Marjah blog 3: Winter chills and health and safety nightmares
Time flies by with January over already. With the continuing process of transition the District Stabilisation Team do less and stand back more and let the Afghan district administration get on with things on their own. The US Marines, likewise, now leave the Afghan security forces in the lead and stand ready to help should the need arise. The building of the new District Centre continues as does a new health centre and a high school. Progress is quite rapid despite the complete lack of any kind of plant equipment that you'd expect Back Home. 'Elf and Safety would have a fit if they saw the cement mixer - the only nod to mechanisation.
For all of us sitting back is not the easiest of feelings. We're all pretty pro-active people and to sit back and watch is a new skill we need to work on! Makes a change though. And it is absolutely the right thing to do. We need to let the Afghans just get on and run their own country and not always be what, at times, seems like a nag.
The free time does though give you the chance to do things we were too busy to do before - or maybe it takes away the excuse for not doing things: like going to the gym (much needed). And I'm learning Dutch of all things. I can recommend the Rosetta Stone system if you're tempted by a new language.
Like the British military and its Shoebox Appeal, the US Marines receive a steady supply of "welfare items" - stuff sent to them from kind Americans. All sorts of things arrive: soap, toothpaste, snacks, books and DVDs. Passing the table where all these goodies await a grateful owner, I spotted a book I have been wanting to read for years, Robert Hughes' "the Fatal Shore" - all about the founding of Australia. Yes, I know, the aboriginal people "found" it first - but you get the drift. I used to work in Australia and never had time to read this almost 700-page tome. Who'd have thought I'd find it in Marjah and have time to read it! Funny old world. I got some Crest toothpaste too from the goodie table ;-) So many thanks indeed to whoever sent those. Good choices!
It's pretty cold here at this time of year - not as cold as the current snows and freezing temperatures in Europe - but still mainly cobalt blue skies. No water in the mornings at the moment as the pipes are frozen. But sitting in the sun, sheltered from a bitingly chilly wind, reading is rather nice.
My job in Marjah is drawing to an unexpected close. I had thought I'd probably see out my time in Helmand here. However I'm being moved to another area about 120 kilometres to the south - the district of Khaneshin. This is near the Pakistan border and should prove to be, err, interesting. It also sounds rather "basic" in comparison to the relatively comfortable ISO containers we in live here. Back to Spartan living! Fingers crossed that, at this time of year, there are hot showers......
I'll keep you posted.