Sarah Chayes' Wish List for Balco

• Computer (up-to-date desk-top and battle-hardened laptop). Desk-top should include a disk-writer.
• High quality, sturdy photo printer
• Office furniture (might not be feasible to ship)
• Office supplies (high priority: file folders, and hanging-file storage do-hickies, like boxes or racks. Also: paper, pens, paper fasteners, rolodex inserts, etc. I will update this with more specifics shortly.)
• Generator (a biggie).
• Solar power consulting and equipment. Ideally, we would like to identify a solar consultant who would be willing to come to Kandahar to do an assessment.
• Satellite and wide-band internet connectivity.
• At least two GSM-compatible cell phones.
• Walkie-talkies with 10-15 km. range
• Two refrigerator trucks
• One ordinary flat-bed truck
• Two industrial-size refrigerators
• One industrial-size freezer
• Software (eg. Quickbooks, Adobe InDesign, etc.)
• Web design
• Printing services for brochure, business cards, stationery, etc.
• Air travel, US-Dubai, and intra-US.
• “Lab”-coats, aprons for BALCO staff
• Cleaning equipment and supplies (eg., dish soap, rubber gloves, brushes, counter-cleaning spray, laundry detergent, etc. Believe it or not, these items are of such low quality as to be practically unusable over there.)
• Step-down power transformer (Allows US appliances to plug into 220 current as exists in Afghanistan) -- a couple of decent-size ones, eg. 85 volts as available at Brookstones
• Heavy duty surge protectors
• UPS (essentially a battery pack) for computers and other office machinery, a couple at 500 v. capacity would be good.
• Professional-strength vacuum cleaner

Most items (short of the very biggest stuff, for which we will have to consult) can be shipped to:

Sarah Chayes
c/o BALCO
APO AE 09355

Please note: Items for shipping to the APO address should be VERY WELL PACKED. They will get there, but they suffer a little in transit, so please use lots of poppy paper or styrofoam (or real) popcorn, etc. Imagine a football team is going to use the package for practice.

For further information, etc. contact Sarah Chayes at: schayes@afghanpolicy.org

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