Qalaa House was a small compound located inside the green zone. I don’t exactly know where the green zone is I Kabul or how big it stretches. I’m still trying to get my directional baring here. It is hard because all the compounds are surrounded with huge walls and on top of those walls are green tarp fences (called sniper blinds). Then when you travel you are in an SUV where the windows are tinted so dark you can hardly see through the windows. It’s practically impossible for me to know where I am in the city. Anyways I digress.
Qalaa House was not my favorite place. It is a predominately Army Corps compound. All the buildings are very close together. You could walk from one end of the compound to the other in 4 minutes and that is at a moseying pace! When I arrived there from the airport the “welcoming committee” did not have their shit together. They had no idea if anyone from New Kabul Compound (NKC) was going to pick me up and basically told me I was on my own until they heard something. Of course here I was in a war torn country where I knew no one, I had just traveled for 24 hours to get there and they couldn’t help me with anything. I felt blessed that they gave me a room to sleep in. Speaking of rooms. I was not expecting what I saw. The “dorms” were basically metal boxes that you see at a ship yard stacked on top of each other with wooden stairs on the outside leading to each floor. The insides were divided up into two bed bedrooms with bathrooms at the end. Now where I stayed my room opened up to the outside and I had to walk down two flights to the bathroom. Where men and women shared bathrooms. I’m sure I would have gotten use to it but it was shocking at first. I was imaging/expecting an actually building. Not containers stacked on top of each other.
Let’s get into my first impression of the work ethic at Qalaa. The woman who had no idea what to do with me told me that if I needed anything I could find her at either of the smoke pits or at the DFAC (cafeteria). I was like “do you have desk hours?” I mean jiminy crick. I spent 24 hours there and pretty much observed that people took a lot of breaks! Not the kind of work environment I was looking for. I shared a room with another lady who was waiting to leave Qalaa but neither of us slept that night. So by the time my people came and got me the next day around 3:30pm. I was thrilled!
My co-worker was the one who came and rescued me from Qalaa House. She told me to pack up my stuff (it was already packed and ready to go) put on my helmet and vest and off we went to wait for Force Protection to pick us up and take us back to NKC. Now please picture me dragging my silver target luggage across gravel roads while wearing my helmet and vest with my new purse strung across my shoulder. I must of looked ridiculous. After waiting on the side of the road for 30 minutes our ride had finally arrived and off to NKC I was bound. (It’s only about a 10 minute drive)
Next blog to come will be about my very messy roommate (yes messier then me) I got assigned to!
Also, I was suppose to have internet and even paid 5000 of some kind of Afghan money for internet in my room. But the darn thing doesn’t work. So I’m taking my loud American mouth back to the provider when he is here on Monday. Wish me luck!
