Meatballs and Fanta

I'm finishing up day 2 of a 3 day meeting now. It's the afternoon coffee break. It occurred to me that I had not blogged about how meetings in Rwanda are generally set up, which i might as well rectify right now because a) I attend lots of them and b) they follow a general frame that is pretty standard around here.

First, the topic generally does not effect the format of the agenda. Trainings, of course, are different, but meetings, workshops, work sessions, etc follow this pattern generally. The pattern is often: information presented, small group work, small group presentations. That being said, we're only having 1 day like that (today) while the rest were: previously prepared presentations by participants followed by discussions. My presentation went well, thanks for asking. Minimal discussion about my 5 slides (yes, here, too, everything is in powerpoint, often with animation).

At the beginning of a big meeting, a formal meeting, you get at least a pen and an agenda. If the meeting is long, at least 1 day, you also get a notepad of some sort, often referred to as a "bloc note". These are so expected that even when I travelled on an exchange visit to another country with a Rwandan colleague she showed up without bringing a notebook and was astonished when our hosts started talking without providing her with one.

But most standard are the breaks and the snacks. There is always a mid-morning coffee/tea break. On offer is generally African tea (which is hot milk with a little spice tea flavor), regular black tea, coffee, and hot milk. If not hot milk, a container of nido (nestle brand powdered milk or some generic). And then there's the snacks: could be meat samosasa, meatballs, sweet rolls (not that sweet), dry cake, dry corn muffin type item, or waffles (in the style one finds in former Belgian colonies but not Belgium itself). The coffee is never good, sometimes nescafe, and otherwise always strong. Too strong. Then there is a lunch - which usually is a buffet with multiple protein choices. Today, as an example, there were peas, chicken, fish, and meat. There were more proteins than there were starches - this is not normal. Usually there are twice as many starch options. But now, at nearly 5pm, we're having another coffee break. With all the same things. And soda beverages. I walked past and saw there was Fanta orange and a big pile of meatballs. I didn't want any of that.

This meeting is being held at a hotel just on the outskirts of town. Yesterday there were Swedish people living in big pink buses using the pool and shower facilities. Today there appears to be a men's soccer team staying here and running around. I wonder who the special guest will be tomorrow? So far, the Swedes in the pink caravans were the strangest.