The Boss Comes to Visit

One of the nice things about being the only State Department employee out here in Bamyan is that I am, to a large extent, my own boss. I keep my own hours, follow projects that interest me, and assign priorities based on what I think are the important issues to watch. Those of you in large organizations know that this type of independence is a rare luxury.

It is also ephemeral. One week after I arrived here, we had a visit by the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Ronald Neumann. Ambassador Neumann is a great choice for an Ambassador here, in my own opinion. His father was Ambassador here some 40 years ago in the 1960s. Neumann the younger has made a career of working in some tough diplomatic environments, including just coming from our mission in Iraq as our head Political-Military Counselor.

In almost any instance, when you work with your Front Office, the amount of effort required to get from Point A to Point B is much higher than that you might otherwise experience, mostly because there are more layers between you and the top. Those layers have a tendency to diffuse and distort your message, unless you put in extra effort to keep on top of things.

The Ambassador’s visit certainly fit that pattern. We would make preparations based on ground truth, preparations which would be obviated and ignored by someone up the chain who unilaterally changed his mind on something. This would happen every day -- we would prep based on the most recent information, only to have the rug pulled out from under us logistics-wise. It is the sort of thing that can make you go batty.

The Kiwis, in contrast, were unfazed. If the situation changed, all I heard was "Sweet as," we can do it. I don’t want you thinking that the Kiwis approach was unprofessional -- far from it. They ran the show by the numbers, and everything went smooth as clockwork, notwithstanding the constant changes. The Ambassador’s security detail went so far as to single out the Kiwis as the best unit they worked with in all their visits around Afghanistan. No, the Kiwis were professional, but they don’t sweat the small stuff. I hope to emulate that approach in time.

Anyway, the day finally arrives. The C-130 hits the airfield, and our convoy races out to meet them. We scoop up the delegation, the Ambassador, his aide, my boss, his wife, several other straphangers, the security detail, and of course, the press, and shuttle them over to the PRT to begin the day. The Kiwis gave the Ambassador a heluva welcome, doing a traditional kapa haka wero welcome, something used as one Maori tribe would visit another. The sentries came up and challenged the Ambassador, as leader of this foreign tribe, demanding he announce his intentions. While never taking his eyes off the sentry, the Ambassador had to pick up a leaf to signal his intention of coming in peace. It’s not that easy -- I know from experience! He pulled it off without a hitch, though. I guess that’s why we pay him the big bucks to be my boss. ;)

We spent the rest of the day giving the Ambassador a taste of Bamyan, visiting a couple of development projects U.S. taxpayers are funding (a midwife clinic, road reconstruction, among just a few), took him for a tour of the male Buddha site, dropped him and his delegation off at the Governor’s office for meetings and lunch, and then arranged a meeting for him with local village shura and other community leaders. It was a LOT of work, but I think things went well. With this visit over, I can focus on my real job, right? Well, sort of!