AF Day 007

I went on a rewarding QA/QC mission today. The purpose of these missions, quality assurance/quality control observations outside the wire, are to observe, inspect, and verify quality control requirements are being adhered to or whether necessary measures are being taken to correct deficiencies. As you may imagine, most Afghan contractors do not know what QA/QC is, let alone how to perform their own QC. I am learning that a good portion of the time we spend with our contractors and our translators, we are actually mentoring them. We are helping to refine and/or redefine their construction management and construction practices, which in turn will allow them to become more self-sufficient in their own QC practices. The purpose of my official position here in Qalat, Afghanistan, is to perform QA over the contractor's QC. Since this is generally not the case here in Qalat, I am performing both roles, as well as the mentoring, and reporting the progress of such back up my command management chain.

Today we looked at a series of ministerial buildings, which will house government offices within a new, more secure location (compound) with greatly improved infrastructure. During our visit we observed progress on perimeter walls and the preparations completed and pending for concrete slabs-on-grade (SOG). The locals here build their walls using very rudimentary masonry techniques, including utilizing massive rocks within the foundations (footings) of the walls, then pouring a concrete leveling course above that, and then finally building up with mud brick, or in our case today, with contractor-manufactured concrete masonry units (CMU). As most of you know, I have a masonry background and when I observed the quality of these particular CMUs, I was impressed.

For security reasons I cannot discuss how we got to and from the sites, but think heavy, think highly technological, and think US military strong - MRAPs, MATVs, Cougar MRAPs, etc!

I enjoyed the rides back and forth because it gave me an excellent overview of some parts of Qalat that I had not been able to see yet. These people are essentially subsistence farmers and many are so poor that they have no real homes; rather, they have shanty shacks with soiled fabrics for doors. The faces of these proud people look hardened from living such a hardscrabble life, but every once in awhile, one will smile back at me (I smile at everyone I meet and/or look at). Regardless of the barriers (language, history, etc.), it felt as though, through their grinning faces, there was still something very much in common – an appreciation for life. Anyway, I ramble on sometimes...

143, K&K.

Good night and good day.