Zabul PRT and planning process

This one was so much different it is hard to compare. Our team of three met with all the different elements of the Provincial Team minus the Police Mentoring Team and Special Forces for the first two days, put together a proposed strawman of much of the process and then spent a LONG day working through each section. Overall it went pretty well. Had a great time playing basketball to unwind each night for a couple of hours. They would power up the generator to light up the court at night. Wow, playing so much 1 on 1 or 3 on 3 has made me quite an awful 5 on 5 player. Had fun nonetheless. Got to go through the towers at sunset and look across the valley and stare at another of Alexander the Great’s castles as the sun sank transforming the sky into a palate full of oranges and pinks. Sometimes, the light here reminds me of Africa…and when I start thinking about it, I never can figure out exactly what I mean, how can light be different, but it is even though I struggle to figure out why. A few other interesting tidbits are that the military guys here all have nicknames on their uniform, so I’ve hung out with Superman, Spiderman, the Punisher, etc. I got a kick out of that. Also, the facilities here are really neat. They are old buildings which while falling apart, are still a good decade or two from disrepair. In the meantime, the Provincial Reconstruction Team gets to enjoy a unique setting that drastically improves the boring and rigid structures of the plywood B-huts set up across almost all of our other bases. While the surroundings aren’t as stunning as other places I’ve been, I really enjoy the compound. The only exception was the last night when there were a couple of explosions. The Afghan National Army compound was adjacent to the compound where I was staying and a few of their guys were seriously injured and med-evac’ed out. I understand the injuries weren’t life-threatening. I was working in the computer lab then. It happened to be in the secure, fall-back position. Needless to say, I decided perhaps I could crank out another hour or two of work! I was tickled as guys grabbed their guns and headed out, while others ran in exclaiming, “man, did you hear that?” and “I knew after that hit, there would be computers available!” I found during the facilitation process that Zabul is the second most dangerous province in Afghanistan. Here I thought I was in some Shangri-la with the neat compound where I was staying…

Peace...