31 Jan 1994 (Monday)

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Work today proved rather interesting, and a good bit of it was spent out of the office.

We've tried to establish a remote HF site at the airport for convoy operations. The idea is that having the tranceiver and antenna at the airport, where reception is far more favorable than in town, the covoys on the road would have more reliable communications. There would be a separate convoy ops radio room at our downtown HQ building, and the whole thing would be controlled via a dedicated telephone line between the HQ and the remote site.

Apparently, this project was started last summer, but they've just now gotten the telephone line connected. The main console at HQ doesn't talk to the remote site, though, and Woody and I were asked to have a look at it. The pressure's on a bit, because the boss has made some promises that he probably shouldn't have.

Woody and I tested the equipment locally with just a simple telephone extension cable run between the remote and the console. Things seemed to work fine, and our next step was to leave the console turned on and then move the remote and transceiver to the telephone exchange at the airport. How convenient, because it gave us a chance to go by the UNPROFOR PX, where I bought some cigarettes, Campari, and soda for Ulla-Britt in Knin. We also had orders to buy a case of beer for the telephone exchange supervisor, hoping to make things run a little more smoothly at that end.

After lunch we tried to find the telephone exchange supervisor, but all we could do was sit and wait for about an hour. One soon learns things don't move quickly here, and patience is essential.

One of the technicians finally showed up, and we began testing shortly thereafter, with Carl and Terry at the HQ end making adjustments to the console. We discovered a few minor problems with the equipment set-up, but after about an hour we all concluded the main problems seemed to be with the quality of line and distance bewteen HQ and the airport. It's very apparent no systems engineering went into this project up front, and now we're paying the price. Hopefully the boss can pull some strings he has with the HPT (the telephone company) and get this problem fixed.

Weather continues to warm up, and it seems very spring-like. I hope it continues. I arrived back at the hotel about 1800, and I decided to take advantage of my new room's television in earnest. As programmed, I can get two HRT (Croatian) channels, Sky News (a British version of CNN), Eurosport, a couple of German channels, one Austrian channel, and MTV. I tried resetting some of the channels to see if I could get anything else, but I couldn't figure it out. Later, perhaps.

In quickly scanning through the channels, I glimpsed a program that looked quite familiar: a woman turning lighted blocks to expose hidden letters. Oh, gosh, I couldn't believe it. They have a Croatian version of "Wheel of Fortune"??? Ack!!!

Croatian "Vanna" is, of course, dark-haired. She wears a navy blue pantsuit with great wide lapels, flairs, and yellow and orange striped trim. Very stylish, indeed...for the early 1970s. "Pat" is a tall, balding man who looks very much like a school teacher, and he wears a nice double-breasted suit that's kind of a brownish green color.

The wheel is actually tilted quite a bit away from the three players, who stand on a high platform above it. The rest of the set is very subdued and dark. Not a lot of glitz and glitter at all. The three female contestants are all dressed casually, mainly in dark colors. Remarkably, the players never quite smile -- and there is NEVER any excited jumping up and down and clapping of hands -- but the young blonde who enjoys a comfortable lead sneaks a quick grin now and then. Perhaps the prizes have something to do with it. After all, it's hard to get excited about a fine selection of chewing gum, soap, motor oil products, juices, or a -- that's right "a" as in single -- kitchen cabinet that looks like a tool chest.

In the end, I wonder if this game is harder than the American version. After all, there are 30 letters in the Croatian alphabet.

On the other Croatian channel I found the Superbowl. I already know who's won, but the game provided a link with Stateside more gratifying than "Wheel of Fortune." The game was complete with Croatian commentary, although I can hear the game calling in English underneath. I watched most of the second quarter and then, in the ultimate insult, they dropped the entire second half for some political announcements! The same political program was on both Croatian channels!!!

I sensed it was the government's reaction to UN accusations that regular Croatian troops were fighting in Bosnia. The UN today also demanded this activity to cease, or Croatia would face sanctions. So much for the Superbowl.

The German and Austrian channels have a lot of US programming, but it's all dubbed into German. Sitcoms fluorish, as do plenty of B and made-for-TV movies, but I don't know German, and I spend time switching between Sky News and MTV.

1 Feb 1994 (Tuesday)

Today was my first day on my own in the office, and naturally I was a little apprehensive, but there's nothing like doing something yourself to learn where your weak points are.

Woody continued with the telephone problem, and Terry was off doing an installation in a truck for the ODA. Carl was off to Banja Luka for a day or two after finally having received permission to travel from the Bosnian Serb government in Pale ("PAH-lay"). One twist, though, is that they wouldn't permit him to take any tools with him. They play games like that all the time.

Lots of little jobs came up, and they were mostly successes. Some fellow showed up unable to program his HF radio, a Codan X-2, which no one at UNHCR had ever seen before. He was leaving on a trip to Bihac ("BEE hatch") soon and needed the communications. It turned out to be a faulty cable, which I promptly fixed, and then we programmed his radio without problems. He was very grateful.

A woman from Marie Stopes arrived all excited because her mobitel antenna had fallen off. A quick turn of a hex key and all was well again. A Danish guy from an NGO had a couple of broken Motorola handhelds, and he wondered if I could make a working one. Fortunately, yes, since the only problem on one was a broken battery connector. Another Dane from convoy operations wanted me to have a look at a telephone extension they couldn't get to work. This was a failure, because the splitter was bad, and since we radio technicians aren't really supposed to work on the phones, I didn't have a replacement to offer.

With this latter task I discovered a certain class structure within UNHCR. That is, there's a very real distinction between us blue collar types and the white collar administrators who rarely muss their hair. This particular fellow was very condescending, and it was distinctly because I "just a technician." I have noticed others act this way, but they were more subtle about it. Anyway, I kept my mouth shut. He had no idea of my background. I'm probably far better educated and more a professional than he could hope to be.

The day's work proved to be a good confidence builder, and I feel like there are only a couple of areas I need more experience with.

After work Jude and I went to look at an apartment near the train station. It was in a house undergoing rennovation, and for DM500 per month, it was pretty nice. It had a small sitting room open to a kitchen area, a fair-sized bath room, and then a loft bedroom. It would have been ideal for me, but the landlord informed us his wife had already rented it out. Darn. No, make that "Damn!"

I watched a little more television tonight. In the evenings HRT has some American soap operas, though I didn't watch long enough to see which ones. They're in English with Croatian subtitles, as are many of the movies they show. After the news HRT 1 showed a program I can best translate as "The Chronology of the War in Bosnia and Hercegovina." (In Croatian, unmarked c's are pronounced "ts".) It was a real rabble- rousing piece, basically half an hour showing destroyed villages and blown apart women and children, all very explicit. The scenes were quite gruesome, and I'm sure they'd never be shown on US TV. Not a nice way to end the day, but so it goes.