Here is what I learned today about the pharmaceuticals that our project brings into the country for distribution to all (US and Afghan) government supported health facilities in the country. The process from manufacturer to the final dispensing into the hands of Afghan patients is a carefully controlled and monitored process that is also of an unimaginable complexity. Some people would call it a nightmare. But my program manager in charge of making all this happen is the coolest person on earth. Why his hairs have not turned gray is a mystery.
For example, one 20 ft container with amoxicylin is stuck at the Pakistan-Afghan border because someone put the wrong border crossing on a piece of paper. Appeals to the US consulate in Pakistan have not solved a problem. This is ‘stuck #1.’
Stuck #2 are seven 40 ft containers filled with medicine for Afghanistan. These are stuck in the Karachi custom doldrums with thousands of other containers awaiting the rescinding of an order from the (Pakistani) government that only certain containers be cleared. We are not among these. Many letters and petitions are being sent everywhere.
Another batch of 40 ft containers are somewhere on the Indian Ocean and then there are some in the ports of Mumbai and Shanghai, awaiting further transit shipping. I just hope that the Somali pirates don’t get to the ones on the open seas right now.
Other ‘stucks’ have to do with waivers and exemptions but these I cannot even explain, they boggle the mind.
Never in my wildest dream did I imagine the complexity of providing medicine to the poorest of the poor. Development aid is, for a large part, procurement of goods and services. Little did I know when I arrived in Kabul.
On the ‘unstuck’ side we have moved swiftly from winter into summer. The last of the snow has melted and we removed the heating pads from underneath our mattress covers. We are extinguishing our diesel heaters. I am ready for a fan to put by our exercise machine – the jump in temperature has been rather large. All the coats are put away. We went from heavy winter coats to no coats at all.
We still have the plastic on our windows which looks gross with black mildew spots and the traces of dried up rain and snow drops. We are looking forward to its removal so we can look out of our windows again.
Sylvia's Journal 
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