A BUSY WEEK |
October 02, 2012
Name: Skip Rohde
Stationed in: Afghanistan
Hometown: Asheville, NC
Milblog: Ramblings From A Painter
Email: skip@skiprohde
It's been a busy week here in the wilds of southern Afghanistan. My
little team has been wrapped up in some very contentious issues with
local officials. What it boils down to is a matter of trust, or rather,
the lack of it. We have tried to move some projects along, but local
officials don't trust the contractors, and the contractors don't trust
the local officials. Meanwhile, the local residents don't trust the
district governor (who is not from here), nor do they trust the police,
the provincial government, the national government, my little team, or
ISAF. How do you get past that? Well, you just tell the truth, don't
over-promise, and do what you say you're going to do. Same as anywhere
in the US, except here we're starting from way behind the 8-ball.
One of the things that has hampered us this week has been the
organization charged with carrying out some of our projects. See, the
way we work is that the US civilian government does not do these
projects on its own. We use non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to
carry out our programs, simply because we don't have the people to do it
all ourselves. NGOs are the organizations who provide managers, hire
the contractors, buy the stuff that needs to be bought, hire local
labor, coordinate with local officials, and do all the actual grunt work
of carrying out a program. For the past week, one of the NGOs has
been a real headache for us. Essentially, they over-promised and
under-delivered on too many things. This really irked the locals (as
well as us). Partially as a result, they do not have a good
relationship with people here. So some of our programs are stalled
while people yell at other people. Some of the meetings got really ugly
this week.
But other meetings went surprisingly well. There is one area in which
there has been some tension between different sides, but they all made
an extra effort this week and really moved things along. I was
impressed. Unfortunately, it wasn't my area, so I can't take any credit
nor enjoy the fruits of improved coordination. Rats. But I'll keep
banging my head against the brick wall of local officials and NGO's this
next week, and sooner or later I might make a dent. Or not.
One thing I was able to do earlier this week was more pastel work. Here's one of them:
I think it turned out pretty well. I'm still working at doing more. Sometimes they go on my studio Facebook page and sometimes they go in the trash can.
During the shura earlier this week, I did some more ink drawing as well, and here's one:
Today was our "weekend." So I took some "me" time. I got up a bit late, cleaned up my little hooch, dusted (coff coff coff), aired the place out, and basically just fluffed my nest. This afternoon, I had to write a couple of reports, so it wasn't all play. Now that I'm caught up here, I think it's time to get the pastels out again ...
Your drawings are beautiful!
Please stay safe, and we here in the US are very proud of our service ment and women, who are trying to make the world a little better.
God Bless You,
Nancy
Posted by: Nancy Dietrich | October 04, 2012 at 05:19 PM
Stay safe and stay the course. Thank you for your service and for sharing your beautiful artwork.
Posted by: Maureen | October 07, 2012 at 02:39 PM
Your drawings are beautiful!
Please stay safe, and we here in the US are very proud of our service ment and women, who are trying to make the world a little better.
God Bless You,
Posted by: dvd to itunes converter | October 31, 2012 at 04:56 AM