work

The office, where I will be for the next two months, before packing my things again, and leaving for Sierra Leone, is dominated by women. So it was no surprise that when my birthday arrived the afternoon coffee table had three litres of ice cream on it (after all we were five that afternoon). Just when we were finishing the last bits the post arrived. We all jumped to get it, as we all knew that it was the day when the new edition of the African Woman was supposed to arrive. It’s not like the magazine is anything special, it is just like any other women’s magazine with useless articles about clothes and new ways to curl your eye lashes but there is one thing that is different – no diet advice.

I have come to notice that there are significant differences in male and female dominated work places. Firstly I had never thought I’d last for more than few hours in one of the latter, but in fact I have been there already for 3days and enjoying it. This might be because the dress code consists of old jeans and converse or flip lops that fly into the corner as soon as you enter the office. Or because everybody there thinks that bike is the only true form of transport in a city and Senegal a peaceful holiday destination.

What ever the reason there are some particular characteristics. First the amount of ice cream and chocolate that is consumed over the course of the day exceeds that of a male dominated office by far. I think our daily figures could be compared to their yearly ones. Another is the amount of time that is spent on bitching, moaning or just normal gossip. It is unbelievable. And the funny thing is that we still, somehow, manage to be reasonably efficient.

One of the girls was leaving for Uganda so we needed to do some shopping – led torches, five different types of electrical gadgets, some tools and few books that can not be bought from the destination. At the shop we spent a reasonably long time discussing the advantages and disadvantages of different plugs that protect the computer from electricity peaks that are common when electricity is produced with private, oil burning generators. I think we lost the shopkeeper there. I started to rethink my original view about the differences, maybe, after all…

We got the office and my boss picked up the phone to Sierra Leone, started writing and email, while burning some CDs…never mind…they are two different planets these offices…