Asphalt Paving

The asphalt project got started before I arrived on base, the person before me had a struggle getting the contractor started. I have included pictures of two asphalt plants, one is old and one is newer, I'll let you guess which is which. The first plant the contractor set up did not work very well, they did not get much paving done. The contracting office issued the contractor a notice, either produce or loose the contract. They brought in the newer plant and have been doing pretty well since then. They also brought in a new project manager, a woman from India. The contractor is from Pakistan, many of the workers are from Afghanistan and in the culture here men do not take direction from women very well. I guess there were some issues at first, but after the contractor fired the two male supervisors, it has went pretty smooth. The new project manager is also very organized and she is pretty good at getting things done. After a rough start yesterday morning with paving operations, the contractor did lay down about 300' of the first 2" lift. They only got one truckload of asphalt down before lunch, then took a hour lunch.

Contractor work days are short. By the time the laborers get through the base gate it is usually between 8 and 9. It's quite a process for them to get on the base. Then they have prayer breaks throughout the day and lunch break. They usually wrap up the day around 3:30 or 4, so they can get off base and home before dark. There is still a fear of being out after dark and being a target for working with the US. As our deployment goes on, we'll have more daylight and hopefully we'll see more hours of work. There's a lot of road to pave and at 300' per day, I'll be lucky to see it done before I leave. I'm told they have put down more asphalt on better days in the past.

Green Tea and Jingle Trucks

I can't get enough of the jingle trucks, I'm going to look for some of those tassels and beads and bring them home to put on my car. I also noticed that the two trucks on the left have a sandal or shoe hanging from the bumper. I'm still looking for someone that knows the significance of that.

I went to the job sites today and got there about mid morning, tea time. Mike the fencing contractor invited us to join him for some green tea. That is Mike in the middle, still wearing his new clothes. He also offered us some hard candies, they were like lemon drops. Both the tea and the candy were good. The pots on the fire in the second picture are filled with green tea, they boil it right on the job site.

No OSHA standards in Afghanistan. They dig the holes with picks and shovels. The worker in the picture is wearing open toe sandals. I think he still has all of his toes.

I'll post pictures tomorrow of the asphalt plant and the asphalt crew. They paved about 300 feet today.

Daily Living and Afghan Paving Contractor

I was beginning to think I wouldn't have anything to write about today or any pictures to put in the blog. But then at the end of the work day, our asphalt contractor started to apply the prime coat on the road in preparation of paving tomorrow. Nothing should surprise us anymore, but they were applying it with sprinkling cans like we would use to water the garden or flowers. They had a tractor and tank trailer with a distributor on it, but it must have been broke. One of the workers was taking a bucket and dipping into the tank, then pouring it into the sprinkling cans, then they would spread it on the road. Good thing they were only covering less than a quarter mile of road. I'm looking forward to seeing the paving operation tomorrow.

Then when I got back to my room after going to the gym, I could not find my soap or shampoo (my roommate already asked me why I was still using shampoo). I must have left them in the shower yesterday, guess I'll be buying a new soap dish and shampoo. I included pictures of the outside of our housing (the building with 4 doors) and the latrines/showers. The latrines are the conex storage containers and the showers are in the building in the middle. We have to go outside and walk across the gravel road/path between the buildings to use the facilities. This has taken some getting used to and I'm not there yet. Besides losing my soap and shampoo, I've dropped my key in the dark (the room door locks behind you) and did not realize until I got back and could not get in. It's not too easy to find your key in the dark with a little green flashlight (no white lights as the base is under black out conditions). I did find the key after giving up and using my white light. The biggest adjustment has been those early morning/middle of the night trips to the bathroom. By the time you walk outside in the chilly night air and return to your bed, you are pretty much awake.

Pictures of the day

These are my pictures for today. A little sharing of culture. A couple of Air Force guys were playing catch with a football and the Afghan nationals asked for a lesson on how to throw it. If you look close you can see the football in the air, tumbling end over end after a left-handed Afghani made his first attempt. Don't know if that is because he was left-handed or that he grew up playing the other football (soccer). The other picture is of the delivery of a new vehicle to the base. I thought the driver looked interesting and how he decorated his truck. Most trucks have tassles and bells hanging on the corners of the windshield, thus they are commonly referred to as jingle trucks by us.

We awarded a new contract today to install some fencing and remove barriers to an Afghan contractor. The contractor, Mike, speaks very good English and I was able to visit with him as we reviewed the job site this morning. He used to be a school teacher, taught English, science, math, and other subjects. Once this war started he became an interpretor for the US Forces and now has become a contractor. He is a new contractor for the base, but has quickly become one of the better ones. He owns heavy equipment - dump trucks, excavator and employs about 50 workers. When they install the fence they won't be using an auger or post hole digger like we would, they dig the post holes with a pick axe. Mike was quite proud of his new clothes he had on today, he just had them tailored. He offered to get our measurements and have a set made for us. We respectfully declined. Mike also has a shop in the local bizarre on base where the locals can sell goods to the military, he seems to have picked up on the American way quite well.

Another Rainy Day

The rain keeps coming down, it has rained most of the day. It's really turning in to a mud mess. The picture on the left is my new office, a little crowded, but it's only temporary (six months). Not much work going on today, but there was some activity from the big guns this morning. The construction equipment is quite old and most everything is done with manual labor. We had to stop the fencing contractor today as the welder did not have the proper eye protection, he was using a cheap pair of sunglasses. Not much in the way of safety equipment.

Because of the rain and cloud cover the FET (Facilities Engineering Team) we are replacing did not get off the base again today. They were supposed to head for home two days ago, looks like they might be with us for another day. Good for us, we can learn more from them about what we are supposed to be doing.

That's all for now.

The picture at the top is my home for the next 6 months. Not too bad. The middle picture is of the paving crew, a little different than back home. The bottom picture is of the inside of the C-17 on the way to Bagram AB, pretty tight with all of the gear every carried.

More pictures later.

Getting to Afghanistan and First Days of Work

I left Des Moines on Jan 13, 2009 and met up with the rest of the team in Norfolk VA on the 14th. We left Norfolk that day and flew to Ft. Drum to pick up some 100 0r so Army personnel with the 10th Mountain Division. From there we flew to Leipzig, Germany for another stop, then on to Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan. We arrived on Jan 15. After 4 days in Manas, we finally showed up on the passenger list for a flight to Bagram AB, Afghanistan. After arriving at Bagram on Jan 20, where we had to wait a couple more days to make a flight to FOB Salerno, Afghanistan. We flew during the night and arrived at Salerno at 3 am on Friday, Jan 23. The base is under black out conditions, so no lights. The stars are super bright as there is very little light pollution in this area. However, they do not provide much light for finding your room at 3 in the morning or those late night trips to the bathroom which is across the street.

Because it took so long to get here, we only have a couple days of overlap with the team we are replacing, so after a couple hours of sleep we met up with them at 7 am. There is a lot to learn from them in two days and a lot of stories for them to tell us.

Today we saw what it is like when there is rain here, it's muddy. There is no grass and if there are no rocks to walk on, it's mud. One of our projects is to pave the main base roads, that should help. Also, with the rain we were able to look for drainage problems that need some attention, which is another project I'll be working on over the next six months.

Well that's enough for my first posting, this blog stuff is new to me. I'll try to post some pictures as soon as I figure out how.

Tim