a week of meetings

I traded in my boat trips for office work this last week and was able to get quite a bit accomplished in the office.  Keep in mind “quite a bit” means something else in Rwanda; it’s not like leaps and bounds were made.  But regardless of the set backs, I was privy to some of the inner workings of Rwandan government.  I am speaking of the common practice of attending meetings.  Meetings are a staple of Rwandan government operations.  Everyone attends at least two or three a day, they come up in the last minute, they last for hours, and they are often cancelled without warning.  Our bosses have to attend so many meetings that we barely see them in the office.  Their absence really makes our jobs that much more important.  But this week I got to attend a few meetings of my own.  I also got to have some meetings cancelled for no reason.  I really feel like I’m in the club or something.

Matt and I met with the National Institute of Statistics to discuss the indicators the government wanted to use to measure its success in improving aspects of governance.  This meeting was tedious but interesting; it lasted four hours but we got to put into the statistical knowlege we gained in the stats class taught by Professor Hawken.  We discussed with the statistician about some of the weaknesses of the indicators.  It was pretty cool to be able to talk about relatively complex statistical concepts with confidence.  I think he was impressed we could keep up in the conversation.

We also met with the UNDP in downtown Kigali.  I never thought I would admit this but the UNDP is one of the more capable institutions in the entire country.  The guy we met is especially sharp.  He really was following this policy document we are working on and gave good feedback, which we tried to incorporate in our comments.

In a way it’s unfortunate because many of Rwanda’s expert policy makers, lawyers, and technicians are leaving the government jobs to work for development agencies and NGOs.  The biggest factor is the pay and work environment: would you want to work for 1/8 of the pay in a building with no basic facilities or would you rather work in a place like the UNDP where there is higer pay and nicer conditions?

We also had the pleasure of meeting with Law School Dean Ken Starr, his wife Alice, and former Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy Colleen Graffy.  Special thanks to SPP and Law School student (and Ugandan law expert) Nicole, Jody, and Colleen for making this happen.  Dean Starr and his wife are on a long trip in East Africa and were in Uganda earlier.  They were very gracious and invited us for an awesome lunch at the Serena Hotel.  This place was like no other place we’ve been to in Rwanda (4th of July at the US Embassy doesn’t count because that’s America!).  There were even toilet seat covers.  Really, that is a big deal to me.  The lunch was ridiculous and unlike other buffets we been to, we could come back as many times as we wanted.  This allowed us to avoid stacking an embarrassingly large amount of food in a volcano-shaped structure on our plates.  We told the dean about our backgrounds, experiences, and work.  It was really cool to have this meeting because we were looking forward to it since we arrived.  We parted ways and saw the dean and his wife board the most awesome vehicle I’ve seen in Rwanda: a huge green Safari Tours SUV with two spare tires in back; this thing was a beast.  I passed them on my mototaxi as they made their way to the airport.  Their next stop is Israel!

Colleen was nice enough to meet with us and the other Law School students for dinner at our favorite (aka only) Italian restaurant in Kigali.  We swapped experiences and talked about the future of Pepperdine internships in Rwanda.  There is definately a lot of potential in Rwanda and the school can have a big impact in the country’s development.  Like us, the Law School guys had more responsibility that the average interns.  The lack of capable staff really allows students to do much more important work in government than they would in an NGO.  We showed Colleen our neighborhood and our place and walked her back to the taxi stop where Matt tried to create a bidding war between taxi drivers.  It was a really great day and we are happy we made some very cool connections with the Law School administration.

Hopefully next week is more internet-friendly and I will have time to blog more often.  Until then, adios.

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