I was welcomed and straight joined the ongoing meeting were Ian informed me about the plans for further assessment and the first task for me to select/appoint translator for me..
Ian and myself conducted interviews for 3 guys.. and finally, we chose one.. Mr. Quadarat..
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.[Qudarat 3rd from left]
a nice young guy, intelligent, sincere, and full of guts & common sense .. good thing was he was knowing Hindi language well... I immediately said YES to him and he started the job the same day.. what a simplicity isnt?? no staff requestions, no big panel, no recruitment decisions to write.. no need of big contract.. and other complicated procedures.... life was so simple and meaningful!!
Alrite and here we go the task is to visit 6 potential sites in Punjab and Daikundi provinces.. it was the next day morning and 3 cars with 7 engineers and one translator we started our journey...
and was I given a route map of the area? details of sites? whom to contact locally? set appointments?? wait... not more questions... NO is the answer to all... but yes I have had exact GPS locations of potential sites which we had to assess (for technical feasibility and other legal (!) matters.
So in a usual manner, just before we hit the road, in my compound I started a conversation with my translator asking him how far the first destination? he replied me with a flat face , no idea!!! I asked him to check with others and get back to me with details on route, distance and possible other details about the first site. well, well, result is zero he came back with a news that none of those team members (and drivers :) ) have a clue about the destination but they all have GPS and driver is confident to track the coordinates :)!! wow!! a good news finally :)!!
Anyways we started 7:00 am... all trucks loaded... the first stop was at Safed naour.. a place where we were supposed to construct a clinic... around 2.5 hrs drive from Punjab..
we passed by "pai konak" pass which is the highest pass in that area [3400 meter from MSL].. continued our journey... it was really a long and bouncy journey over mountain tracks... we kept passing over mountains after mountains... dusty rough trackss... in between some green valleys and small river lets.... barren mountains.. all mud houses and lots many farms full of wheat crop!! very few people we saw/met along the way... it seems life has come to stop aroud us.
our local afghan colleagues kept telling that "Nili" is not far... it was almost 6:00 pm.. we were reaching our limits of travel as per security operating procedures... we had to stop at some good/safe place... unfortunately, it was all mountains around.. no place to stay.. I realized that tent would have been a good idea but again thought of security .. no it is not a good idea to be on mountain during nighttime....
we were hopping to get some good shelter and kept pushing the cars.... finally we arrived to "Ulukan" where we saw ACF clinic with some staff quarters in back.... we took chance.. i went in and requested the head of medical unit to provide us shleter tonight.. he was kind enough to agree.. we got 3 rooms and furhter we were so lucky that they had kitchen... woww!! we good really good hot food!! it made our fatigue disappear... I took a warm shower and caught the bed!!
we decided to travel early in the morning..
we got up at 5:00 am and by 5:45 we were all set in car!!! we headed to wards nili... finally in 3 hrs of time we were in the capital of daikundi province "nili"...
[Nili -- main market]
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