A Day on the Job

I love my office. Right now, I'm talking physical space. And that's right - I said office, not cube. Who knows the next time I’ll get an office, because goodness knows I don’t have one back in the wonderful world of Washington. And even here I better appreciate it while I can – these digs are temporary. Please see Exhibit A. One whole wall is basically a window, and I get a nice glimpse of the ocean - when the sun starts to set (and yes, I'm here when it does that since it sets so early), I can see it reflecting in the glass that separates my office from the rest of the room. Absolutely fabulous. See Exhibit B. Now, yes, the people. Even better than my view. I had the pleasure of meeting several of them when they flew into DC for the Worldwide Program Officer Conference I helped organize back in February. They were friendly then and just as much so now, checking on me throughout the day, showing me where to eat around the office, providing tips on how the heck to fit exercise in my schedule (given time and safety and transportation constraints), suggesting where to go on the weekends ... the list goes on.

Maybe more than anything what I like – oddly, I guess? – about my colleagues is how much some of them know about my personal life and how much I know about theirs. Basically as soon as I got here I had bacon on a Sunday morning with my boss and watched as her son stabbed his French toast and her daughter pranced around in her princess nightgown. I sat in the living room with another colleague and his wife and discussed their “naughty room” (it’s not what you think!) It’s a totally different scenario than what I have in Washington, and I love it.

Right, now so what do I actually do? At the risk of boring you all, I’ll give some of the details. And I’ll start by saying I really like it. Sure, I’m still doing some of the stuff no one really wants to do, like putting together the weekly bullets to send in to Washington, but I also get to do stuff that challenges me and exposes me to aspects of development in areas I knew little about. I’ve designed a water and sanitation activity and am now writing up a Request for Applications. I’m working with the Education Team to develop our brand new education portfolio. I’m writing scopes of work and hiring people. I’m consulting with implementing partners on their performance monitoring plans. I’m doing branding assessments and writing public relations pieces and, of course, I’m editing everything under the sun. I’m learning all the time.

What does this all mean? Maybe I was cut out for the Foreign Service after all. Really, though, I have really enjoyed my work here and exploring a new country – it’s just too darn far from home to make this a permanent situation. P.S. Sigh, although …. even the ride to work every morning is like being on vacation. See Exhibit C. ;)