Sylvia's Journal

I felt a bit down today and I recognize the stress symptoms. It is good that it is weekend. The complexity of working here sometimes hits me like a sandbag that has fallen of one of the barricades. A part of me wants to grow wings and soar away; the other part of me whispers in my ear – this is the work, hang in there.

With my new female colleague Chris, who is from Australia, I went into town to have a bento box lunch at Mihori’s place. It took over an hour to get there. I enjoyed the slow ride with Chris as I never had a female & foreign colleague with whom to talk about the kinds of things that don’t cross gender lines. When the sexes don’t mingle freely, being among women becomes a treat. I no longer think it is silly that women and men don’t mingle at lunch. I totally get it, these separate lunches – a short break and a time to (quite literally) let your hair down.

We picked Meghann up at her place of work in the center of town to complete our threesome. We had a wonderful girl’s lunch in a lovely old building that is occupied by several small shops that cater to foreigners: calligraphy, carpets, fancy one-of-a-kind clothing and felt products. The food is served in the basement in a large room full of needlework that is made by a Bamiyan women’s cooperative. Chris loaned me some money to buy a lovely embroidered dress. Outside there was Afghan ice cream but we were too full with Japanese food.

After lunch we participated in a monthly meeting with other organizations with which we sometimes partner and sometimes compete. It’s a bit of a boy’s club except for Chris, myself and one other (American) woman who was here on a short visit. All the Afghans were men.