Missions

Another week has passed, and I have taken a while to write again. Lately I have been staying pretty busy and also finding it hard to write about what has become so day to day. When I started the blog everything was so new and exciting, and not that it’s a grind now, but it just doesn’t seem as easy to write about anymore.

I spent all this week out on the road, visiting different Afghan villages. That is mostly what I do now. When I first got here I mainly looked at ongoing projects to make sure they were being built properly, we call those QA mission (Quality Assurance missions). However, now I mostly go out with the Army Civil Affairs (CA) guys as they do assessments of the villages. These are more or less meet and greets, where the CA finds out the needs of the village, and then works with the village elders and the district governor to fix the problem. I come into play if the solution involves a construction project. If it does I get the ball rolling on putting that project in the pipeline to get constructed.

I’m not sure which missions I like more, or less. The QA missions are fast and easy because they are fairly cut and dry. If the construction is good, well then I move on, and if it’s not, they have to fix it. The CA missions end up being quite nebulous most of the time. It may be an irrigation structure, or school, or a bridge, but there is almost never agreement between all parties. Furthermore, some problems are solved without construction and some assessments made without engineer input (imagine that!), leaving me, just along for the ride. Either way, both missions make the time go by, so I guess I like them both… I guess.

Thank you and God Bless.