Real Winter Has Arrived In Afghanistan As Well
Szöveg: Levente Palotás | 2010. február 21. 8:24Similarly to the winter weather in Hungary, the real cold, snowy and icy time of the year has arrived to Baghlan province as well, the area of responsibility of the HDF Provincial Reconstruction Team (HDF PRT). In just a few days, 30–50 centimetres of snow has fallen all across the province, and the temperature is still below the freezing-point.
Snowdrifts, heaps of snow, avalanches, and icy areas make driving more difficult. Winters are usually relatively mild in northern Afghanistan, with an average temperature of 10-15 Celsius degrees and a lot of rain; it is only the highlands where it often snows and there is a hard frost.
With the arrival of the cold front, everything changed radically overnight, but despite the severe winter weather that hit the country so suddenly, life in Camp Pannonia has not stopped. Nevertheless, the convoys still have to depart every morning, the troops dress warmly, put on their equipment, prepare the vehicles, line up for departure, hold briefings, then occupy their positions in the vehicles, the machine-gunners climb up the turret, and they leave the camp.
One of the most recent tasks because of which the troops of the PRT had to leave the camp was the handover ceremony of a completed project. The request for the extension of the clinic in Dushi district arrived in October 2009, from the director of the institution. The road to Kabul, that connects the northern and southern parts of the country, leads through the district and there are a lot of road accidents every year – even more in the winter. This is why the director had asked for the construction of an emergency unit and the renovation of the clinic’s well.
The HDF PRT – having taken the importance of the request into consideration – has provided the necessary resources for the construction of the new building and the repair of the well. The local entrepreneur charged with implementing the works has constructed the building and the new well has also been completed. Therefore in the presence of Lieutenant Colonel János Vokla, the deputy commander of the HDF PRT, and the local leaders the building was formally handed over, and in the framework of the ceremony two computers were donated to the clinic in order to facilitate administration. The director of the clinic expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the Hungarian soldiers for their fast and effective help, as a result of which the hospital can treat those who are injured in the accidents more efficiently.
