which was a strictly expat affair -- I guess the Afghans all go out and do stuff on Fridays -- Beth and I met for a couple of hours about the M&E tools she's been developing with the staff, the log frame overhaul they did and my draft flow chart. Very interesting and productive. She's been very busy. I had a brief chat with Claire, who I woke from her final pre-work in-car nap a little after 7 AM. It was great to talk but the connection ended up getting a bit choppy. Still, way better than last year.
After that did several more hours of work, mostly emails and a couple of Skype chats, and a couple more brief tete-a-tetes with Beth about the M&E stuff, just answering questions she had. Around 3 I got a hankering for some Coke and asked, through another guest here who's Afghan but grew up in Pakistan, for one of the staff to get some. He brought back a couple of liters of Afghan knock-off Coke, which tastes as much like Diet Coke as any sugary soda I've ever had. Oh well. Still refreshing. Tameeza and I had a few rounds of (real) Coke yesterday during our rather intense talk about
Now it's 8:15 and I've still got a bit more work to do, including an update for Jo on how things have gone since Monday. I'll also try to put this flow chart into a slightly more presentable form. It's currently pen on notebook paper with some nice scribbles here and there. A vast improvement over my first draft, though!
I've been working all afternoon in the TV room. Most of the day no one else has been in here (except Beth), but a few times people have cycled in and watched TV and/or tried to chat. I don't mind the TV because it's all in Hindi or Urdu or Dari and I can't understand it, it just raises the background noise level. People trying to chat is a little more irritating and I'm afraid I was a bit short with my Indian colleague, whose name I forget. I feel a bit bad about that but, then again, I was obviously concentrating and he jumped in asking about my family... not a good time, man. He seems really nice, though. We talked for a while last night about a bunch of random stuff, including golf and the relative talents of George Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Also, on the name-forgetting, I think I'm just bad at remembering people's names. Doesn't help that with accents and people speaking softly, I often can't hear their name the first two times they say it.
Alright, guess that's enough for now. Perhaps I will have more-interesting things to report tomorrow or later.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
this post was brought to you
By the lack of internet at the Focus office.
It’s hot but not unbearably so. Despite the heat, last night was my first solid night’s sleep of the trip.
Apparently they’ve never heard of flypaper in Pul-i-Khumri. Little house flies zip around everywhere in the Focus office, except in the lunch/training room, which is air conditioned so they keep the door closed.
Whine whine whine.
This morning Jamshed, Kelly, Tameeza and I went to meet with the provincial director of the Afghan National Disaster Management Authority. He was very welcoming and also on board with the work shop that’s envisioned. The problems here are really deep. I guess that ought to be pretty obvious. They became more apparent during the second meeting of the morning, with UNAMA. What’s envisioned in the proposal is quite different from what’s actually needed, which is fine. But it’ll be interesting to see how the workshop turns out next week. The turnout should be good, but if the other UN agencies can’t get down here from Kunduz (only UNAMA is present in Baghlan), then it may not be as effective or useful as it should.
Actually, Kelly just told me that if he had his druthers, he wouldn’t hold the workshop at all if the other UN agencies can’t send anyone. The problem is that if there’s a big disaster that requires a supra-provincial response, like an earthquake, the UN agencies will come in and try to set up their own system, ignorant of whatever systems and actors are already in place here. A major point of the workshop would be to get everyone on the same page with respect to planning for such an event and if the big guns aren’t there, then the whole thing is diminished.
Lunch was more chicken and rice. I went for it and ate a few slices of (peeled) cucumber, too. We’ll see how that turns out. Hoping for a good outcome because it’d be nice to be able to eat a few veggies now and then. Now I’m sitting in the office with Kelly and Jamshed (who, by the way, is the Regional Program Coordinator for Focus) typing away in Apple’s Word knockoff, Pages, because the internet won’t connect and I can’t do any work.
The connectivity thing is ridiculous. It’s not like there’s no internet access here or insufficient bandwidth. But apparently only 10 people are allowed to be on Focus’s firewall at once. That is absurd. The guest house, on the other hand, was surprisingly quick last night and this morning. That may sound like a whine but isn’t; it’s a legitimate issue. “It’s hot” and “there are flies” are whines.
Anyway I’m going to go meet with Tameeza and Beth, the M&E tools consultant, now. Hopefully that’s going a little more smoothly than Kelly’s work.
...
It’s now several hours later. Kelly and Jamshed are trying to finalize the planning for the workshop. The M&E tools meeting was constructive -- Beth isn’t set up to do everything that’s needed and the team is farther behind on M&E than I imagined (more on this in another post, or maybe not for aforementioned reasons). But she has done quite a lot and she and I will be able to sit down tomorrow and make the first baby steps toward having a working MIS manual.
Tameeza and I then sat down in her office, closed the door and had a very frank discussion about which I will give no details, again for reasons mentioned in earlier posts, but this time a lot more so. I’m not sure how much help I can really give her at the end of the day, but I can at least broach some of what she brought up back home and see if there’s really anything we can do about it.
Kelly and I are both still unable to get online. He’s still got a ton to iron out with Jamshed but I’m nearing the end of my ability to get anything done, as evidenced by the fact that I’m writing this again, so I’m thinking about going back to the guest house. He’s in his element, actually, basically training Jamshed as they try to get the agenda together for next week. It’s fun to listen to someone who’s an expert both in his subject matter and at teaching.
Changing subjects, I can’t wait to get back to Kabul and then to get to Pakistan and then to get home. I miss home like I haven’t before. This trip isn’t long but being in P-i-K (they call it PLK here for some reason) makes it feel longer. Simply put, because of security and because I don’t speak the language, there’s not much to do here other than work, watch TV, read, and chat. The TV I talked about in my last post, work is okay but you can’t do it all day, reading is lovely but if I read all weekend I’ll finish my books* and then be screwed and my chatting partners are limited. Kelly and Beth are nice but decades older than I am. Tameeza doesn’t live at the guest house, Hanif isn’t here yet and everyone else in the guest house has limited or no English. Maybe Hanif will know more to do around here. I should have brought some playing cards...note to self.
Tameeza, being a woman, is even more limited than I am. Beth, being a woman and being white, may be even more limited. All that aside, I can totally imagine living out here or someplace like it, given an interesting and challenging enough job and a few people to socialize with. It’s an adventure and a challenge and that still appeals to me in a way it probably won’t in ten years. It’s good to push myself because I think my natural tendency is to not do that. It’s the same thing with the dunking.**
I leave next Wednesday, which means five more full days here, two of which will be taken up entirely by the workshop, one of which will be entirely workshop prep and one of which will be a weekend-type day, I think. Wednesday will be 5-9 hours in the car, then a meeting at AKFA. Thursday will be probably catching up on stuff that doesn’t get done the first three days of next week. Friday will be more in-depth discussions with Tameeza. Saturday will be flying to Pakistan. Pakistan will mean a trip to the field -- fingers still crossed for the heli and Gilgit -- and the final countdown to home. Also the Serena. And then the long trip home.
That makes it all sound a lot shorter. Home two weeks from today.
On the other hand, my initial few days of existential stress, compounded by jet lag and shitty nights of sleep, has abated and I’m glad I’m here. Tameeza does needs help because she has far too much to do -- she’s doing two people’s jobs, which I didn’t realize before I got here -- and I can, if nothing else, make sure Kelly and Beth are on track with expectations. My trip report this time around is going to be a lot more substantial than the previous two. If I can actually get this stuff done with Beth, if Tameeza and I can realign the budget and the work plan and see how to line up the M&E plan with the work plan, if Nadeem and Karim and I can finish the budget realignment and possible NCE prep in Pakistan, then by golly I will have accomplished a lot.
*I already finished Illuminations. My thoughts: Beautiful but about 80% of it went over my head. Too many people are seriously, academically obsessed with Rimbaud for there not to be depth there, but I just didn’t get a lot of it. Same goes for Devils, for that matter. 300 pages in, as I’ve already told most of the readership of this blog, I simply didn’t care about any of the characters or what was going to happen to them. Maybe I’ll come back to it later in the year but god it was just a slog. Funnily enough, now that I’m thinking about it, I want to pick it up again.
The other books I brought along are the previously discussed Morning and Evening Talk, which continues to be lovely and will bear re-reading if I run out of reading material, and The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs. Quite looking forward to that.
**Which is obviously suffering more than anything else as a result of this trip. I will come home weaker than I left and have to accept the setback. Other than bodyweight stuff, I can’t do anything out here. My diet is less than ideal. I’ll probably lose weight, i.e. muscle mass. There’s nowhere to practice jumping so whatever meager progress I’ve made at RFD and movement pattern learning will regress. All that sucks. But I am pleased with myself for not giving up, despite the excruciating slowness of progress at the best of times and the periodic extended setbacks caused by trips. Just reinforces my resolve to work even harder and better, when I get home, toward my random goal. I will fucking get there.
It’s hot but not unbearably so. Despite the heat, last night was my first solid night’s sleep of the trip.
Apparently they’ve never heard of flypaper in Pul-i-Khumri. Little house flies zip around everywhere in the Focus office, except in the lunch/training room, which is air conditioned so they keep the door closed.
Whine whine whine.
This morning Jamshed, Kelly, Tameeza and I went to meet with the provincial director of the Afghan National Disaster Management Authority. He was very welcoming and also on board with the work shop that’s envisioned. The problems here are really deep. I guess that ought to be pretty obvious. They became more apparent during the second meeting of the morning, with UNAMA. What’s envisioned in the proposal is quite different from what’s actually needed, which is fine. But it’ll be interesting to see how the workshop turns out next week. The turnout should be good, but if the other UN agencies can’t get down here from Kunduz (only UNAMA is present in Baghlan), then it may not be as effective or useful as it should.
Actually, Kelly just told me that if he had his druthers, he wouldn’t hold the workshop at all if the other UN agencies can’t send anyone. The problem is that if there’s a big disaster that requires a supra-provincial response, like an earthquake, the UN agencies will come in and try to set up their own system, ignorant of whatever systems and actors are already in place here. A major point of the workshop would be to get everyone on the same page with respect to planning for such an event and if the big guns aren’t there, then the whole thing is diminished.
Lunch was more chicken and rice. I went for it and ate a few slices of (peeled) cucumber, too. We’ll see how that turns out. Hoping for a good outcome because it’d be nice to be able to eat a few veggies now and then. Now I’m sitting in the office with Kelly and Jamshed (who, by the way, is the Regional Program Coordinator for Focus) typing away in Apple’s Word knockoff, Pages, because the internet won’t connect and I can’t do any work.
The connectivity thing is ridiculous. It’s not like there’s no internet access here or insufficient bandwidth. But apparently only 10 people are allowed to be on Focus’s firewall at once. That is absurd. The guest house, on the other hand, was surprisingly quick last night and this morning. That may sound like a whine but isn’t; it’s a legitimate issue. “It’s hot” and “there are flies” are whines.
Anyway I’m going to go meet with Tameeza and Beth, the M&E tools consultant, now. Hopefully that’s going a little more smoothly than Kelly’s work.
...
It’s now several hours later. Kelly and Jamshed are trying to finalize the planning for the workshop. The M&E tools meeting was constructive -- Beth isn’t set up to do everything that’s needed and the team is farther behind on M&E than I imagined (more on this in another post, or maybe not for aforementioned reasons). But she has done quite a lot and she and I will be able to sit down tomorrow and make the first baby steps toward having a working MIS manual.
Tameeza and I then sat down in her office, closed the door and had a very frank discussion about which I will give no details, again for reasons mentioned in earlier posts, but this time a lot more so. I’m not sure how much help I can really give her at the end of the day, but I can at least broach some of what she brought up back home and see if there’s really anything we can do about it.
Kelly and I are both still unable to get online. He’s still got a ton to iron out with Jamshed but I’m nearing the end of my ability to get anything done, as evidenced by the fact that I’m writing this again, so I’m thinking about going back to the guest house. He’s in his element, actually, basically training Jamshed as they try to get the agenda together for next week. It’s fun to listen to someone who’s an expert both in his subject matter and at teaching.
Changing subjects, I can’t wait to get back to Kabul and then to get to Pakistan and then to get home. I miss home like I haven’t before. This trip isn’t long but being in P-i-K (they call it PLK here for some reason) makes it feel longer. Simply put, because of security and because I don’t speak the language, there’s not much to do here other than work, watch TV, read, and chat. The TV I talked about in my last post, work is okay but you can’t do it all day, reading is lovely but if I read all weekend I’ll finish my books* and then be screwed and my chatting partners are limited. Kelly and Beth are nice but decades older than I am. Tameeza doesn’t live at the guest house, Hanif isn’t here yet and everyone else in the guest house has limited or no English. Maybe Hanif will know more to do around here. I should have brought some playing cards...note to self.
Tameeza, being a woman, is even more limited than I am. Beth, being a woman and being white, may be even more limited. All that aside, I can totally imagine living out here or someplace like it, given an interesting and challenging enough job and a few people to socialize with. It’s an adventure and a challenge and that still appeals to me in a way it probably won’t in ten years. It’s good to push myself because I think my natural tendency is to not do that. It’s the same thing with the dunking.**
I leave next Wednesday, which means five more full days here, two of which will be taken up entirely by the workshop, one of which will be entirely workshop prep and one of which will be a weekend-type day, I think. Wednesday will be 5-9 hours in the car, then a meeting at AKFA. Thursday will be probably catching up on stuff that doesn’t get done the first three days of next week. Friday will be more in-depth discussions with Tameeza. Saturday will be flying to Pakistan. Pakistan will mean a trip to the field -- fingers still crossed for the heli and Gilgit -- and the final countdown to home. Also the Serena. And then the long trip home.
That makes it all sound a lot shorter. Home two weeks from today.
On the other hand, my initial few days of existential stress, compounded by jet lag and shitty nights of sleep, has abated and I’m glad I’m here. Tameeza does needs help because she has far too much to do -- she’s doing two people’s jobs, which I didn’t realize before I got here -- and I can, if nothing else, make sure Kelly and Beth are on track with expectations. My trip report this time around is going to be a lot more substantial than the previous two. If I can actually get this stuff done with Beth, if Tameeza and I can realign the budget and the work plan and see how to line up the M&E plan with the work plan, if Nadeem and Karim and I can finish the budget realignment and possible NCE prep in Pakistan, then by golly I will have accomplished a lot.
*I already finished Illuminations. My thoughts: Beautiful but about 80% of it went over my head. Too many people are seriously, academically obsessed with Rimbaud for there not to be depth there, but I just didn’t get a lot of it. Same goes for Devils, for that matter. 300 pages in, as I’ve already told most of the readership of this blog, I simply didn’t care about any of the characters or what was going to happen to them. Maybe I’ll come back to it later in the year but god it was just a slog. Funnily enough, now that I’m thinking about it, I want to pick it up again.
The other books I brought along are the previously discussed Morning and Evening Talk, which continues to be lovely and will bear re-reading if I run out of reading material, and The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs. Quite looking forward to that.
**Which is obviously suffering more than anything else as a result of this trip. I will come home weaker than I left and have to accept the setback. Other than bodyweight stuff, I can’t do anything out here. My diet is less than ideal. I’ll probably lose weight, i.e. muscle mass. There’s nowhere to practice jumping so whatever meager progress I’ve made at RFD and movement pattern learning will regress. All that sucks. But I am pleased with myself for not giving up, despite the excruciating slowness of progress at the best of times and the periodic extended setbacks caused by trips. Just reinforces my resolve to work even harder and better, when I get home, toward my random goal. I will fucking get there.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
pul-i-khumri
This morning I woke up at 1:30 and again and 3:30, called home and talked with M, D and Linc, and talked briefly with Claire but she was doing something so had to ring off. I packed and ate breakfast and the Land Cruiser came at 6:40 to start the journey to Pul-i-Khumri. The journey is supposed to take 5 hours or so. We took 9. This was thanks to a four-hour wait beneath the Salang Pass, underneath which a tunnel connects Kabul with northern Afghanistan.
Apparently, some VIPs (the story was that they included Karzai but I kind of doubt it) were going to visit the construction that's been going on around the tunnel. Fuck if I could tell why, there wasn't much to see once we got up there. But there definitely were some VIPs: a convoy of military, police and black Land Cruisers with blacked-out windows blew past the assembled trucks (lined up neatly on the side of the road in the hundreds) and cars (arranged in a giant clusterfuck of slow motion cutting each other off) at one point. We waited at a random checkpoint for a while, then moved forward to another one about a kilometer down the road. The latter was a real checkpoint, with concertine wire and two big armored trucks with machine gun turrets blocking the road and US and Afghan troops walking around and trying to keep the road clear.
Eventually the VIPs came back down and we could climb the mountain. The tunnel itself was very dark and very dusty, with all the same typical Afghan driver behavior present, but magnified because we were IN A FUCKING TUNNEL. I've never seen headlights look creepier or stranger.
This seems like a good time to mention that the quality of the road between Kabul and Pul-i-Khumri is shockingly good. As Kelly the consultant put it, "Your tax dollars at work." Get some of those dollars up to Badakhshan! Makes a huge difference to have a real paved highway that you can do 65 mph on.
Eventually, we made it through and descended into the valley where Pul-i-Khumri is located. The drive was another 2.5 or 3 hours but didn't seem bad after the interminable wait earlier. Went straight to the Focus office once we got here so that we could all get connected to the internet and check email and such. Iqbal, my Badakhshan guide from last year and the CBDRR program manager for that province, was there. Nice to see him. Getting online took forever; the AKF IT guy was useless and Tameeza was the one who finally figured out how to make it work. Here at the guest house the connection is fine and it was much easier to connect! But my room is in a different building so I'm writing from the TV room right now.
I'm tempted to rant for a minute about Indian TV, but it would be boring and I'm too tired.
Dinner's soon and then I'll go right to bed. Insh'allah, tonight I'll be on schedule sleep-wise. Really full day of work tomorrow. Would help to be rested. But I fear the heat.
Apparently, some VIPs (the story was that they included Karzai but I kind of doubt it) were going to visit the construction that's been going on around the tunnel. Fuck if I could tell why, there wasn't much to see once we got up there. But there definitely were some VIPs: a convoy of military, police and black Land Cruisers with blacked-out windows blew past the assembled trucks (lined up neatly on the side of the road in the hundreds) and cars (arranged in a giant clusterfuck of slow motion cutting each other off) at one point. We waited at a random checkpoint for a while, then moved forward to another one about a kilometer down the road. The latter was a real checkpoint, with concertine wire and two big armored trucks with machine gun turrets blocking the road and US and Afghan troops walking around and trying to keep the road clear.
Eventually the VIPs came back down and we could climb the mountain. The tunnel itself was very dark and very dusty, with all the same typical Afghan driver behavior present, but magnified because we were IN A FUCKING TUNNEL. I've never seen headlights look creepier or stranger.
This seems like a good time to mention that the quality of the road between Kabul and Pul-i-Khumri is shockingly good. As Kelly the consultant put it, "Your tax dollars at work." Get some of those dollars up to Badakhshan! Makes a huge difference to have a real paved highway that you can do 65 mph on.
Eventually, we made it through and descended into the valley where Pul-i-Khumri is located. The drive was another 2.5 or 3 hours but didn't seem bad after the interminable wait earlier. Went straight to the Focus office once we got here so that we could all get connected to the internet and check email and such. Iqbal, my Badakhshan guide from last year and the CBDRR program manager for that province, was there. Nice to see him. Getting online took forever; the AKF IT guy was useless and Tameeza was the one who finally figured out how to make it work. Here at the guest house the connection is fine and it was much easier to connect! But my room is in a different building so I'm writing from the TV room right now.
I'm tempted to rant for a minute about Indian TV, but it would be boring and I'm too tired.
Dinner's soon and then I'll go right to bed. Insh'allah, tonight I'll be on schedule sleep-wise. Really full day of work tomorrow. Would help to be rested. But I fear the heat.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
4:15 am
Was the time I woke up this morning. Hurray jet lag. I read some Mahfouz and watched a bunch of crappy TV and did some goofy moving around, like trotting in place and old-time calisthenics and stuff. Morning and Evening Talk, which I started reading last night, is beautiful so far. I would almost go so far as to say exquisite, just because of the way it's constructed and told in tiny, neat little packages that will take the whole book to add into a coherent whole. I'm looking forward to re-reading it already.
The IT guy finally came and set me up at the guest house, so now I'll be online there. But the internet is terrible so we'll see how useful it really is. Here's hoping the Pul-i-Khumri internet is better than Tameeza says it is.
After I got to the office, I had a cup of Nescafe in hot milk. A trick I learned from Noor N. last year to make the stuff potable. Then Salim and I left with Gul Ahmad, the main Focus admin guy, to register with the Ministry of the Interior. I wish so much that I could take a picture of the registration office. In the Ministry compound, off to one side of a dusty courtyard, behind a lace curtain serving as a door, an extremely tiny lady and an older man with a long beard sit at a pair of desks and fill out registration cards longhand, copying the data down into big ledgers. There's a computer but it's covered by a plastic sheet and doesn't appear to get much use. The only decoration on the wall is a calendar entirely in Dari -- I couldn't even tell whether it was for 2011 or not -- and several signs informing visitors that registration is "gratis free" and that they should not pay anyone if asked. The wizened little woman and the old man are just fascinating. Incredibly photogenic scene but I doubt they'd like for me to whip out my point-and-shoot in there. Oh well.
After we got back to the office I had tea with cardamom for the first time. It was delicious! Never tasted anything quite like that before. Oh, and the loose movements have begun. TOILETS OF AFGHANISTAN, TREMBLE AT MY APPROACH, FOR THE STRANGE BACTERIA OF THIS LAND HAVE UNLEASHED A DEEP RUMBLING WITHIN ME! YOU WILL FEEL THE WRATH OF MY BOWELS!
Excuse me, I got carried away. Actually it's not bad, just...loose.
Work has been a little better today. I was able to provide some actual guidance on something this morning and that cheered my sad, fragile little ego up a little. But really this all ties into my ongoing feelings of inadequacy with respect to my job, that I've somehow snuck in the backdoor and don't deserve to be where I am. I know that's silly but the feeling just won't go away. Dunning-Kruger effect, maybe. From Wikipedia:
That's my hope, anyway. I'm actually competent, but my competence makes me constantly second-guess myself because I perceive everyone around me to be more competent than I am. Or something. End couch session.
Not a whole lot else to report, I guess. Oh, Iforgethisname, from the other night, was much chattier and friendlier at dinner last night. Perhaps he was just stressed out or tired before. He's here doing work for the National Council, i.e. the governing body of Afghan Ismailis. I still don't remember his name, though. Also, Yousef is here, as he always seems to be on my trips (well, he's 3/3, so small sample size). Alright, I've been writing this off and on since this morning and it's time to wrap it up. More later.
The IT guy finally came and set me up at the guest house, so now I'll be online there. But the internet is terrible so we'll see how useful it really is. Here's hoping the Pul-i-Khumri internet is better than Tameeza says it is.
After I got to the office, I had a cup of Nescafe in hot milk. A trick I learned from Noor N. last year to make the stuff potable. Then Salim and I left with Gul Ahmad, the main Focus admin guy, to register with the Ministry of the Interior. I wish so much that I could take a picture of the registration office. In the Ministry compound, off to one side of a dusty courtyard, behind a lace curtain serving as a door, an extremely tiny lady and an older man with a long beard sit at a pair of desks and fill out registration cards longhand, copying the data down into big ledgers. There's a computer but it's covered by a plastic sheet and doesn't appear to get much use. The only decoration on the wall is a calendar entirely in Dari -- I couldn't even tell whether it was for 2011 or not -- and several signs informing visitors that registration is "gratis free" and that they should not pay anyone if asked. The wizened little woman and the old man are just fascinating. Incredibly photogenic scene but I doubt they'd like for me to whip out my point-and-shoot in there. Oh well.
After we got back to the office I had tea with cardamom for the first time. It was delicious! Never tasted anything quite like that before. Oh, and the loose movements have begun. TOILETS OF AFGHANISTAN, TREMBLE AT MY APPROACH, FOR THE STRANGE BACTERIA OF THIS LAND HAVE UNLEASHED A DEEP RUMBLING WITHIN ME! YOU WILL FEEL THE WRATH OF MY BOWELS!
Excuse me, I got carried away. Actually it's not bad, just...loose.
Work has been a little better today. I was able to provide some actual guidance on something this morning and that cheered my sad, fragile little ego up a little. But really this all ties into my ongoing feelings of inadequacy with respect to my job, that I've somehow snuck in the backdoor and don't deserve to be where I am. I know that's silly but the feeling just won't go away. Dunning-Kruger effect, maybe. From Wikipedia:
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which unskilled people make poor decisions and reach erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence denies them the metacognitive ability to appreciate their mistakes. The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their ability as above average, much higher than it actually is, while the highly skilled underrate their own abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority. Actual competence may weaken self-confidence, as competent individuals may falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. As Kruger and Dunning conclude, "the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others".
That's my hope, anyway. I'm actually competent, but my competence makes me constantly second-guess myself because I perceive everyone around me to be more competent than I am. Or something. End couch session.
Not a whole lot else to report, I guess. Oh, Iforgethisname, from the other night, was much chattier and friendlier at dinner last night. Perhaps he was just stressed out or tired before. He's here doing work for the National Council, i.e. the governing body of Afghan Ismailis. I still don't remember his name, though. Also, Yousef is here, as he always seems to be on my trips (well, he's 3/3, so small sample size). Alright, I've been writing this off and on since this morning and it's time to wrap it up. More later.
Monday, June 13, 2011
oof
So I'm a bit overwhelmed. Just wrote a bunch before realizing that most of it is sensitive and critical and I'd prefer not to have certain colleagues come across it. Instead, I'll just say that today I had a lot of meetings, that some were frustrating, and that I'm being brought face to face with my own lack of experience, knowledge and capacity. I'm still trying to figure out what the heck these trips are for, other than to expose me to the projects and partner agencies. What is my value added? I don't know. I'm 24 years old, a generalist (a kind way of saying I don't know anything special), completely flying by the seat of my pants and whatever knowledge I've gathered ad hoc over the past 18 months. Sure as hell didn't learn anything useful at CHF.
I can help realign the budget and work plan, I can be an outlet and sounding board for Tameeza, who's extremely stressed out and frustrated, I'm pretty sure I can get the project a no-cost extension (there's a big one), I can take what I learn here and plug it back into the network from a different angle. Maybe I can help with some of the political stuff they're facing here by going straight to the top back home. Maybe I can help get Focus more funding when this project runs out. But my technical knowledge is useless and my management knowledge is equally useless.
Learning as I go, so this is all useful to me, but I just feel kind of inadequate to my task. Which is what again? Trying to decide how frank to be with certain people about this when I get home.
If you can believe it, I actually feel a bit better now than I did around lunch, after back to back meetings where I felt out of my depth and/or tensions were high. Rough day.
Last night, however, was lovely. I met a couple of guys at dinner at the guest house, Hanif and Iforgettheotherguy. The latter was, um, taciturn. Hanif was the opposite, a gregarious Iranian-American guy who's been with AKF Afghanistan in Baghlan for all of two months. I didn't eat too much at the guest house because Tameeza, Salim (and eventually Hanif, who's apparently good friends with Tameeza) went out to a Lebanese place for a late dinner. It was delicious. The place was nearly empty except for a couple of possibly British, possibly American ladies sitting at a table nearby. We sat on a semi-patio and ate a bunch of kebab, falafel, hummus, soup and grilled veggies, smoked a hookah and drank Tuborg from coffee mugs. Hanif and Tameeza are funny and were needling each other the whole meal. All in all a pretty great evening. It was nice just to be social with people.
This morning I woke up at 6:15 so I had a chance to work out before getting the day started. Nothing hard but it got the blood flowing and then I stretched for half an hour or so. That always feels good. So not everything's been bad so far. Just having a wee Afghanistan-specific existential crisis. You're worthless without experience, and you can't get experience unless someone gives you the chance to jump in with both feet. But it would be nice for that jump to come with a life jacket in the form of a little more guidance or training. Wishful thinking, I suppose.
Tomorrow I've got a meeting over at AKF so I'll see some of the same people from last year. Looking forward to that. Otherwise just more meetings here, maybe another meeting with UNDP in the late afternoon, and more general prep for the trip out to Baghlan. I still need to get some shampoo. Oh, and I didn't leave my iPod behind! Great news! But that does mean I have to return the pair of headphones I bought in the DXB duty-free.
Okay, gotta finish writing an update to the boss and then gonna roll on out of here. Will get connected at the guest house tomorrow morning (sometime between 8 and 9). Can't believe it's taken this long, but, to adapt a phrase, TIA - this is Afghanistan. (The A is usually for Africa.)
Bah.
I can help realign the budget and work plan, I can be an outlet and sounding board for Tameeza, who's extremely stressed out and frustrated, I'm pretty sure I can get the project a no-cost extension (there's a big one), I can take what I learn here and plug it back into the network from a different angle. Maybe I can help with some of the political stuff they're facing here by going straight to the top back home. Maybe I can help get Focus more funding when this project runs out. But my technical knowledge is useless and my management knowledge is equally useless.
Learning as I go, so this is all useful to me, but I just feel kind of inadequate to my task. Which is what again? Trying to decide how frank to be with certain people about this when I get home.
If you can believe it, I actually feel a bit better now than I did around lunch, after back to back meetings where I felt out of my depth and/or tensions were high. Rough day.
Last night, however, was lovely. I met a couple of guys at dinner at the guest house, Hanif and Iforgettheotherguy. The latter was, um, taciturn. Hanif was the opposite, a gregarious Iranian-American guy who's been with AKF Afghanistan in Baghlan for all of two months. I didn't eat too much at the guest house because Tameeza, Salim (and eventually Hanif, who's apparently good friends with Tameeza) went out to a Lebanese place for a late dinner. It was delicious. The place was nearly empty except for a couple of possibly British, possibly American ladies sitting at a table nearby. We sat on a semi-patio and ate a bunch of kebab, falafel, hummus, soup and grilled veggies, smoked a hookah and drank Tuborg from coffee mugs. Hanif and Tameeza are funny and were needling each other the whole meal. All in all a pretty great evening. It was nice just to be social with people.
This morning I woke up at 6:15 so I had a chance to work out before getting the day started. Nothing hard but it got the blood flowing and then I stretched for half an hour or so. That always feels good. So not everything's been bad so far. Just having a wee Afghanistan-specific existential crisis. You're worthless without experience, and you can't get experience unless someone gives you the chance to jump in with both feet. But it would be nice for that jump to come with a life jacket in the form of a little more guidance or training. Wishful thinking, I suppose.
Tomorrow I've got a meeting over at AKF so I'll see some of the same people from last year. Looking forward to that. Otherwise just more meetings here, maybe another meeting with UNDP in the late afternoon, and more general prep for the trip out to Baghlan. I still need to get some shampoo. Oh, and I didn't leave my iPod behind! Great news! But that does mean I have to return the pair of headphones I bought in the DXB duty-free.
Okay, gotta finish writing an update to the boss and then gonna roll on out of here. Will get connected at the guest house tomorrow morning (sometime between 8 and 9). Can't believe it's taken this long, but, to adapt a phrase, TIA - this is Afghanistan. (The A is usually for Africa.)
Bah.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
kabul
Trying to get out of the FOCUS office and my computer isn't set up to be online at the guest house yet, so this will be brief:
1. Flight boring but I slept more than usual, sans benadryl. Success.
2. Layover boring.
3. Flight meh but at least it was short; the jacked marine sitting next to me was nice and told a very funny story about a middle-aged Afghan professor who sat next to him on a recent flight and asked some very uncomfortable questions.
4. Arrived at 6:45 AM, went through immigration and customs in about a half hour. GOT IN THE RIGHT CAR, NO HITCH HIKING, EVERYTHING WAS SMOOTH! Plus it was my favorite driver, Karimbaksh. He has the nicest ride by a long shot. Big new Land Cruiser (well, probably a 2009, but close enough).
5. Guest house moved and is now a straight-up poppy palace. Ugly as sin, double-decker entry way, bizarre chandeliers. Hilarious.
6. Showered. Need to buy some shampoo cause I didn't remember to bring any.
7. AKDN was on lock-down until 10:30 so I decided to take a nap. Slept for six hours, missing the call that I thought would wake me up at 10:30. Whoops! Maybe tonight will be the night for benadryl.
8. Came into the office around 4, have been talking with the project manager, Tameeza, doing email stuff and reading since then. She seems excellent so far.
9. Now I'm hungry.
10. Will probably follow Tameeza wherever she goes for dinner, because that will be more sociable and less awkward than the guest house.
11. The real fun starts tomorrow with meetings and suchlike.
12. I might be spending more time in Baghlan than I thought, which is good. But it will mean shittier internet.
13. I think that's it. End on a lucky number.
1. Flight boring but I slept more than usual, sans benadryl. Success.
2. Layover boring.
3. Flight meh but at least it was short; the jacked marine sitting next to me was nice and told a very funny story about a middle-aged Afghan professor who sat next to him on a recent flight and asked some very uncomfortable questions.
4. Arrived at 6:45 AM, went through immigration and customs in about a half hour. GOT IN THE RIGHT CAR, NO HITCH HIKING, EVERYTHING WAS SMOOTH! Plus it was my favorite driver, Karimbaksh. He has the nicest ride by a long shot. Big new Land Cruiser (well, probably a 2009, but close enough).
5. Guest house moved and is now a straight-up poppy palace. Ugly as sin, double-decker entry way, bizarre chandeliers. Hilarious.
6. Showered. Need to buy some shampoo cause I didn't remember to bring any.
7. AKDN was on lock-down until 10:30 so I decided to take a nap. Slept for six hours, missing the call that I thought would wake me up at 10:30. Whoops! Maybe tonight will be the night for benadryl.
8. Came into the office around 4, have been talking with the project manager, Tameeza, doing email stuff and reading since then. She seems excellent so far.
9. Now I'm hungry.
10. Will probably follow Tameeza wherever she goes for dinner, because that will be more sociable and less awkward than the guest house.
11. The real fun starts tomorrow with meetings and suchlike.
12. I might be spending more time in Baghlan than I thought, which is good. But it will mean shittier internet.
13. I think that's it. End on a lucky number.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
dxb, still weird
Not as many people in exotic outfits -- flowing robes and headdresses on one side, borderline-strippers on the other -- this time around. My flight over from Dulles was delayed but that's alright, just means a shorter layover here. It's just after 10PM local time and I've got a couple of hours before I can check in for my flight to Kabul. The flight over was uneventful. After flying on Qatar, United seems pretty terrible, and I guess it is. Dad and I had eaten a good dinner before we left for the airport, so I didn't even bother with the first meal offering. The second was a turkey sandwich on a white roll of some kind, with an unidentifiable cheese melted in there and nothing else. Oof. Didn't even turn the little TV on except to look at the map periodically. On the plus side, I did manage to sleep for a significant chunk of the time. Fitfully, maybe, but probably 7 or 8 hours altogether (!). Didn't even have to take my benadryl.
Anyway, DXB is really dim. I don't think I processed that last time, but the lights are very low in the main part of the terminal. The duty-free megastore is brighter but up here it's like twilight.
The national uniforms are funny. A pack of Southeast Asian guys in nearly matching skinny jeans, fashionable casual sneakers, baseball caps and tight-fitting button-down shirts just trotted by. I wonder where they're going. To my immediate right are a few young Arab guys in that not-quite-American style of dress where you can't quite put a finger on what's different and then you realize one of them isn't wearing shoes and another's shirt has a pair of words on it that make no sense. Some American guys just sat down nearby. They're wearing short-sleeved button-down plaid shirts and jeans (just like me). A woman in a Sari is being pushed down the terminal in a wheelchair.
Anyway, really not much else to report at the moment so I'm going to end it here. More once I get to Kabul.
EDIT: I always forget something when I come on trips. It's some kind of physical law. Usually it's something relatively unimportant, like sweat pants. This time, however, I left behind my iPod. Damn it.
Anyway, DXB is really dim. I don't think I processed that last time, but the lights are very low in the main part of the terminal. The duty-free megastore is brighter but up here it's like twilight.
The national uniforms are funny. A pack of Southeast Asian guys in nearly matching skinny jeans, fashionable casual sneakers, baseball caps and tight-fitting button-down shirts just trotted by. I wonder where they're going. To my immediate right are a few young Arab guys in that not-quite-American style of dress where you can't quite put a finger on what's different and then you realize one of them isn't wearing shoes and another's shirt has a pair of words on it that make no sense. Some American guys just sat down nearby. They're wearing short-sleeved button-down plaid shirts and jeans (just like me). A woman in a Sari is being pushed down the terminal in a wheelchair.
Anyway, really not much else to report at the moment so I'm going to end it here. More once I get to Kabul.
EDIT: I always forget something when I come on trips. It's some kind of physical law. Usually it's something relatively unimportant, like sweat pants. This time, however, I left behind my iPod. Damn it.
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