Sylvia's Journal

I was dressed in orange today and Sophia in black – we made such a nice Haloween combo that Axel thought a picture was in order. He posed us first in front of the tomato tree (our pear tree with bunches of harvested green tomatoes hanging from its branches – a source of many chuckles and, hopefully for the guards, a tomato meal down the road, if the sun keeps shining). Then he posed us in front of the arbor, with and without the pink squeegee.

I had asked Axel to come to the office and be my scribe for what I had hoped would be a well attended brainstorming meeting on how MSH could celebrate its 40th birthday in Afghanistan. When the time came no one showed up and so Axel and I brainstormed together. Then a colleague showed up who was clearly on his way to another meeting but we roped him in and he enthusiastically participated for a bit, populating our large mindmap with more ideas; then Sophia showed up, the only one who had actually accepted the invitation. So in the end the four of us brainstormed and produced something that I can send to headquarters – at least we gave heed to the call of ideas. As one of the largest MSH projects, how could we not have?

During the afternoon I was on an interview panel for a position on our drug management team. I was the only non pharmacist and so I asked the non-technical (or fuzzy) questions, like what is your vision and tell me what good qualities do you bring to a team? Most of the 6 candidates didn’t understand the question, sometimes not in English (at which point my Afghan co-panelists translated the question) and sometimes not even in Dari. The concept of teamwork as we know it, or having professional or career goals is so rarely asked (if at all) that they don’t think about this. Jobs are for income and survival – a career path maybe an irrelevant western invention.

I was at first surprised when one of my colleagues asked the candidates to describe the job they were applying for. I didn’t think such a question needed to be asked but I soon learned it does need to be asked. Some people apply for any job they see. One of our candidates had applied for three jobs in the pharmaceutical unit at the same time: one senior position, one midlevel and one of a low level assistant. There was something not quite right about that.

Two of the six candidates were female; one very spunky the other quite the opposite. I wanted to follow the shy one out into the hallway after we prematurely concluded the interview, to explain to her that how one presents oneself is really important in an interview – she has a long way to go. Once again we noticed the difference between those candidates who were educated, even in camps, in Pakistan and those whose families had stayed here. The former are confident, speak English well, the latter don’t have any of these qualities yet fill their resumes with promises they can’t deliver. It is sad that after having suffered through some much here they can’t compete with their refugee brothers and sisters who went to Pakistan or Iran.