As a foreigner you are living on a compound guarded by security forces 24 hours a day. The company I work for has two compounds, one within the Kabul security area and one just outside the iron belt.
They are still building on the new one and when this is finished everything will be moved to the new compound. Till now I haven’t noticed anything of the war. The company supplies food to the military and also to some building companies.
Some of the other things we do are run some PX shops on several bases over the country. On those compounds a mixed group of people are working from all over the world. Afghanistan, Pakistan, South Africa, Iceland, Germany, Holland, Philippines and Indonesia.
A lot of the foreigners slowly will be replaced by the local people. It is more and more difficult to get work permits for the foreigners. Only if you can prove that the competence is not available in Afghanistan. I believe that is a good way to go forward.
On the two compounds I am running the IT, software and hardware. We are in the middle of installing a warehouse management system. The system we are implementing is a temporary solution for in the last quarter we will start with a more extensive solution since the company is growing rapidly.
People are mostly working here for 13 weeks and then have a leave of 3 weeks off. You are officially working for 6 days a week but mostly it will be 7 days. Sometimes we leave the compound to go to other compounds where they have a bar and swimming pool. Going to the town is not possible and to dangerous. On our compounds is no alcohol available.
One time I went to the swimming pool with the car and was astonished to see women sitting in a burca in the middle of the road. Cars driving around them. They are begging for some money for probably they have lost their husband.