This week my school, the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University posted a link to this blog through the school website. It made me think about just what my job here is. While my classmates slave away on Wall Street or market banks in California, I have an entire life here in Bosnia.

While our obsession with work in the United States so often defines who we are, I get to slow down and live like a Bosnian. Work here is not the fast paced, hectic, deadline, ulcer-inducing world it is in the US and really, why should it be? That is not to say that the women I work with do not work hard. Beba is here everyday, Monday through Saturday and often on Sundays, the only day off in the Bosnian work week. I have even seen the women weavers sleep here in order to get a carpet finished.

I am constantly amazed at their work ethic. But in all that we have other priorities; coffee is definitely a priority, and relationships. When people stop by the office, they are always welcome to sit and chat, even if it is about nothing. The food is also very important. I doubt that my classmate’s internships involve sitting down to lunch every day with the entire office or taking turns preparing lunch.

There is also the other aspect of my job, the non-business part of work; writing blogs and going to funerals is also not something my classmates are doing as part of their internships, and the humanitarian aspect of this work is never far from my mind. People who start this work, development or whatever you want to call it have a hard time leaving it. Because while work is important anywhere in the world and can be rewarding in and of itself, the sense of contentment in one’s work is nothing in comparison to the smiles on the faces of the women I work with and the pleasure I take in their company.