Learning the mission

I'm starting to learn more about my mission. It's slow coming up to speed because every program here seems like its a mess. Most of the soldiers/sailors that come through here don't know how (like me) to properly setup and run a contract. Worse than that, they leave after a short while so the knowledge of how they actually got the money or people to run the program is lost. So not only am I learning how to run a military contract, I'm learning how to fix contracts that don't represent reality. The most important thing is to know people here. I'm not really big on getting to know people, but just having gone through ft. jackson with them has helped me get stuff accomplished with other offices. So, try to get to know casually as many people as you can (and don't make enemies) because the odds are you'll want something from them at some point in the deployment. It's actually kind of neat to see the 30 people I came here with start to take over responsibility from the people that are leaving. And I've been able to help them out (mainly with knowledge) with what's going on in my directorate, CJ-2.

My main program is to advise the afghan MOI Biometrics division. Biometrics is a big theme for the country, and we're just a small piece. I go over to check on the status of their work and help them solve problems. My main task will be to mentor the technical people to take over the system after we leave the country. It's a daunting task because it's difficult to find people with computer skills, and even more difficult to get them to work for a government salary. I have about 4 positions I need to help them fill and work with the American contractors to train up.

We get 4 more people this week. That means we'll have 5 more people than we have chairs. We checked on the status of our new office and the guy that was supposed to be setting it up had done nothing. Normally I would be shocked at this level of ineptness, but I'm getting used to it here.

Below are pictures of the main drag that is camp Eggers. The two ends of this street are the borders of the camp.

Oh, and I finally got a package from Austin today. What a great feeling after living out of a sleeping bag for weeks. I'm taking great pleasure in opening all the presents from my lover.