Rwanda update
By Perry Beeman | October 21, 2009 | United States
I have returned to Washington, D.C., where I am on a fellowship through the International Reporting Project, the kind organization that paid for my travels to Rwanda. I’m back in my temporary office at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies, a few blocks from the hubbub and fantastic food of Dupont Circle.
Thanks to the equally kind people at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, I’ll be staying in D.C. a few more weeks than originally planned. The Wilson Center offered me a short-term appointment as a public policy scholar. I’ll be continuing my studies of Rwanda’s environmental efforts, and my writing on that topic. I’ll also look into other international environmental topics, particularly energy, climate and resource management, as time permits.
Oh, yes, and I’ll be sorting through thousands of photographs, some of which I’ve shared with you already. And reading government reports. And recalling, fondly, the many great experiences I had in the Land of a Thousand Hills.
The Wilson Center, created by Congress, is a living memorial to President Wilson, the only president with a doctoral degree. It’s an amazingly diverse place where talented and highly educated scholars exchange ideas and pick each others’ brains. They’ll find the picking quick and easy in my case, but I’m honored to be in the midst of so many experts.
I will continue to give you snippets of what I learned in Rwanda, as I compile stories and op-eds for The Register and for other news outlets. Occasionally, I’ll drop on a dateline if I’m describing the place based on my personal visit there.
Thanks to the many of you who emailed me while I was gone, and who followed my invigorating trek across this eastern African country on the move, 15 years after genocide erased a million cherished lives.
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