Work

I almost called this post 'white privilege', but that's not entirely what it's about. I was told before coming here that people really respect white people doing business here, which is a weird thing considering the colonial past unless I guess you take into account that there’s issues here with inferiority complex’s even today. I benefit from this phenomenon and it’s weird. I remember reading an article awhile back in the Atlantic Monthly about how in China you can hire a “white guy” for important business meetings. So basically as a white guy you can go there and pretty much get paid to act, and go to fancy cocktail parties and schmooze, kind of a good deal huh? I am sometimes asked to come to meetings by colleagues and always wonder how much of it is trying to give legitimacy or added weight to the meeting vs. I actually have something they want me to contribute.

I was hired at my company Fenix as the “innovations manager,” which is a cool but vague sounding title. Just exactly what am I managing? In fact, I don’t actually have anyone specifically working under me but when I moved to Rwanda to our small little operation of just 3.5 people (our accountant is a part-time person), all Africans, the two non-managers automatically started introducing me to others as a (or their) new manager.  I was given a lot of trust considering I had been with the company for two weeks when I was moved and asked to help manage this new office (about 8 months old) and make this operation work. Maybe it’s just that most white people here are aid workers, NGO or non-profit employees, or volunteers, so by virtue of our numbers business people are more rare?

So coming here has been pretty good. People ask for my opinion a lot, even when I really have no authority or background on something. It may be an ego boost but maybe it actually helps you grow too? And I can get people to do things when other people can’t (like get a meeting or push someone to follow up), which is also strange as I don’t think I’m doing anything that special. The other day, the manager of our office, Eric, was working on our monthly budget. I submitted what I thought I needed and tried to keep expenses down. I also felt like my accommodations budget should be less than the two traveling salespeople even though their numbers seemed ridiculously low (a little under $40 for lodging for the whole month on the road). Eric said I should take more money for lodging and specifically told me that “I was more senior” so I should get more money, even though I’ve been here three weeks, and again, have no official power. But I suppose this is also all part of being at a start-up. It really is so fast moving and our business strategy evolves every day.

Our office is housed within a larger human resource consulting company. Fiona, pictured front, center, celebrated her Birthday recently

So far the work has been good and challenging. More updates on this to come