The Foreign Service Journal, March 2007

mechanic. But I understand the cynicism of the others. This is a very difficult place to be, especially when you are young and have families and small children waiting for you back home. In addition, a number of the soldiers and airmen were called up from the reserves, and some have even been called up from the Individual Ready Reserves — so they no longer participate in exercises or receive benefits. But there is at least one thing nearly all the troops here have in common: chewing tobacco, a habit I still haven’t gotten used to! A Day in the Life We work all day, seven days a week. Friday is sup- posed to be a “day of rest,” so we don’t schedule missions or meetings outside the base. However, we have regu- larly scheduled internal meetings at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., and also often receive visitors or taskings from people outside Afghanistan who don’t know that Friday is sup- posed to be “Sunday.” In addition, because Afghans don’t take American holidays or weekends, and our con- tacts in Washington don’t know when it is an Afghan hol- iday, there are always lots of activities and work to do — virtually every day. As our commander often says when he briefs visitors, “We did X yesterday, or maybe it was last week or last month. The days all run together.” Because it is easier to get to Jalalabad than many other PRTs, and because we have a very articulate and active commander, we get lots of visitors — from the military, Congress, our embassy and other U.S. agencies, as well as from NGOs, other countries and aid organiza- tions. Some of our more noteworthy visitors have included the supreme allied commander of NATO forces and the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. We were sched- uled to have eight U.S. governors come one weekend, including Gov. Pataki from New York, but their trip to Jalalabad was canceled at the last minute because the clouds were too low for the helicopters to fly. On base, I have a single room, which is very nice, with around-the-clock electricity and central air and heat. Also (amazing for a PRT) I have my own private bath- room with a shower. I also have a private office in a dilapidated building on the compound. But otherwise, daily life here is like being back in a “college dorm” sit- uation, which I personally find very difficult. The “no alcohol, no sex, no pets” rule at all American PRTs does not help, either. (I really miss my cat!) My office is 55 seconds in one direction from my room, and the cafeteria is 45 seconds in the other direc- tion. These are really the only three places I can be, unless I am on a mission or at a meeting. In my room, I can either sleep or watch my DVDs, but I find that the stress here is so great that I cannot handle any movie or TV program that has more drama than what is encoun- tered on the TV show “Friends.” F O C U S 42 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A R C H 2 0 0 7 Left: Commander Dave Naisbett, First Sergeant Danny Hall Jackson, FSO Danny Hall, and Civil Affairs Director Tom Peters serving dinner at the PRT on Christmas Day. Center: Danny Hall in the back seat of a Humvee. Right: Hall with the district prosecu- tor from Nazyan, who was visiting the PRT com- pound. (Afghans hold hands a lot.)