Another Taxi

In the top picture is another example of an Afghani taxi. I missed a better opportunity for this picture yesterday, they had three guys riding in the bucket and at least 7 on other parts of the excavator. Today they knew we were going to be outside waiting to take their picture and they were all smiles as they came around the corner. Also, notice the jingles on the arm of the excavator, they're everywhere. The other day I saw them on a military John Deere gator.

The other two pictures are proof of why we do not let the Afghani contractors do electrical work on the projects. This example of electrical wiring was at the contractor's Conex container office. Underneath the cardboard is a Honda generator. They have taken two or three extension cords spliced them together and connected to the generator with no ground wire. In the second picture you can see where they connect into the wiring for the offices. When they loose power, they splice into the wiring for the offices, and start the generator. Amazing no one has been electrocuted.

Yesterday, I experienced another first in my military career and it reminded me of the difference between Air Force, National Guard and the Army. I was wandering around, with a purpose (this time), and found myself in a building. As I approached a young soldier, I could see him trying to figure out who I was. When he saw the rank on my shoulder, he stopped, stood straight against the hallway wall and at the top of his lungs, called the building to attention. Caught me by surprise and once my ears quit ringing, I remembered to tell them to go back to what they were doing.

Road Safety

This posting is for the DOT folks out there. The paving contractor is working on a new section of road that the previous FET designed. They tried to snake the road between buildings, trees and other obstructions. We have been told since we got here that you can not take down trees. The road design was completed by an architect and he chose to save the tree and build the road around it. The contractor started to grade it this week and we started to question the safety of the tree in the middle of the road. That's what happens when you turn the road project over to a couple of DOT engineers. My boss is a Missouri DOT employee when he is not working for the Missouri Air Guard.

Even though the speed limit on base is 20 mph, we had a few concerns with a tree in the middle of the road. First this is a black out base so all vehicle headlights are covered with plastic, so there isn't much lighting the way for the driver, and we have seen fence posts hit in the middl of the day. Second, there are no curbs to hit to let you know you are off the road. Third, many of the vehicles are large MRAPs (don't know what it stands for, see the convoy picture in a previous posting) they are tall and have a gunner that sits above the roof and many antennaes. We figured the gunners would not like the branches in the face.

So we decided to remove the tree, we could not find anything in writing that said trees are sacred and could not find anyone on the base that was the tree czar. We decided to go with safety over the tree. The equipment operators had the tree down in less than 15 minutes and hauled away before anyone could notice. We'll see if there is any fall out.

Trees are important in Afghanistan as much of the country has been de-forested and few new trees have been planted. Many of the trees are cut down for fuel for the fires to keep warm in the winter and for cooking fires. If you search the internet you will find several organizations that are working to help the Afghani's bring the forests back to their country.

Lunch and more Volleyball

The top picture is another of the paving contractor, they are working the subgrade for a new section of road we are paving near the airfield.

Yesterday we ate lunch with the contracted Afghani equipment operators. They haul gravel, spread the gravel, tear down old HESCO barriers (dirt filled barriers) and maintain the gravel runway. The pictures are from a previous lunch, but yesterday's lunch was similar. We call it a "parking lot" lunch. The food is cooked in the operators storage yard in a conex container and they serve it on the old airfield steel mats. They set up a table and benches for us, so we would not have to sit on the ground.

They invited us to lunch and a game of volleyball following. However, we were wise to their strategy and respectfully declined the volleyball game, but graceously accepted their food. They fed us so much for lunch we could hardly move, there was no way we could play volleyball. They put 5 plates of food in front of each one of us. One of our guys offered to feed them lunch on Friday and to play volleyball. They caught on to our strategy and declined as Friday is their day off and he was offering pork chops (they don't eat pork).

The operators must not have eaten as much as we did as they still played volleyball, the middle picture above. Most of them wear the traditional clothing, even when playing volleyball.

Writer's Block

I'm having trouble coming up with something new to write about, so I'm just putting several pictures on the today's posting.

The first two pictures are some of the villages just outside the base fence. Most everything is enclosed inside the mud/brick walls of the village.

The third picture is the gravel yard which is located outside the base. It also gives a good view of the surrounding terrain. Everything still looks barren and brown, but they tell me it will green up when the weather warms up.

The last picture is what we call the Afghan taxi. There is a crew of local nationals (LNs) that do odd jobs around the base. They travel around the base with their local music blasting, it would rival our youth. However, it is not nearly as heavy on the bass. They have two large Afghanistan flags on the back that proudly fly straight out as they drive by. They ride in comfort as they have stacked old mattress in the bed of the truck, up by the cab, and they have also set folding chairs in the bed of the truck.

Volleyball

Volleyball seems to be our sport, we haven't tried basketball. The contracting office has challenged us on two occassions. We looked pretty bad in the first game, but came back to win the next two. The following week they wanted a rematch. They brought in two ringers and easily beat us this time. We'll have to hit the recruiting trail and find some of our own ringers for the next match. The pictures are from the first go around. We are sporting or nice AF PT uniforms, the t-shirts are OK, but those shorts could use a few more inches of material on the legs. The good thing, everyone (in the AF) has to wear them. The walls of sandbags behind us in the pictures are bunkers.

All of us, with the exception of one, are in our mid-40s (seasoned veterans). The youngster is in his mid-30s. And, we quickly found out we can't jump as high as we used to and our timing is off from our younger days. We all had plenty of laughs at each other expense when we jumped up, swinging at the ball and hitting nothing but air or the net. It was a fun time and a good distraction from the daily routine.

Typical Day

Thought I would describe a typical day on the FOB, but first a little bit about the picture above. The Army and the Afghan police are prepping for a trip outside the wire. This shows the difference between our equipment and theirs. The Afghan police are driving the small pickups with a gunner in the bed of the truck. The US are in the big sand colored vehicles, however, they are usually the lead vehicles.

A typical day - starts at 6-6:30 when I get up and then off to breakfast at 7:00 or a call home. We are usually in the office by 8:00 and work until around 5:00. The contractors start to show up around 8:30-9:00, it takes an hour or better for them to get through the gate. They are not allowed to drive on base, just the vehicles needed to do the job, otherwise they walk on base. Then to get them home before dark, they start to wrap things up at 3:00. Quitting time will be later in the day as we start to see more hours of sun. So, in a typical day we are lucky if we get 5 hours of work from the contractors. Some would say that's not a lot different than at home, but I will say the 5 hours at home are usually more productive than they are here.

Our day is spent checking on the contractor's progress, putting together new projects, establishing priorities, requesting the funding, and attending meetings. Most of the meetings are on Saturday, Monday and Sunday. The days are pretty full and we keep busy, which helps the day go fast. We do go to the office every day, but the level of work varies. We have to take time to go to the bazaar, get hair cuts (some of us more often than others), and do PT (physical training).

I usually do my PT after work, with not a lot of other things to do, it fills another hour or so. I have been able to motivate myself to go to the gym 6 days a week in our first weeks here, we'll see if I can keep that up. I thought I was seeing the results of my efforts last night when I noticed a tear in my PT t-shirt under my arm. My first thought was I must have ripped through when I was lifting weights, but then I looked closer. It was just the stitching coming out of the seem of the cheap, low-bid AF t-shirt. Guess I'll have to keep working on it.

By the time I get done at the gym and clean up, it's dinner time and then back to the room, usually by 8 pm. The rest of the evening is spent calling home (Skyp-ing), e-mailing or typing this blog, or reading a book and lights out at 10 (by choice).

Next day, start at the beginning, repeat.

Darkness

No pictures today - I have one, but the internet is not working good enough to download the pictures. I thought since it's been a couple days since my last posting I would go ahead with out the picture.

We've been talking about how dark it is here at night this week. We were reminded of that yesterday, when the base sent out a general reminder to use our green/red/blue flashlights when walking at night. Salerno is a blackout base, so no lights at night, not even the headlights on vehicles, only the colored light. Someone was trusting their night vision the other night and walked into a big concrete barrier, banging up their teeth and lips, leaving a trail of blood all the way to the hospital.

One of our team members told us he explained how dark it is to his wife by telling her that he could walk naked from our living area to the office and no one would notice. However, as we told him don't try that when there is a real full moon out there and we thanked him for that image!

That's enough about the dark. I was visiting with Mike (the contractor) yesterday and telling him that I noticed one of his workers was a very hard worker, especially for how young he looked. He told me that he was about 14 or 16 years old. When I said he should be in school, Mike explained that people in this area have it pretty rough, it takes everyone to support the family. Mike said he does what he can to help as he pays his workers about twice the going wages. He pays the general labor about $6 a day. This should give our children a better appreciation for living in the US.

I don't know how much things cost in Afghanistan, but I imagine $6 a day goes a little further than it would at home. When I was in the Finance office yesterday, I noticed the exchange rate posted on the wall, $20 US is equal to about 1000 Afghani. However, even with the cheap labor and the exchange rate, our construction costs seem to be about in line with the costs at home. Of course the work environment has a lot to do with the higher costs.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! It's just another day at Salerno. I need to watch the movie, Groundhog Day, that's what it's starting to feel like. That, or every day is a Monday. It's getting harder to remember what day something happened on or what day today is, is it Saturday?

The pictures above are the gym on base. We've been here about three weeks now and still trying to figure out what times the gym is not busy. You can't be in a hurry if you go to the gym, you have to wait to use the equipment. Or, you have to be flexible and use whatever is available. Overall, it's a nice facility and with not much else to do, there is time to wait.

There is a lot of muscle in the gym, I'm feeling a little out gunned when I do my routine. But, most of them are half my age, too. I don't have a clue what the guy on the left in the top picture is doing. Didn't even notice him until posting the pictures.

Lunch at Aziz's

Here's a picture of lunch today - pretty much the same as yesterday. There were a couple new items - kidney beans and squash. The squash is in the lower right part of the tray. Again it was all good, but I think two days back to back was a little too much for me. I'll wait a little while before I go back.

Not much else today, rained until about noon, so I drove around the base looking at drainage issues. Not much slope on the base and not much for storm sewer infrastructure. The US contractor, KBR, has a good person in charge of this and he has been making improvements as he has time with the heavy equipment.

Aziz's Bakery

Today was a rainy day, so not much construction work going on. It's still raining tonight, this is the most rain we've had in the short time we have been here. It'll be a good morning to check drainage on the base tomorrow.

We went Aziz's Bakery today for lunch. One of the local national engineers in the office wanted to take us. So we had lunch, and we'll go back again tomorrow, Aziz's invited us back. He would not take any thing for the meal, said we were with his friend. And, he said he would not take anything for lunch tomorrow. But, if we like we can come back the next day and he'll take our money. I don't know how he makes any money as I saw him refuse payment from another custormer while we were eating our lunch.

I'm not sure exactly what we ate, but it was good and so far, keep my fingers crossed, no adverse reactions. They started with the hot green tea and flat bread, while we waited for the food. We had a rice mixture that had some cooked grapes, tomatoes and some other stuff, some kind of bean mixture, a beef stew (beef and corn), tomatoes and onions and something else that none of us were sure what it was. We asked the local engineer and he said it was a kabob, it was flat like a burger and tasted like some kind of meat, not too bad. Then we finished with more green tea.

We'll see what's for lunch tomorrow. In the picture above I'm standing in front of the bakery with another member of our team and the local national engineer.

Back to Reality

It's been a couple days since my last posting. Yesterday we all got a sobering reminder of why we are here. Two American heroes paid the ultimate price, for our country and Afghanistan, while on a convoy in a neighboring village. Their convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED). The explosion was big enough we heard it and felt it on the base. As a result our communications to outside world were restricted until the families were notified. A good reminder to me as to why I'm glad to be a FOBbette and to do what I can to improve the facilities and support for those who do go outside the wire.

Enough of that stuff, the top picture above shows another mode of transportation for the Afghan workers on the base. There are several small tractors, one pulls a small trailer that the workers ride in, standing up. I usually see this one every morning as they go to the local Afghan bakery, on base, to get bread for their lunches or for a break. The second picture is one of the bunkers on base. This one has to be moved as it is in the way of our road paving. The last picture is of a plane on the gravel runway off-loading supplies for the base.

The local bakery is called Aziz's Bakery, I'll try to get a picture of it for a future posting. It's operated by a local and has been allowed to stay on the base to serve the many locals and third country nationals on base. Aziz (not sure on the spelling) has invited our team for tea on Friday afternoon. The last team went there often and he is probably feeling the loss in revenue. Looks like I might get a chance to sample the local cuisine later this week.

Pranks Soliers Play

I typed this yesterday, Sunday, but was not able to post it until now because we lost our internet connection.

Today went by fast. After a quick walk around the base this morning to look at my projects, I went to church. There is a small chapel on the base and they have worship services at several times during the day. Kind of a different experience when everyone in the church is in some kind of uniform and carrying weapons. It's nice to have that opportunity though.

Later in the day I came around the corner of our office building and saw the Humvee in the picture above parked in front of the port-a-john and a couple soldiers walking around it. My first thought was they ran into it. Then I noticed there was someone in it, they had put the bumper of the Humvee against the door so he could not get out. They finally let him out after about 10 minutes, only because the contractor came to clean it out.

I have got through all 214 Valentine's Day cards I received from the R-S elementary school - Go Norsemen! They have provided me with 2 days of entertainment. Remember the show Bill Cosby used to have about kids saying some of the funniest things? I thought I would share some of the better ones, I enjoyed them all but these are all from the Kindergarten class.

"Do you miss us? Does the cook over there make corn dogs for you? That will make you feel better." (They do have corn dogs in the dining facility, I'll have to try this.)

"Happy Valentines. You should invite friends over to your tank for dinner. Do you have chickens? I don't know what "across-the-ocean-food" looks like. Come back soon." (haven't seen any tanks yet)

"Do you wear everything green or can you choose pink sometimes? That is my favorite color so I hope so. Thank you for going to the war." (Odd that she asked, my shower shoes/flipflops have a pink strap. Yes, there is a story behind that.)

"Please be careful. Some safety tips for you: 1. Carry your shield all the time. 2. Keep your sword sharpened. 3. Be careful around your horse. 4. Eat lots of fruit. Happy Valentine's Day to you and your horse." (I always wanted to be a knight in shining armor.)

"Are there any swords in your cabin? Practice using it to look scary. Then watch 101 Dalmations but skip the mean parts. It's funny." (Maybe I can pick up a copy of 101 Dalmations at the bazaar)

"My uncle is in the army. He is one of your best soldiers so you should call him up. He could go camping with you there. Happy Valentine's Day!" (This one came from my great niece, so I think she is talking about me)

Mail Call

We got mail for the first time today, even I got some, actually a lot. I got a box of valentines day cards from the kids and teachers at the Roland-Story Elementary School. There must be several hundred of them, I'll be reading them over the next couple days. My Valentine's Day card box has never been that full. It's nice to know there is that much community support at home and receiving all those cards brings home a little closer to Afghanistan. If any of the teachers and kids are reading this, Thank You very much!

Now for the pictures above, the Air Force rock and it's story. We are an AF engineering team on a predominantly Army base. So, the previous team thought there should be something AF out in front of our office. We have a group of soldiers that work odd jobs for us, security on trips out to the gravel piles, escorting contractors, etc. One day the last team decided to paint one of the rocks in the parking lot with the AF logo and they had the army soldiers paint it. Kind of risky, but they did an excellent job. Everyone now knows of the AF presence on Salerno.

The other picture is of the water huts. We have running water on base from 5 wells, however, it is not suitable for drinking water. It is OK for showers and brushing your teeth. Drinking water comes in the bottles, which are scattered around the base in these little huts. Even though they say it is OK for brushing your teeth, I use the bottled water on my tooth brush.

Slow Day for Adventure

This is my second attempt at this posting. I got it all typed and then when I went to post it, I lost my internet connection. And of course it was not saved.

Not much happening today on the construction side of things. The concrete batch plant on base, run by an Afghan contractor, has not produced concrete since Saturday. The rumor from the other contractors on base is that he is not paying his bills. Funny how that works the same here as it does at home, if you don't pay your suppliers, they quit bringing the supplies. They have run out of gravel and sand at the plant. That is kind of ironic also because that is about all you see on the ground when you look around.

I spent most of the day in my office trying to figure out the other half (or better than half of my job). That is the tracking of all the projects, and requesting approvals and funding for all the future projects. Depending on the type of work or commodity needed, the cost of the work, and who is going to do the work, determines which boards have to review it and which forms have to be filled out. Of course, being in the military, every one of these boards and forms has an associated acronym. I have two pages of acronyms just so I can figure out the true meaning of the letters.

Being in the Air Force/Air National Guard for this long, I have become pretty good at making up meanings for the acronyms if I don't know them. Sometimes I'm close, but not usually right, however, mine are better. I think the Army has more than the AF does, so it has been a challenge figuring out all of the new ones.

I also forget that you don't always know the meaning of the ones I use out of habit. If you want any spelled out let me know. A couple my family has asked about so far are FOB and FET - Forward Operating Base and Facilities Engineering Team.

I know you prefer pictures over my stories, so I'll try to get some new ones in the next couple days. I missed a couple good ones yesterday on the asphalt project. The crew was sweeping the dirt off of the newly paved road with little hand brooms that look like they were made from palms. Also, the transportation of the employees is quite different, yesterday the crew was riding on top of the tank on the water truck. I'm sure there will be many more photo ops in the future.

Where is FOB Salerno?

No pictures today, it was a rainy day, so we did not get out much. Thought I would just let you know where FOB Salerno is located. On the map above it is located in the point east of Gardez. The base is located in east-central Afghanistan in the province of Khost. It is located about 15 kilometers from the Pakistan border.

I don't really feel like I'm seeing Afghanistan, but under the circumstances, I'm OK with just seeing the base. They have a term for those of us that do not leave the base, it is FOBbette. I'll have to experience the country through the contractors we work with. I think they are also as curious about us as we are about them.

The Bizarre

As if this experience wasn't bizarre enough, the Afghans call the groups of shops around the country side bizarres. We have a bizarre on base where locals can sell their goods to the military. It is open every day but Friday, not all of the shops are open every day. They sell just about anything. One of the more popular shops is Block Buster, they sell all kinds of DVDs from movies to full season TV shows (even the current season) , even movies that were just or currently in the theaters at home. Some of the guys have bought them and tell me they are not from someone's video camera inside the theater, they are good quality for $3. They also sell computer hard drives, printer cartidges, memory cards, speakers, and many other electronic gadgets. I have no idea where they get them.

They also sell many things unique to this country, rugs, old musket rifles, swords, knives, gems, hand carved wood bowls, wood chests, stone chess sets, stone plates and goblets, shoes and clothing. And holsters for us to carry our pistols, which many of us have bought. One shop had some shoes that look like "I Dream of Genie" type shoes with the curled up toes. I don't know the quality of the gems, but everyone tells you to be cautious, some may be just colored glass.

I've got several more months to decide what kind of souvenirs to buy and ship home, maybe some traditional clothing or head wear, or not.

Super Bowl Monday

Got up early to watch the super bowl, what an ending. It could only have been better if Arizona had won. We had to root for Arizona with Kurt Warner and the Iowa connection, also I'm with a team out of St. Louis and they still have a connection to Warner from his days with the Rams. Also, another person on our team is from Arizona, so he had us all pulling for the underdog. The game was over in time for us to go to work, 7:30 am. It was a long day after getting up so early.

I've included a couple more pictures from the paving crew. The top picture is another example of how OSHA is not part of the Afghan culture. The one guy walks in front of the roller spraying a liquid on the roller drum to keep the asphalt from sticking to it. The driver is looking the other way, one slip/trip and the guy with the sprayer becomes part of the pavement. I included the second picture as this is something you would not see on a job in Iowa. The lady in the traditional Indian dress is the contractor's project manager, she is talking to the local Afghan engineer that works in our office and sometimes as an interpretor for us. The tall guy in the darker brown outfit is the paving crew supervisor.

The contractor's manager has fired 8 laborers this week. I'm not sure why the first 6 were let go, but the two that were fired today were the result of a fist fight on the job. I did not see it, only heard about it, sounds like they went at it pretty good. As a result, no paving was accomplished today, they got the paving machine all ready this morning by 10 am and the contractor's workers stood around, until 2:30 when they must have decided there was no asphalt coming from the plant and they packed up and went home for the day. Just when you think they have it together and they had a good day yesterday, it goes back the other way to make wonder how long this project will go on.

Mountain Scenery

Yesterday we climbed up the new air traffic control tower. This gave us a good vantage point to see off the base. The top picture is the new tower, taken from the old tower, which is stacked conex storage containers. The other pictures are of the mountains around the base. Some of the mountains further out are covered with snow, but those around us do not have any snow.

The weather has cooled a little the last couple days, with highs in the 40's I'd guess. We have had frost on the roofs the last two mornings.

It's Super Bowl Sunday at home, but it will be Super Bowl Monday here. Game time is 3:30 am Monday morning, we'll be up to watch, then go to work. We have AFN (Armed Forces Network) in the office and a projector, so we'll watch it on the big screen. We're all disappointed though, as AFN does not run any commercials, which for many Super Bowls are the highlight of the night. Maybe the game itself will be this year.