Sylvia's Journal

Just when I walked over to our cafeteria for lunch I received an SMS from our security that a suicide bomber was on the loose in the ministry of defense. We talked about the message over lunch. No one of us in the ladies lunchroom knew anyone who worked at that ministry. If we had we would have been frantic with worry.

I tried to imagine what it would be like to work in a place full of uniformed men knowing that one of those uniforms was hiding a suicide vest. Minutes later we received another SMS that the vest and its wearer had exploded. Aside from the tragedy it is also a spit into the face of the president and the whole defense apparatus. People were making jokes, ‘how can we count on Afghan defense forces when they can’t even defend themselves?’ But it is no joke at all.

In the evening we watched as BBC program about young boys being recruited by the Taliban in Pakistan to blow themselves up. They are lured away from school with the message that school is useless and that going to heaven is much better.

Sometimes being here feels like Russian roulette although the violence is not random. But who exactly is targeted only becomes known after the fact.