The Foreign Service Journal, October 2005

OCTOBER 2005 • AFSA NEWS 7 I am a State Department representative assigned to a Lithuanian Provincial Reconstruction Team (under NATO’s International Security Assistance Force) in Cheghcheran, the capital of Ghor province inAfghanistan. I share a dusty tent with three other guys (including a very capa- ble Lithuanian diplomat), which we can’t keep clean because of the incessant dust storms that send 95-mph whirlwinds through the area every day. Thewind last week was much stronger, and the tent next tomine simply disappeared. The sink spigots and showers are outside, near the outdoor toi- lets—all about a block-and-a-half from where I sleep. We get one hot meal a day. My feet are cracked open fromwearing heavy boots and never having a flat surface towalk on (the camp is covered with loose stones to keep the lunar quality dust at a livable level, and there is no asphalt road or flat side- walk that I know of anywhere in this area), and the tem- perature extremes have removed — painfully — a thick layer of skin from my face and head. My clothes are always dirty because of the dust, and because we have to wash our clothing in mesh bags that can’t be opened during the washing. But this is the pleas- ant season: roads toCheghcheran become inaccessiblemost of the winter, and the temperatures in this mountainous area hover far below zero. And yes, my colleagues and I will be staying through it all. I meet with Afghans of all kinds all day long, and I con- duct mymeetings inDari. I speak Dari, along with a cou- ple of other regional languages. (But I am also giving an English class every night to our local interpreters so that they can communicate with the soldiers better.) My col- leagues and I walk on the streets, go shopping, visit the local villages, listen to what the Afghans are saying and laugh and joke with them. We cooperate with our Afghan friends here on a range of assis- tance projects involving the local schools, bridges across the town river, construction of better facil- ities for the town hospital and general security for the upcom- ing elections so that the voters in the province can cast their ballots freely and safely. In between these activities, I try to write reports that will help the State Department andNATO recipients understand this area better. And late in the evening, I finally get to my e-mail (we have a generator here), where I sometimes enjoy the luxury of accessing the Internet to remind me that there is a wider world. The funny thing is, there are lots of diplomats like me in places like this in Afghanistan: Americans and Europeans andmany others who have left their cuff links and silk ties and dark suits back home. We tend to show up for meetings in jeans carrying backpacks. And fun- nier still, we think we have the best of worlds here. I know I wouldn’t trade my tent for the biggest ambassadorial residence in London, Paris or Rome. If any of the recent critics of the State Department and Foreign Service care to make the three-day overland trip here (via a very bad dirt road fromHerat), I would be happy to introduce them to this version of the diplomatic life. o LETTER FROM AFGHANISTAN Diplomats on the Front Lines BY MICHAEL METRINKO, IN CHEGHCHERAN, AFGHANISTAN Editor’s note: The following letter is from retired Foreign Service Officer Michael Metrinko, who is serving in Ghor province, Afghanistan. He is responding to criticism of U.S. diplomats aired in one of the recent discussions held on GULF 2000, an Internet forum on the Middle East run out of Columbia University. Several experts in the group derided diplomats, American diplomats in particular, as being out of touch with the real world. “At first I was just amused by the generalization, and then I realized someone had to correct it,”Metrinko explains. “I served as an FSO from 1974 until 1996, and since then have been aWAE (While Actually Employed, a hiring mechanism for retirees) in Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan. My present State Department assignment is for a full year to Afghanistan. Trust me when I say I know how my colleagues and I have lived in these places.” Here is his letter, one that AFSA will use as an example of real Foreign Service work in our many responses to cheap shots at the Foreign Service. The funny thing is, there are lots of diplomats like me who have left their cuff links and silk ties and dark suits back home. We tend to show up for meetings in jeans carrying backpacks.