Sylvia's Journal

We were in the middle of an orientation about the Health Management Information System (HMIS) when a loud boom went off, followed by what sounded like metal rolling down a tin roof. The presenter paused for a moment and we all looked at each other but no one said a word. Then he resumed as if nothing happened.

I found it hard to concentrate after that. For about 15 minutes I tried to follow the presenter but my mind was otherwise engaged in two parallel thought streams: (1) what was that? It sounded like an explosion. Was this the next event that we had been anticipating for so long? What had rattled down a roof, and where? Where did it happen and were people hurt? And (2) was I the only one thinking these thoughts? What about all the other people in the room? Chris has a little girl in a school not far from us. Was she worried? Why didn’t anyone get on the phone?

I had to call one of my staff to join us and used this as an excuse to get out of the room. Outside I found two of my female colleagues with cellphones to their ears. “What happened”? I asked. I was taken to the cafeteria, which abuts the wall that separates our compound from the main road. The cook showed a piece of metal that had come in over the wall. The man who does our copying took the piece to security. It had been too hot to handle when it landed in the compound.

“No, not war!” was the answer to my question, put awkwardly in the local language to one of the guards. He said something I only partially understood, about a house, nearby. I made up the missing words with my own imagination, a gas tank explosion maybe? Later I saw our security chief. I asked him what it was. He shrugged his shoulders. It was nothing, just the demining people blowing up mines. There are still mines in the mountains around Kabul and, I guess, they still find them from time to time. This is the reason why we are not allowed to go on walks up there.

And so I was reminded that a boom is not necessarily a bad boom. It can come from many different causes and we can make it up to be one of many things. That’s also how rumors become facts.