First Day of Work

Woah. Let’s just say that I will NEVER walk around without a camera again. Who would have thought that my first day at work would probably be one of the most amazing cultural experiences of my life? What an IDIOT I was to not bring a camera. ARG! I apologize to all you blog readers out there who have been commenting on my distinct lack of photos as well… I will do better, I promise.

Anyway, what did day one have in store for me, you ask? Ha! Well… here goes.

The first few hours were boring bureaucratic stuff. I read a bunch of documents about the overall structure of the organization within the context of Rwanda, all the other partners and their roles, what the Healthcare Expansion Framework is, etc, etc blah blah blah. I also got a phone (yay!) and ate a croissant (yay!).

Then it was time for a field trip. Basically the entire CHAI group (all 5 of us) got in a little van-car-thingy and drove about two hours east outside of the city of Kigali. Apparently, a training center that is kind of the first really big project that Partners In Health and the Clinton Foundation have spearheaded together, was being inaugurated. This was particularly interesting to me since I worked so closely with Maya in Nicaragua, who was designing exactly the same kind of thing – a convention center / office / training facility / dormitory–esque space. The center itself is on the same land as one of the hospitals CHAI and PIH renovated together. I approached the space with a particular eye for sustainability, since that’s what I’d been so focused on in Nicaragua. I figured out soon enough, that was NOT one of the objectives of PIH nor the Clinton Foundation in terms of this building, but it was nevertheless, a beautiful space. Apparently Paul Farmer, the founder of PIH, has a side-hobby of landscaping, and you could totally tell. The entire space was landscaped beautifully with plants he’d imported from various parts of the world. There was a pond and a waterfall in the central courtyard, and rock gardens in every open space (that, at least, is totally sustainable).

The inaugural proceedings were impressively interesting as well. Granted, there were a whole bunch of VIPs that had to give little speeches, but that becomes an interesting exercise in attention when some speakers are speaking in French, others in English, and still others in Kinyarwanda. The mayors of both the district we were in, and the neighboring one gave their two cents. Then there was the director of Partners in Health for Rwanda, Mike Rich. Then there was Paul Farmer, the founder of Partners in Health, the Ambassador to Rwanda from the United States, and the distinguished and honored guest, the Minister of Health in Rwanda. The list went on and on. It was cool to meet/see all these veeps on my first day of work.

I also got to meet a whole bunch of expats from all different NGOs that had something to do with the center. Obviously there were several clinical workers from PIH, but also there were people from USAid-funded projects and smaller local NGOs. There was lots of chatting, mingling, and socializing. The best parts of the proceedings, however, were the bookends – performances by a dance troop and by Burundian Drummers. I’ll talk about those in separate entries, since they were awesome in their own right.

Anyway, we had this fancy schmancy inauguration. I got home around 8pm, after a two-hour drive home during which I slept almost the entire way. I guess I’m still adjusting to the time difference.