Everything is Hard

One of the challenges of working at the end of a VERY long logistical string is that everything becomes at least ten times more difficult, due to the lack of ready supplies and tools.  At home, when my kitchen sink water supply hose failed at 9:30 at night, it was a matter of putting on  my shoes and driving the three miles to the Wal-Mart to get a replacement hose.  At worst, had they not had one, I would have had to wait until morning to go to the Lowe's, which was only a mile away.

Here, it is another story entirely.  Say a toilet flush mechanism malfunctions. What would be at most a 1 hour fix at home is a two week ordeal of negotiating a contract to fix the toilet. First you have to find a contractor who can really deliver on that kind of work - no easy feat. Then they have to get the parts. We have two very different types of western (sit down) flush toilets where I am - and guess what? The parts are not interchangeable.  So, the parts have to be ordered in from Pakistan.  Allah only knows how they actually manage it, given the lack of anything resembling UPS or FedEx. Anyway, two weeks and a few hundred dollars later, the toilet will flush again.  

However, there is no attempt to determine why it failed in the first place. In this case, it is becaue the hot water heater overpressurizes and forces scalding water back through the cold water pipes into the toilets where it is hot enough to melt and deform the plastic parts.  It took a second toilet "gut melting" and a burst hot water pipe before anyone pointed out that it wasn't the toilets, but  the water heater that was the problem.  Guess how long to fix it?  Two weeks. I feel like I'm in the town in "O Brother Where Art Thou" - "a geographical odyssey - two weeks from everywhere" as George Clooney's character notes.

The single most handy thing I've obtained since arriving here in October is a complete Black and Decker tool kit, complete with rechargeable drill.  I have used one tool or another out of that kit almost every day since it arrived (thanks Mom and Dad!), with the drill/driver, the tape measure, and the level being the most used.  I have installed washers and dryers, built shelves, installed the closet organizer kits that my family sent me for Christmas (thank you all!) all with my handy tool set.  The only tool I've felt a lack of so far is a pair of channel lock pliers - will pick some up when I go home on leave later this month.

Raining today - a slow drizzle. Evidently we are on the very Southern edge of a big storm covering the rest of Afghanistan. A friend of mine told me it's snowing in Kabul.  It's about 65 degrees here, so I don't expect any snow anytime soon.

Good story on Friday on the front page of the New York Times about  the problems in the Afghan National Police. From my foxhole, the story is dead on. Luckily, there are some leaders who are willing to make hard calls and arrest the corrupt.  It's going on, albeit quietly, so that they can round up as many as they have evidence to prosecute. Now, if they can just keep them from bribing their way out of the charges and/or the sentances, so much the better!

Hooah

SLK