Sylvia's Journal

I plucked from the internet ’10 ways to clean your whiteboard using common household products.’ I tried the hand sanitizer and lo and behold the old sketches on my whiteboard disappeared. But the board looked more grungy than white.

When I returned to my office a little later I noticed that the whiteboard sparkled bright white. My assistant came in with a big smile on her face; she had given the whiteboard a toothpaste treatment and showed the empty travel tube of Colgate. It did work if whitening was the goal. But the smooth surface over which the marker is to glide was mostly gone and subsequent writings on the whiteboard will need sandpaper I think. It was a nice idea.

This afternoon we had an appointment with the new interim minister of health, the lady doctor who was rejected earlier by parliament, presumably according to some sources, because she did not pay her ‘dues.’

On our way to the ministry we passed by the shopping center that the whole world saw in flames on TV on Monday. It was a testament to the resilience of the Afghan people to see that the shops at the bottom of the burned out shopping center had already replaced their windows and had their shops full of merchandise again, as if nothing had happened.

The only sign that something had gone terribly wrong, aside from the blackened 2nd to 6th stories, were the big black SUVs and the young American or British security guys with big guns, wires behind their ears and dark sunglasses, protecting, I assumed, some Big Cheese who was checking out the damage. The insurance adjuster maybe?

Our new minister received us gracefully in the same office that was formerly occupied by the minister I got to know – their personalities are about as different as personalities can get. She had removed the little lectern table that the former minister would occupy when holding meetings – creating a psychological distance that had power. A small bell on the little lectern would summon a tray with green tea and cake. The new minister had removed the lectern and replaced it with a chair that matched the furniture of her visitors and placed the bell discreetly out of sight. The place definitely looked more feminine with enormous bouquets of silk flowers everywhere.

She greeted Steve with ‘my mentor’ and acknowledged several of my Afghan colleagues with whom she had worked in earlier days. We offered our support and listened to her priorities: child survival and quality of urban hospital care – two areas that intersect in some of our projects and that are sprinkled throughout our annual workplan.

Back in the office we prepared for the worldwide MSH meeting, eating a hasty meal catered by a nearby restaurant, fed the leftovers to the office cat and settled in front of the video conference camera.

I find it each time astonishing that we can conference like this with our colleagues all over the world. I discovered that we are now over 2000 people representing 74 different nationalities and 80% of our staff from the countries we work in. We were proud to support our Afghan boss who presented, for a change, about the good things that are happening here.