Washington, DC - May 21, 2007
I started my first day working at the World Bank with coffee briefing with my supervisor in the next building. The World Bank has 9 buildings (H, MC, J, G, etc) and mine is G but we will soon move to MC building on July. I don't think you are interested to know where the exact location is, but just in case you might..go to the WB website, go to "contact us" and there you go...the outline map of the location.
My supervisor, is a very professional and nice Pilipino lady who has been living in DC for thousand years, she said. She gave me a thorough and concise explanation on the history of the program, the outcomes, the achievements, the plans and the actions that need to be taken. She also gave me many many strategic documents, reports, and meeting minutes to read so that I can soon understand about the nature of the work. We have 8 people in our team. The head of mission is also a very passionate Indian guy with more than 20 years experience working as a public servant in India, the job that I admire the most. He is workaholic, works 23 hours a day, and definetely has a clear vision on programming’s direction. He's pretty cool :) The rest are Kenyan, American, Italian, European and of course now, Indonesian.
I started my first day working at the World Bank with coffee briefing with my supervisor in the next building. The World Bank has 9 buildings (H, MC, J, G, etc) and mine is G but we will soon move to MC building on July. I don't think you are interested to know where the exact location is, but just in case you might..go to the WB website, go to "contact us" and there you go...the outline map of the location.
My supervisor, is a very professional and nice Pilipino lady who has been living in DC for thousand years, she said. She gave me a thorough and concise explanation on the history of the program, the outcomes, the achievements, the plans and the actions that need to be taken. She also gave me many many strategic documents, reports, and meeting minutes to read so that I can soon understand about the nature of the work. We have 8 people in our team. The head of mission is also a very passionate Indian guy with more than 20 years experience working as a public servant in India, the job that I admire the most. He is workaholic, works 23 hours a day, and definetely has a clear vision on programming’s direction. He's pretty cool :) The rest are Kenyan, American, Italian, European and of course now, Indonesian.
I read a bunch of stuff and ask a bunch of questions, tried to understand who what where. I am still trying to observe how myself can fit in this new sphere. Anyway, I am learning a lot, even on my first day here. I am quite familiar with the atmosphere of the work. It is somewhat similar to the UN setting but the Bank is a little less…well, don’t really have a word for that. Even so, a lot of adjustments need to be made to familiarize myself with the new structure. Boring ha!!!
Washington, DC – May 22, 2007
We had our team breakfast meeting from 8 – 10 am in Bread Line coffee shop on Pennsylvania Avenue, which is just one block away from the bank. I was late because I got lost :( It was kinda embarassing but what could I do. It was kind of an informal meeting where everybody updated each other on their current tasks, feelings, challenges, pressures, etc. I started to feel a little bit as part of the team this morning. It is always very helpful to know each other with a different type of engagement, especially when you are working in a team. The tension is the upcoming Consultative Group (CG) meeting on early June. The team has to prepare a lot of strategic documents and products to be presented in the meeting. Gosh, my blog now sounds like a workplan…LOL!
3 comments:
yay Rina! glad that you are getting settled in... don't work too hard, enjoy DC and NY and everywhere else on the East Coast! I'll try and get Dea to join me and visit you sometime :)
The motorbikes are definitely cool. However, I just don’t know how you eat rice with every single meal! By the time I leave here I will never want to see rice again! :-) Believe it or not, I miss our practicum brain storming sessions! I would love to have some of y’all’s fantastic ideas and feedback! Hope all is going well in DC and you are living an absolutely fabulous big city life!
Rina,
I am loving reading your blog. I am sure you will love working at the WB and living in D.C.
I miss you!!!
Jose
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