During my time home for Christmas, I attended the Canadian Police College and made a presentation to the new group of police officers slated for deployment to Afghanistan in mid-February. I thought it was great timing as they had just started their course and it gave me an oppourtunity to introduce myself and make a presentation about our Police Mission in Afghanistan.The two pictures were taken by one of the guys in training....and of course I can't recall his name. I feel terrible as I promised I would give him the photo credit. No doubt I will be reminded when I see him.
Currently there are 23 folks in training and this is the first rotation where the majority are coming to Kabul and not Kandahar. We are beginning to transition all of our CivPol resources north so that come July, we will no longer be in the south. This is in response to the new Canadian Engagement Strategy for Afghanistan.
We are working hard behind the scenes here in Kabul getting ready for their arrival as there are so many issues to be worked out as everything is a challenge here. Something as simple as picking up 23 people at the airport and transporting them to their respective work locations, is a big deal. Just when we think we have it nailed down, something changes which has a ripple effect through all the plans.
That being said, we are very much looking forward to the "new crew" as I know they all bring unique skills and experience to the Mission which are in critical need as we continue to train and mentor the ANP.
Looking good in the suit I must say........we grumble about the traffic here and the no left turns at places, we have no idea....Its -14 outside at the moment, was plus five last week, sure feel it.......but no floods or hurricanes ..all of you out there, enjoy the day
ReplyDeletelooking good Dave
ReplyDeleteA suit 1 day, a Tux the next day. OK maybe next month for the Tux.
Things are "interesting" Down Under. We have friends in a town called Swan Hill. They have been sand bagging the town for protection for over 1 week, as there is a huge pile of flood water heading their way. As it gets closer to town, it is spreading out, slowing down, and getting shallower. The last report i saw the flooded land covered 90 kms long and about 50 km wide, and had slowed down to about 1km per hour water movement. Hopefully it will just spread out and get absorbed by the land. The town was just waiting.
News in Swan Hill is not relevant now as there is another cyclone bearing down on far north Queensland. They are expecting 300km winds and evucations have already commenced. There is also expectations of 1 metre of rain falling over 1 day or so and the eye of the cyclone is expected to last 1 hour, so it is a rather large storm.
Apparently 90% of the worlds sugar cane comes from that area and a very large slice of coal is exported from up there. All the coal super tankers have been sent south to avoid the storm and the related seas. A few years ago a tanker was beached for weeks in the northern New south Wales area from a storm produced waves that pushed the boat around like it was small.
The minus 14 for Wyn sounds OK if there is no wind, as we sweat our way through 40 degrees. I had to wear my suit yesterday and the air conditioning broke down!! It was not a good look.
Ironic how they spend so much $$ on getting Oprah Winfrey out here to promote tourism, and then the weather is anything but tourist friendly. We were quite impressed with what we saw of the Oprah shows, so hope they went OK off shore.
Hope you all keep well
Just Dazza
My password verification to publish the last email was "putrid". Do they monitor these things and work out who is typing?
ReplyDeleteJust a thought. My shorts are a bit dirty but not PUTRID.
Dazza