Nigeria!

Hi all,
So this week has been great and crazy so far. For those of you who have heard me complain about my internship....it's been a nice change of pace. Our receptionist is out this week and we have a group of 12 Nigerians in from the Nigerian National Assembly (equivalent to our Congress/Senate). They are very interesting people with a lot of strong personalities. While I have been taking on a lot of the responsibilities of the receptionist I have also had a lot of opportunity to interact with the Nigerian delegation.

Yesterday I escorted them to lunch and on a tour of the Capitol, which culminated in a meeting with the Architecht of the Capitol. I learned a lot about how the Nigerian government and society works. They were particularly fascinated that the government officials did not make (relatively) a lot of money. I was explaining to them that politicians aren't paid as well in the U.S. as people who work on Wall Street or for a corporation.

Today there was a lecture from Tom Davis a former representative and chairman in the House. He discussed the inner workings of politics and the reason why politicans act the way they do and how he was able to continuously get reelected in a Democratic district as a Republican. He also discussed the Katrina investigative report that he sponsored and help wrote even though it was against his party. I thought this was an important point to make because he discusses how politicians must admit when they are wrong for the better of our country in order to learn lessons from these mistakes. While he emphasized the majority of time politicans think first what is best for their party and only second what is best for the country, in real times of crises they are able to think past party lines.

Cheers,
Jenny