Sylvia's Journal

I rushed to the ministry this morning to find out that I was, mistakenly, called to a meeting of a committee I am not a part of. Given that a ride to the ministry and back takes at least one and a half hours I lost a good chunk of the morning, a morning during which I was supposed to clean out my mailbox and review tons of attachments. The only thing that made this not a total loss was the Dari practice I got from my colleagues during the shuttle ride as they helped me read a children’s poem about a kite.

A thrilling thing is happening: after initiating our visa renewal process on November 23 our two passports have finally been taken to the Ministry of Interior Affairs for our new multiple entry visa stamps. With lots of luck I get mine back in time to secure a visa for Egypt. A study visit to Aswan is in the works, with a departure planned for January 29. Oh the suspense!

Another extraordinary thing happened: I received very honest and pertinent feedback from two of my staff about the symbolic meaning of what I do and don’t do. One of my teams, I now realize, is not getting enough of my attention. That is because they are so good – the team’s program manager works hard and gets his work done without making much noise. I also don’t know much about their work as it is outside my sphere of expertise. I came to realize that I was paying mostly attention to those staff members who are in charge of activities I know something about and where I can add value; they also happen to be in closer proximity to my office.

The more I think about it the more I am thrilled that I was actually told about my shortcomings in my face rather than being ‘reviewed’ behind my back. Critiquing your boss is risky and rather countercultural here even though we all encourage people to be frank and open and to ignore the hierarchical divides. A colleague once told me he prefers working for a foreigner because he can be more forthright and honest because the cultural constraints about social interactions are not operating in that relationship the way they do in relationships between Afghans.

The experience of hearing about my shortcomings reminded me that there is much we miss in this culture so different from our own; that some people may never get such feedback. I suppose that there is probably much talking about us foreigners, in a language we don’t understand and when we are not around; about and our right, wrong and odd way of managing our work and our teams.