Friday evening at 6pm is usually when I am headed home to set down my bag and collapse after a long week of work – a feeling that I imagine is shared by many people. So I was a bit nervous about maintaining the attention and interest of the eclectic group that gathered at the offices of FATE Consulting for an Introduction to Storytelling for Leadership workshop this past Friday.

In the elections in September of 2013, Rwanda once again voted in a majority of women to parliament. With women holding 64% of seats, that makes the percentage of female parliamentarians greater than in any other country in the world. Rwanda’s government promotes women’s empowerment, and has even created a Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion to focus on these issues specifically.

As I write this, in the other room a few friends are devising a way to cook two turkeys for our Thanksgiving dinner (brought in a cold carry-on by one of their parents who flew in yesterday). The power has been out for about 6 hours now, and I think the game plan is to put them in big pots over an open fire. I have no doubt that it will be a Thanksgiving to remember.

I arrived at the Girl Hub offices on a clear Tuesday morning and began to get myself situated in the bright yellow room where I would spend the next few days working with the newly selected Girl Hub Brand Representatives on personal presentation. I could tell immediately why these women had been selected to be representatives at conferences and events both domestically and internationally. Sarah has a calm and collected presence, Benigne is lively and outgoing, and Pascaline is refreshingly direct. All three of them exude intelligence.

Resonate’s first workshop in Rwanda was with the Akilah Institute for Women. I had the pleasure of spending a week in their Leadership class exploring the influential power of narrative and working with the 54 students of the class of 2013 on developing their own Story of Self.