Hello All!!! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!! The holidays are over here and everyone in my office is back from leave. My office is responsible for 33 projects totaling $300 Million in construction here in Nanagahar Province. We are building Afghan Police Stations and Afghan Border Police Stations across the province, so that the Afghan people can transition into supporting themselves instead of relying on the Americans to do it for them. With each site that we turn over, we are one step closer to the Afghan populace protecting themselves. We have turned over 8 sites since I arrived in Jalalabad and are scheduled to turn over 14 more sites in the next 90 days. It is very rewarding for our office to see these facilities, which are built by Afghans, turn over to the Afghan people. In most areas the people are excited to be receiving the facilities, but there are instances where you will find the occasional unreceptive police chief, which is usually due to the fact that he didn't receive his kickback.
Afghanistan has a culture that is unlike any I have ever seen. Corruption is the status quo and is accepted as a means of supplemental income. It is common for politicians and military officials to shake down contractors for payments that go straight into their pockets. Torkham Gate for instance is a great example. Torkham Gate is the main thoroughfare connecting Afghanistan to Pakistan bringing at least 25% of all the goods for the country through that checkpoint. I have been told that up to $25 million daily comes through the gate. The governor has been known to take a cut of that off the top, lining his pockets and giving none to the Afghan people. It would be one thing if there was a portion of the Tax Revenue that was coming off the top was going to help the people of Nangahar, like the taxes that we have in the U.S., but when it goes into his pockets is when something is wrong. The people here live in mud huts with no basic amenities, yet they have so much money coming through their province with no ability to benefit. It's things like this that make what the US is doing here so important.
I debate whether or not to include stories like the following one, due to the fact that I don't want people to worry about me back home. But for the third time in the short period I have been here I saw the fruits of all of the prayers from back home. We struggle getting support from the supporting units here in our Area of Operation, unless there is a potential photo opportunity. Then everyone wants to help!!! Last week we were scheduled to turnover one of our sites and as usual one of the supporting units decided that they wanted to go for the photo op. Our office has instituted a policy of allowing our Local Nationals to do the final turnover, giving the smallest amount of visibility to the Corps of Engineers for final site turnovers. We wanted to show the Afghan people that the Afghans were building these sites, not the Americans thus trying to instill a sense of national pride here in Afghanistan. So since we implemented that we decided not to make the trip. The supporting unit here didn't ask us if we were going, and went out on their own, and got blown up. That has now happened three times to me so I guess someone somewhere must be looking after me!!!
