Ethics? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Ethics!

So we had mandatory ethics training today.  It wasn’t that painful, only an hour and a half, which was better than I thought it was going to be.  I didn’t really learn all that much, since it’s pretty similar to training I’ve had before, but it’s important that we all understand these things in order to be compliant and therefore avoid…well, jail.

Didn’t get to make any other impacts into the world of my fellow colleagues as far as learning anything of interest about the ways of the Afghans around me, but I am learning, bit by bit, that we’ve spent truly very little time getting to know what our colleagues here are like, and a great deal of time assuming we know what they’re like.

Oh, big fun:  I did get a 2^nd cellphone, since the service from one provider out where I’m going is pretty bad, so the other provider’s service should be better…make for better communications back into Kabul.

Last night was interesting…rocket attack on the Afghan Joint Operations Center.  About 8p while I’m on the phone with my wife heard something go “boom.”  Quite a ways away from us, but still something that happens in the neighborhood from time to time.  And by neighborhood I mean Kabul and by time to time I mean once every few weeks.

As an NGO, we usually don’t get a lot of this kind of nonsense from the Talibani-ish folks.  In fact, according to the contractor working on the road, he’s heard that if we build an asphalt road, which we are, that the Taliban will make sure that nothing bad happens.  If we build gravel, which we do everywhere else, then there’s going to be problems.

Something I’d like to delve into a little further there…this idea that they like asphalt but hate gravel.

Not sure what that’s about, except that gravel roads don’t last as long, take a truckload more maintenance, and aren’t as good for larger vehicles.

Interesting that they’re fans of asphalt.

Must be a union thing.