A few minutes after arriving at the office it started – very innocently at first with salt replacing the sugar at the tea table. The cleaning women were the first to suffer the effects of the salt and when they discovered the culprit & the reason for the switch (April Fools Day) they laughed so hard that tears were streaming down their faces!

It since has escalated to include the following stories…

1. The Country Director’s hotel in Italy was struck by a plane, so I have been appointed acting CD. In this capacity I have decided to restructure the Finance Department and am sending nearly all of the staff to the field offices – key positions to be moved to Helmand & Kandahar (two of the most dangerous places in Afghanistan).
2. The Finance Director informed the Deputy Country Director (who is currently acting Country Director) that he was resigning. He also sent an email to key directors in the field who quickly responded with their best wishes & sadness at this news. One even offered to get him an interview with another agency that he has connections with.
3. The Finance Director informed his deputy manager that he was resigning due in part to the “difficult expats”. The Deputy immediately called the Travel Coordinator to arrange flights to the locations where the “difficult expats” are working.
4. The IT Manager was informed that his name came up on a terrorist watch list and as such his resignation needed to be tendered immediately. His IT Officer immediately checked World Tracker to verify… and was totally frustrated when nothing came up.
5. An Ops Manager who just arrived in Lashkar Gah, Helmand was informed that all flights had been canceled into and out of Helmand Province for the next three months. Further, he was not allowed to travel by car.
6. The Cashier was informed that there has been a rash of counterfeit 1,000 AFN notes and the only way to detect them was to submerge them in water… which he began doing.
7. One expat was informed that her cat was discovered in the washing machine after a cycle of wash.
8. I informed a friend, who runs security for another NGO, that we’ve gotten a new sub-grant in Helmand province to work with a local de-mining company to clear landmines… my question for him was did he know anywhere here in Kabul that I could get decent protective gear.
9. The HR Director and Operations Director both tendered their resignations – at this point the Deputy Country Director knew something was amiss & the jig was up!
10. The Property Manager was asked for his resignation as he hasn’t been “keeping up” with all the maintenance  at the Guest Houses.  (We’ve just opened two new guest houses, and are closing down three others… he’s doing a great job, but his work-load has been CRAZY!!!)

These are just the stories I’ve heard. Given the laughter echoing through the hallways I’m sure the stories have grown exponentially! The laughter is contagious. The sense of camaraderie and team that it has created is tangible.

It will be interesting to see if this exercise brings the team closer together…. ’cause it certainly seems to me that the team who laughs together, works together!

UPDATE (2 April): #8 was the only one that didn’t get a laugh – was too close to home & not far-fetched enough to be funny! Am still feeling pretty sheepish!