10 July - Granny B: WARNING SNAKE PHOTOS

Another beautiful truck.


"Wrench" telling these guys they are wrong



They watch and think, "Man, we gotta do this again."

2 Weeks behind, why wouldn't you wash a car on the job site

It is the small things...people are not held to a standard...

...ever.

Snake from last Friday

Happy Cobra Killer

After the rocks, before the pool stick

This is my office hallway, my feet must have been just outside the photo

Long hard week.

Saturday, the 4th, I went on 3 convoys to the airfield down the road...it is a short ride, but the whole commotion of gearing up and gearing down takes a while. The first one was at 330 a.m. to take some guys to catch a plane, went again at 9am to drop off a truck, and back at 1pm to pick up the truck and get mail. Well how nice for them, no work on that base for 4th of July, so no mail for us. We did have a BBQ dinner on the 4th on the back patio of the dining facility. They decorate the dining facility for different holidays, so it was nice. It doesn't come close to being at home or at the real "Personville" for the 4th. One guy told me a story of him calling his brother on the 4th, and the brother answers the phone by popping open a beer and describing the BBQ...the guy just hung up...saying, "I don't be needn' to hear about all that bull sh-- right now."

His facial expressions make the story...he is a cross between Dave Chapelle and Mike Rivaut (Major and Dad only will get this reference).

One of the major security projects I have been working on opened up Saturday. It is a new gate. Well that threw their whole world for spin. It was like teaching them how to do their jobs all over again. My temper grew very short and eventually pretty much was lost Wednesday morning. I was explaining to one group via my interpreter how they were not doing their jobs correctly when one of them interrupted me and started telling his side of the story...on a calm day I simply ask them to remind me of our current situation: "Were you invited to my country to help me sort this crap out, or am I here to help you?" Usually that gets them on the right track. However, Wednesday, I yelled at him in English (not sure what I was hoping to accomplish) to shut up, I told him I didn't care about his story, or why he thought doing it my way was not important. I realized I needed to walk away, and did so. Apparently, as I walked away, the Security Co. Commander, my mentee, proceeded to beat the snot out of this kid. I didn't see it, but another American and terp saw the whole thing.

My whole team is growing tired. We are in a situation in which we want to do everything we can to help the ANA and Afghanistan, but we tend to have a 1yr sprint mentality. The fact of the matter is, you can't sprint for a year and these folks are here for life, so they are in no hurry to help themselves...why would they be, the silly Americans are willing to do almost everything for us. They have great pride in themselves as individuals, but not in the sense you 'd think. For instance, if I walk up to a job site that is all jacked up and want to correct it and show them the right way to do something, they will let me do the whole thing...not the stand and watch and look concerned kind of let someone else do the work, but more the find a shady spot to squat down and just let that dude do my business type of laziness. Pray for my team, our patience and our stamina.

The contractors cut corners in the construction of buildings because for the most part they can get away with it. We have an incredible Warrant Officer (Wrench) who rides them hard. I have seen them tear up slabs he didn't like, tear down walls that were a little off, etc. He tells them "This is wrong, stop now and go back to step X." They will sometimes continue in defiance, and he just says..."Ok, I'll make you tear it out tomorrow." These idiots continue to test him, and he continues to make them go 1 step back 2 steps fwd day after day. The reason they are willing to spend the extra time and money on double work is that they average about 150% profit on each contract. So they try to cut corners to make more money, if they get caught and have to do double work, they just accept defeat and move on because they know they get away with enough.

On a different note, my leave dates are relatively set for the second half of August for 2 weeks, and I am set to be back in the states for good around the beginning of December.

Murl and I are in the process of deciding on our next duty station, so keep that in your prayers as well.

Have a great weekend. God bless.

BMP