We hired a local Afghan contractor to build a couple of wooden buildings, install the plumbing and do a little site work. The contractor hired a group of carpenters from north of Kabul and left their young civil engineer on site and in charge of the job. The head carpenter (on the left in the picture below, the "Master of the Carpenters" is in the center, the engineer is on the right) is a pretty strong old man, dresses like he stepped out of a National Geographic issue from the Afghan/Soviet War (has the beard to match) and somewhat intimidates the civil engineer. From the first day they showed up on site they wanted to know that if they did a good job would I give them a Certificate. I said sure, but only if they did a good job. Every day I would walk out to the site and the carpenter would come over, shake my hand, wave his arm toward what they were doing, give me a thumbs up and say OK. I would usually say yes and then we would say “Certificate!!” (I think he only knew how to say OK, certificate and cigarette in English). I would get our interpreter or the civil engineer over and have them tell the carpenter that if he got the building done in three days I would give him a certificate. He would laugh, say something in Dari (probably fussin’ at me) and go back to work.
Occasionally we would have to get the carpenters to correct some work or add some trim work. If the head carpenter didn’t agree with what the civil engineer was telling him, they would have a short discussion and the carpenter would stroke his beard indicating he was older and wiser than the civil engineer. The engineer would look dejected, so we would step in and have him tell the carpenter that if he didn’t correct it we wouldn’t give him the certificate. The carpenter would laugh and eventually would correct it. Or, if we didn’t say anything the engineer would just look at us and say “I will get the Master of the Carpenters to tell him to fix it”. The “Master of the Carpenters” was another man that was the boss, but much less intimidating.
The FOB doesn’t let the locals coming on the base bring their cigarettes. So whenever we would come on site the QAs would give them one of their cigarettes and they’d smoke while we talked. Once they realized the QAs would always give them cigarettes, they would quickly come to them and ask for one. One day the engineer walked up to me and said “You know that they always go to Dave first because he has cigarettes.” He was trying to make sure that my feelings weren’t hurt and that he knew who was in charge J
Close to end of the job the head carpenter and I had our usual exchange and he asked for a certificate. I asked him how long until the buildings were done. He said, “Maybe 8 days.” I picked up a piece of cardboard, signed it, gave it to him and told him that this would do until he’s finished. It surprised him and he thought it was pretty funny, we had to take a picture to capture the moment.
We have finally come to a close on the main carpentry part of the project. Other than some punch list items and other minor work they have finished up. The consensus was that they wanted their pictures and names on the certificates. Dave (the QA) and I prepared them and signed them. We all gathered so I could hand out the certificates. Dave and I thanked them individually and told them how we really appreciated their work and efforts. The head carpenter then gave a touching speech thanking us for giving them the opportunity to work and show what they could do, the opportunity for future work, for being present in Afghanistan and for helping to create a safe place for them to live and work. His remarks really gave meaning to what we are doing and that we are really helping people.
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