take this job and fill it
Friday was my last day working at the ministry and now it’s time to go on a well-deserved vacation. We managed to finish our project on good governance and ended up with a 35 page report and an annex the size of a small dictionary. It was exhausting and challenging work but we got a lot out of the experience. The nature of my job required me to dabble in a variety of subjects: government service delivery, decentralization, liberalism, transparency, accountability, national security, civil rights, organizational effectiveness, and foreign policy. Basically everything that concerns government was in this report. Unfortunately, “create a space program” was never one of the items we got to include in our final draft.
With the end of work comes the end of some cool working relationships. My two bosses that I reported to are two of the most hard-working and intelligent guys anyone can come across. Despite the lack of skilled support staff (see Matt Saha), our bosses were responsible for running all good governance and local government related policy programs. When you think about all that encompasses “good governance” and “local government” you will understand the immense pressure these two are under. Couple that with an inadequate working environment and you have an example of what selflessness is. These guys aren’t making anywhere near the money NGO employees make for doing less work under better conditions. Next time I hear the SEIU complain about not getting a COLA I will laugh, and laugh heartily I will; if you want to see “poor work conditions” in a government office then please visit a developing country.
There are also a few charecters that I will miss seeing around the office. Actually, three come to mind:
1) Sleepy McSleeperson: this is an older (by Rwandan standards) man with a Santa Claus figure that slowly shuffles through the ministry’s hallways looking for who knows what. Although a hard worker and intelligent, he has been know to take unscheduled naps from time to time. I like to imagine this is what Saha will turn into in just a few years.
2) Chatty McChatterson: when you think of professional security at a government building, you think of well-armed and vigilant guardians like the CHP or Capitol Police. Chatty only fulfills the first description. Armed with his trusty AK-47, Chatty roams the front parking lot of the ministry, striking up conversations with other guards, employees, and the guys who sell phone cards outside the gate. More often then not, you can find Chatty having a heated conversation on his cell phone. Never one to pay attention to anything, Chatty casually swings the assault rifle slung around his shoulder or sits on his wooden chair with the gun on his lap and the barrel pointing down the sidewalk toward pedestrians. I can only hope his safety is on.
3) The Pants Man: Towards the beginning of the internship, Matt and I were working in our office when a man entered the room and struck up a conversation with one of our bosses. Now, random people walking in to chat about who knows what is not out of the ordinary. But what happened next was. The man approach Matt and I at our desks and asked us if we wanted to buy pants. I asked the most natural question someone in my situation would ask: “What do you mean, ‘buy some pants’?” He proceeded to tell us that he was going from office to office selling a bag full of pants. He had jeans, slacks, shorts, and any kind of pant you can think of. He even showed us his merchandise. He was true to his claims: he did, indeed, have quite a few kinds of pants to sell. After giving ourselves looks of confusion, we kindly declined his offer and he left the office. After he left, we asked our boss what that was all about. Apparently, the aforementioned Chatty McChatterson mysteriously allowed a solicitor to slip past his guard. Now this guy was going office to office and selling pants. People were also buying his pants, which was weird to us, because how do you even know they fit? (We found out later that, according to a theory of one of our bosses, the way you determine if pants from mobile pants dealers fit without trying them on is to measure the waist size in proportion to your neck because supposedly the human neck is around half the circumference of the human waist. I have yet to see any studies that support this theory.) Matt and I thought this whole business what hilarious and Matt ingeniously coined the phrase “I’m the Pants Man” in reference to the Scatman John song “Scatman (Ski Ba Bop Ba Dop Bop)”. Since that infamous day we have encountered several other Pants Men operating around the country. They are quite eager for your business, so please, if you see the Pants Man, consider being his client.
This internship was definitely a once in a lifetime experience that I am happy I accepted. We celebrated last night by watching “I Love You, Man” at the US Embassy and going out with the Marines. Their housing is freaking sick, by the way. Be happy to know our guys are being taken care of here. It was a fun night and we got to meet other Americans and say goodbye to a few of our friends we met while in the country.
We plan on doing some travel this next week, so stay tuned for some misadventures later in the week!
