I've been given some nebulous points of guidance for my work priorities for the time being after I first arrived at my base in Kabul. One of which was assisting in the QA/QC of reconstruction projects data in a classified tracking database we use. Another was to make contact with other organizations working reconstruction and development projects in Afghanistan in order to better synchronize our efforts. With that being the sum total of the instruction I received, I decided to do a little ground recon of the Green Zone/Village and see what resources it had to offer.
The Green Zone/Green Village in Kabul is an area of several secure compounds in a loosely "secured" section of town. Among some of the compounds are the ISAF headquarters, the U.S. Camp Eggers, the USAID compound, a number of Afghan government buildings, and the diplomatic area to include the U.S. embassy. My camp is close to the Green Zone, about a quarter mile actually, but not inside it. Thus, we have to ride in an armored suburban from our camp to the Green Zone, requiring our protective gear to include: weapon, body armor, and helmet. When I got in the vehicle, I looked at my window, and it looked like big impact crack in the bullet proof glass. The driver smiled, and said that was just from a rock a kid threw. I commented he must have had quite an arm, and he just grinned back. Very
I came here over the weekend to attend a computer system training class in the ISAF compound, but I didn't see much else. This time I decided to do a little more exploring on my own. I went back to the ISAF compound and to the building housing the contractors that support the database system we use. I emailed the contact name I'd been given to send him a heads up that I'd be dropping by, but he hadn't responded by the time I left in the morning. When I got there, I found that he had moved to another site in the country, but his boss was available asked if I would speak with him, so we went to a foreign run coffee shop to discuss business. (Score!) I was able to give him a list of known bugs and requirements that we would like to see fixed and upgraded, and he in turn added me to several staff meetings to help raise my situational awareness of the ongoing upgrades of this vast multi-user platform.
Afterwards, I left the ISAF compound and walked down the street to Camp Eggers. I was hit up several times by street children wanting me to buy bracelets, etc. I gave each of them a piece of gum and said I was on business and couldn't stop. I also reminded them not to chew the gum until later because it was the holy month of Ramadan. (A month of fasting, absolutely nothing goes in the mouth during the daylight hours) I entered Camp Eggers and walked through the elaborate maze of security screening checkpoints that each camp has. Once there, I visited the PX and ate lunch at one of the DFACs. I also took a little while to stop and cool off (since I was completely soaked with sweat from wearing the body armor) with a glass of ice tea in the Green Bean coffee house, franchised by AAFES.
After I sufficiently cooled off and dried out, I put back on my body armor and headed out the gate and down the street towards the U.S. embassy. While walking down the main street, I noticed how the security was getting more and more heavy. I decided rather than to approach the embassy cold and look for a contact that way, I would hit up the USAID compound across the street. The do a great number of the major development projects in this country, so it fit well within my scope of work priorities. After I made it through the security, I asked for the Military liaison to the organization. My contact was much higher up in the organization than I would have expected, basically near the top, and was very interested to know how our two organizations could help each other. (Score again!)
Afterwards, I walked back to ISAF and bought a local cell phone and sim card so I could communicate easier with the people I'd be meeting and working with over the course of the year. On a side note, it's absolutely amazing the technology that all other countries have with cell phones. The major cell phone service providers in the U.S. have dumbed down the market with older technology and higher prices in what seems to be collusion for years. You only ned to travel outside the U.S. to see for yourself.
It's funny, I never saw myself as much of a networker, usually relying on websites such as Facebook or LinkedIn to manage my contacts, but it looks like this next year will be an opportunity to step out of my typical work shell. I'm definitely not used to working at a level this high up, but I think I'm off to a great start.
More to follow.
The Green Zone/Green Village in Kabul is an area of several secure compounds in a loosely "secured" section of town. Among some of the compounds are the ISAF headquarters, the U.S. Camp Eggers, the USAID compound, a number of Afghan government buildings, and the diplomatic area to include the U.S. embassy. My camp is close to the Green Zone, about a quarter mile actually, but not inside it. Thus, we have to ride in an armored suburban from our camp to the Green Zone, requiring our protective gear to include: weapon, body armor, and helmet. When I got in the vehicle, I looked at my window, and it looked like big impact crack in the bullet proof glass. The driver smiled, and said that was just from a rock a kid threw. I commented he must have had quite an arm, and he just grinned back. Very
I came here over the weekend to attend a computer system training class in the ISAF compound, but I didn't see much else. This time I decided to do a little more exploring on my own. I went back to the ISAF compound and to the building housing the contractors that support the database system we use. I emailed the contact name I'd been given to send him a heads up that I'd be dropping by, but he hadn't responded by the time I left in the morning. When I got there, I found that he had moved to another site in the country, but his boss was available asked if I would speak with him, so we went to a foreign run coffee shop to discuss business. (Score!) I was able to give him a list of known bugs and requirements that we would like to see fixed and upgraded, and he in turn added me to several staff meetings to help raise my situational awareness of the ongoing upgrades of this vast multi-user platform.
Afterwards, I left the ISAF compound and walked down the street to Camp Eggers. I was hit up several times by street children wanting me to buy bracelets, etc. I gave each of them a piece of gum and said I was on business and couldn't stop. I also reminded them not to chew the gum until later because it was the holy month of Ramadan. (A month of fasting, absolutely nothing goes in the mouth during the daylight hours) I entered Camp Eggers and walked through the elaborate maze of security screening checkpoints that each camp has. Once there, I visited the PX and ate lunch at one of the DFACs. I also took a little while to stop and cool off (since I was completely soaked with sweat from wearing the body armor) with a glass of ice tea in the Green Bean coffee house, franchised by AAFES.
After I sufficiently cooled off and dried out, I put back on my body armor and headed out the gate and down the street towards the U.S. embassy. While walking down the main street, I noticed how the security was getting more and more heavy. I decided rather than to approach the embassy cold and look for a contact that way, I would hit up the USAID compound across the street. The do a great number of the major development projects in this country, so it fit well within my scope of work priorities. After I made it through the security, I asked for the Military liaison to the organization. My contact was much higher up in the organization than I would have expected, basically near the top, and was very interested to know how our two organizations could help each other. (Score again!)
Afterwards, I walked back to ISAF and bought a local cell phone and sim card so I could communicate easier with the people I'd be meeting and working with over the course of the year. On a side note, it's absolutely amazing the technology that all other countries have with cell phones. The major cell phone service providers in the U.S. have dumbed down the market with older technology and higher prices in what seems to be collusion for years. You only ned to travel outside the U.S. to see for yourself.
It's funny, I never saw myself as much of a networker, usually relying on websites such as Facebook or LinkedIn to manage my contacts, but it looks like this next year will be an opportunity to step out of my typical work shell. I'm definitely not used to working at a level this high up, but I think I'm off to a great start.
More to follow.
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