Our team is deployed to the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan right now, assigned to cover the mission of the provincial reconstruction team here. I'm a big fan of PRTs and spent a lot of time with them on my last tour over here. The teams work directly with the people in the villages to figure out what they need and how to help them get it. In the past, it's often meant a direct handout, but here in Panjshir, they're focused on teaching them how to govern themselves, how to request aid from their provincial leaders, how to get the people to work within the system to accomplish their goals. Yes, we're teaching the Afghans bureaucracy ...But that's not such a bad thing and here it really seems to be working. Panjshir is considered to be the crown jewel among the provinces in that there aren't any real security issues, so our Airmen, Soldiers and (the) Sailor at the PRT here are able to get out and help mentor them on building schools, creating infrastructure and getting this place up and going so, well, WE can be up and going and not have to come back. But there's a catch; there's always a catch. Unless you're watching a Mets game, in which case there is usually a catch, sometimes a catch, hopefully a catch ...
Panjshir, like much of Afghanistan, is mostly mountains. So to get to the sites where our folks tell them, "This mixture of cement has too much water, so it won't hold the bricks," or, "Bathrooms can NOT drain downhill into the village," and the like, it means long drives over and around said mountains. I honestly was scared a few times we were going to slide down the side of one of the roads just barely wide enough for the Toyota truck we were in. But the folks here know these roads and how to get to the most remote villages. After that, it can sometimes be a hike ... a hike UP the mountain. These kids actually do walk two miles uphill through the snow just to get to school. So apparently, all of our parents went to school in Afghanistan ...
Panjshir, like much of Afghanistan, is mostly mountains. So to get to the sites where our folks tell them, "This mixture of cement has too much water, so it won't hold the bricks," or, "Bathrooms can NOT drain downhill into the village," and the like, it means long drives over and around said mountains. I honestly was scared a few times we were going to slide down the side of one of the roads just barely wide enough for the Toyota truck we were in. But the folks here know these roads and how to get to the most remote villages. After that, it can sometimes be a hike ... a hike UP the mountain. These kids actually do walk two miles uphill through the snow just to get to school. So apparently, all of our parents went to school in Afghanistan ...
But that's where the story is, so along for the ride I go. Now for some, it's clowns to the left, jokers to the right. For others, it's between a rock and a hard place. Me, I sat between our mujahadeen guard and a guy "from the State Department" during one of our forays. So betw
een the company I was keeping, the mountain we had to climb and the ever-present forces of gravity should our driver zig instead of zag, it's been an adventure. Knew I should have taken my Indiana Jones hat with me ...And while Indy mostly fought the Nazis, in his last film he contended with Soviets (and aliens, apparently ...), which is exactly what the people in Panjshir did (fight Russians, I mean, not "archeologists from outer space"). The people here have been at war for 30 years. They repelled the Soviet invasion and there's evidence all over the countryside. Old Soviet tanks and personnel carriers litter the countryside, rusted metal hunks of a failed endeavor. The Panjshiri also kicked the Taliban out because they persecuted the people and tried to strongarm them into fighting against us. The Panjshiri instead chose not to. So we've very much learned from the examples before us, which is refreshing. And if we ever get to the point where we lose our way here in Afghanistan, well, we've got some reminders ...
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