Photos, Gas Masks and Briefings

This morning started off with individual and group pictures.  The lady taking the photos either didn't like her job or ran out of coffee this morning.  She fired off 2 photos of everyone in record time, whether you were looking your best or not.  I'm just hoping my eyes were open.

It was mostly a day of briefings.  Some of them good, some somewhat boring.  My favorites dealt with making sure my pay was straight and stays that way.  The rest of them dealt with family readiness (could have used it before this point), force protection (I don't mind the constant reminder to drive fast, break the law and don't get out of the up-armored vehicles), HR (more pay stuff), IT (don't use thumb drives and blow up your computer) and legal (don't buy archaeological artifacts, military items, or download copyrighted items).  Along with force protection we were taught that if you were being chased in a vehicle and a donkey, child, woman and old man were in the path, do not hit the old man.  The Afghanis believe that all are replaceable but the wisdom of an elder man.

I did eat lunch with another electrical engineer.  His family fled Afghanistan in 1987 (about the time the Russians were ousted from Afghanistan and civil war started with the eventual take-over by the Taliban).  This is his first time back and he is hoping to meet up with some of his cousins while in Kabul. 

GEEK ALERT/INTERESTING FACT:  Kandahar, one of the biggest cities in southern Afghanistan, only has about 20 MW of power feeding it.  To put that in perspective, the last paper mill I worked at took about 20 MW of power to operate.  It had 3 generators, one of which was a 30 MW generator that was used to put power back on the grid.  Part of the power provided to Kandahar is provided from a hydro-electric plant built right after WWII (it would have been built by either the Russians or America) and the rest is provided by diesel generators installed by the Corps of Engineers.  Most of the people outside the center of Kandahar are lucky if the get 4 hours of electricity a day.  Two current projects the Corps has in Kandahar are helping to get two more generators operational at the dam and installing 4 new 10 MW generators around the city.  The generators were picked because they were designed to fit on military aircraft and can be flown in, which is beneficial considering the problems with trucking items in from Pakistan.

This afternoon we finished off with gas mask training.  We had to get our masks on in under 9 seconds, which wasn't to difficult.  You just have to remember to not breathe, close your eyes and clear the air inside your mask.  Then you should be good to go.  Oh yeah, my two favorite indicators to put your mask on:  animals are dropping around you and other people have their masks on.

I'm packed and ready to ship some gear over tomorrow.  We are also spending most of our day in first aid training tomorrow.  Other than that I guess I'm ready to call it a night and start all over again tomorrow.