Meeting the PM

The Harvard Glee Club, in which I sing, arranged a series of exciting meetings for me today. HGC is traveling to the Middle East in winter 2011-2012, and one of their stops is Jordan. HGC leadership decided that, as long as I am in Jordan, I should do some of the legwork with regard to meeting alumni, scouting out venues, etc. So I threw on a suit and spent a little over an hour with Zaid Al-Rifai, the former Prime Minister of Jordan, and then had dinner with a US diplomat based in Amman.

The Al-Rifai meeting was quite an experience. I was told that he would be sending a car. What he didn't say is that the driver would be in a military uniform. The driver showed up at Qasid while I was still in class, and said he was looking for Marshall. Qasid administration pointed out the other Marshall, who was understandably terrified when a Jordanian soldier unexpectedly approached him and asked him to "please come with me." Luckily this was all cleared up, and I followed the driver to a very nice late-model Mercedes. Doors were opened for me, traffic cops saluted as we drove past. All in all, a very nice way to spend an afternoon.

The meeting itself was at Al-Rifai's home; we sat out in his marble courtyard, next to a beautiful fountain. I introduced myself, and after a short discussion of my experience in Amman, we dove into Glee Club details. Rifai is a Harvard alum, as is his son, the current Prime Minister. The man has considerable influence, unsurprisingly, and given his connections to Harvard, he is very eager to see the Glee Club travel to Jordan. He promised some very generous help with various aspects of the tour, which I reported back to HGC leadership. I may soon be dispatched to Egypt and the UAE to meet with our contacts there, though I sadly can't expect a similarly posh reception.

In the evening, I met with a Public Diplomacy officer stationed at the embassy here for advice on the logistics of bringing the groups here. He was full of information - venues, seating capacities, publicity issues, possible local groups to include in a joint concert, and the like. He also suggested a few of the restaurants I had to make sure not to miss while here for the summer. We also discussed his path in the US government and my interest in the field after graduation, though I didnt want to turn a Glee Club meeting into an informational job interview and so tried to keep that discussion short. He is beginning classes tomorrow at Qasid, so I may bump into him more often.

So two decently successful meetings in a single day - the luggage space I devoted to a suit and dress shoes is already worth it! The future likely holds a few more meetings as well... too bad I only brought one tie. While I wont be in the Glee Club when the actual tour comes around, I'll see if I can mooch off of leadership enough to get myself a free seat to tag along...