First week of internship

June 18, 2011

I just finished my first week at my internship and already I’ve had a whirlwind of emotions.  The first few days were a little overwhelming. Since my bags hadn’t arrived, it made setting up a little difficult so I was bounced around to different people until they found a computer and desk for me to use.  I don’t know if I am in my permanent desk or if there are still plans to move me around but I guess I’ll find out soon. 

Over the past few days I have been meeting with the heads of every department to understand what they do, how their department fits in with the rest of them and their major challenges. The organization is going though major changes right now by decentralizing so things are a little confusing and chaotic and I’m trying to get a good picture of how things used to be and where they are headed. New departments have been created and people who have been working at the same position for 10+ years and now have to learn new jobs. It’s a great time for me to be here during this transition period and I foresee other organizations in Africa going through similar processes in the future.

After working at the ground level with NGOs for the past few years, it is really interesting to be working at a headquarters. The amount of work that goes in to creating, implementing, and supporting projects is immense and I am so glad that I am getting this experience.

I am currently sharing an office with one of the new regional managers and he has been really helpful answering questions about everything for me from work related material, to the genocide in Rwanda, to cultural events.  He told me all about weddings in Rwanda. Apparently they can last a long time (his friend’s wedding is this weekend) with a traditional portion and the church portion. During the traditional portion, the parents sit down and discuss the marriage of their children, almost in a banter, teasing tone until they finally agree on the marriage. There is a dowry in cows and as he explained, wealthy people give more cows and a high quality cow (there are 2 types of cows here—ones that come from India and others that come from Europe) can cost up to 1 million Rwf. Then they go to get marriage certificates. A week later, there can be a big church wedding, like our own in the states, with a reception afterwards. People have so many family and friends that are invited that there could be 600 people at a wedding! So at the end of the day I was maybe invited to attend this wedding with my colleague.

I made friends with another colleague Friday afternoon during my last meeting of the day. I was meeting with our external affairs person and after discussing work I tried to get to know her a little more. She offered to take me to the market so I am looking forward to going today.

This past week has pretty much been wake up, go to work, get lunch, back to work and then random activities at night with the other people at the hostel. Monday we went to a pizza place for trivia, Tuesday we went to a coffee shop/Morroccan/Mexican restaurant, Wednesday we went to an Indian restaurant for a goodbye party for someone, Thursday we went to the Chinese restaurant by our hotel, and Friday we went to a BBQ hosted by the marines that work at the Embassy.