I'm going to skip ahead to the present for a moment before recapping the past. I've realized that, though my pay reflects me being in a combat zone, FOB Sharana is not a combat zone. When they have enough time on their hands to strictly enforce their (at times inane) uniform restrictions[1], increase their on-base security personnel so they can crack down on speeding and not-coming-to-a-comPLETE-stop, etc. I recognize that driving safety is important, but this is rather annoying.
[1] Uniform standards are kind of funny. I understand that military standards are things to be followed, not questioned, but really ... the reflective belt at all times (regardless of time of day) is being enforced on the other side of the FOB, and I won't be surprised if they throw that BS our way as well. Heck, apparently some commanders (in the military sense, not Naval) feel they can change uniform regulations (more strict in some ways, just slightly different in others) on their whim. So, it's a bit off of what I perceive as "deal with the important stuff first".
Granted, Molly is likely happy to hear that things are not kinetic enough here for them to focus on that. I'm not upset, either. There are certainly other FOBs (with friends working on them) where they quite often get indirect fire (mortars and/or rockets). It's usually ineffective (in that injuries are minimal or non-existent), for which I'm thankful.
Okay, back to the past for a little bit. I've gone outside the wire a bit over a dozen times, which if you consider that I've been here 30 days, is running me about half the time on a trip. That seems high as I type it, but really isn't that bad compared with some others. Most of my trips have been rather short and into other protected compounds; I don't relish the fact that my job prevents me from really over-extending myself locale-wise, but again I'm not trying to put myself at risk, certainly.
I recently took a helo ride to a village district center where we aren't very happy with their support of anti-Afghan forces. They were holding a shura (and the provincial governor was there), and apparently they may be relaxing their opposition to our presence and may allow us to become productive in that area again. I'll believe it when I see it ... or, more appropriately, when we make several trips there and don't have IEDs and other "issues" with which to contend.
Anyway, while there and after my primary duty was complete, they asked me and a colleague to join them for chai. (My first invitation!) The chai took a bit of time to heat up, so we talked for a bit. About 10 minutes later they brought in lunch! Rice, beef (or lamb, not sure) in a spiced sauce, some kind of vegetable common to Afghan plates I've had here. Before the chai came, they gave me a Mello Yellow as well. I made three compromises during this meal:
- I have had 1 soda since a few weeks before leaving Atterbury almost 2 months ago, and even then I think I've had 3 in the last 4+ months. I drank some of the (half-can) Mello Yellow.
- There was a (long) hair in my meat dish.
- There was what appeared to be an eyelash or eyebrow hair in my chai.
On that, somebody else (not this team) was visiting a new school in his province. The principal showed him around, including the class room for the girls (where they were quite excited to show off their new books). Afterwards, he was invited to eat lunch with them, towards which he was escorted into the dining room where the food was covered in flies. Before starting that job, he made himself a promise to eat everything offered -- even when it looked such as this -- in order to not offend. He had predicted that, if he chose to eat it, he would likely pay for it later. He did, and he did.
I got lucky.
That colleague I was working with that day, btw, alleges that only two meals brought food poisoning since coming to Afghanistan: the dining facility in Sharan, and the dining facility in Bagram. Nice.
So my turnover is complete, and I must say that I've never had so much turnover (over 3 weeks) and yet had such a pathetic grasp on everything that was going on, and I don't think it's because of the complexity of things. My predecessor, though an intelligent person, certainly looks at everything so vastly differently than most others. His organizational skills are ... curious. His management of contracts and funds is ... creative, though lawyers don't often associate "creative" with recommended techniques. Every day he would tell me something about the job that he hadn't told me before. For a while, that's normal and expected. However, when on the last few days he tells me about projects that I need to handle since they're about to finish (and nobody else knows about them because of his slightly non-traditional communication and management skills), I get concerned about all that he isn't telling me. I won't get into the details; suffice it to say that the turnover has been very difficult. This is my second night with him gone, and today didn't introduce a lot of new things, but one project's timeline is vastly different than he originally let on. Awesome.
Sooooo, anyway, I finally have my room and my department to myself. My room is closer to austere than anything else, though it is functional. I'm fortunate enough to not share it with anyone, an unexpected perk considering the Army doesn't consider anybody below O-6 important or of sufficient rank for recognition.
I'm taking some pictures, but because I spend most of my time on the Army's computers and networks, I'm unable to load those pictures. Of course, I'm also unable to view other peoples blogs, copy the pics to any computer, or even view most productive sites on the web. It's actually worse than NMCI with its two slightly different definitions: Navy and Marine Corps Intranet, and Non-Mission Capable Intranet. Oh, that reminds me: I have three computers on my desk. And I use all three frequently every day. If you look at just my military emails, I have 4 that I have immediate access to and another 2 that I should have access to but haven't been able to get work. That doesn't even count my personal email addresses (that they don't let me access from work).
I'd love to say that my job description was factually accurate or misleading, but truth be told there isn't a job description out there. I'd love to say that that's because every PRT operates a little differently, but that's not really the reason even if it is true. The reason? I often feel that the PRT mission is a hodge-podge of several beasts stuck together in a way that makes it the red-headed step child of all the services (simultaneously, quite an accomplishment) and yet at times immensely productive in trying to undermine sources of instability.
So, though I am the department head for the engineering department, my job doesn't really require me to be an engineer. It would help, but it isn't required. I gotta say, being married to Molly has helped in this regard, as well: all of her talk during her COR (Contracting Officer's Representative) course and work is coming back in spurts where I didn't really appreciate the considerations that go into contract law (and management).
BTW, here's a deep thought for you (though if you don't deal with contracts or contract law, it may not make sense or at least be at all funny to you): if "KO" is contracting officer, "KTR" is contractor, and "K" is contract, why don't they call contracting officer's representative "KOR"? It plagues me ...
So anyway, my department does a lot of engineering projects. I'd say that helping them manage our (over $40M worth of) projects is not even half of my job. I get to deal with so many other things that it keeps me hopping, guessing, and constantly wondering when things are going to start making sense. I get to work on smaller, agriculture-centric projects (I'm learning about animal health a little) as well as watershed considerations. I can discuss -- somewhat intelligently -- the use of checkdams, gabians (sp?), and other irrigation techniques to improve the quality and quantity of water reaching a community, as well as ways to maximize its effectiveness in their crops. I'm not good at any of these things, to be honest, but if I can keep my head above water, I can enable people who do know about these to teach the villagers. Today, I just picked up tasking for around 8 more projects for the next couple of months; projects that my assistant (an architect and very intelligent person despite that! ;-)) will likely never see.
I haven't gotten any guidance from my command officer, either. Though I have found this fact to be frustrating in the past, I actually find it liberating right now. Don't get me wrong, I truly believe he should be providing a little more guidance to me. But, in the absence of that, I've developed the goals I think somebody in his position would develop and give to my department; I've communicated those goals to some of my peers (for review and critique) and to my department (for understanding and execution). And I move forward with determination to get them done, keeping my CO apprised of my way-aheads, giving him the right of refusal, but really driving my own plans and destiny here. I hope he continues to let me guide myself here.
Our team in general is, not surprisingly, having many growing pains. Our missions are labored and not efficient; our meetings are a little long, clumsy, and inefficient; our inter-colleague collaboration is sometimes lacking, sometimes contrived and unnecessary; and realistically most people are slowly growing into their positions. I hope many of our current processes are adapted later, as they have taken a few steps back in technology and capability / efficiency. Ugh.
I'd love to keep chatting here, but I must bid you good night. I'll try to write more often. I will say, however, that I haven't gotten one picture from my brothers or sisters with children on Halloween. I'm just saying ...
Good night.
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