First Day on the Job

I arrived at the Ministry of Finance (MOF) around 8:15 a.m. and squeezed into the tiny elevator with about 10 other people to get to my office on the 7th floor. The MOF is one of the tallest buildings in Monrovia with (I think) 11 floors. With only one elevator under heavy use, this means lots of stair climbing- for anyone who knows how much I enjoy walking and climbing stairs, this should be a lot of fun.

I’m based in the office of the Deputy Minister of Revenue (DMR), which has several subunits dealing with internal revenue and customs. The Department has about 10 interns from the University of Liberia who seem like a very enthusiastic and motivated group. They are recent graduates for an 18 month Financial Management Training program sponsored by the World Bank. I find their presence very exciting and a major step in filling the much discussed “capacity gap” in the Liberian work force, speeding up the day when the avalanche of expatriate interns and technical consultants would cease.

The DMR is incredibly busy, with a constant stream of meetings taking place in her office. Nevertheless, we had a little bit of time to review the project I would be working on. She put me in the care of Will, her Focal Point, who attends to pretty much everything and everyone DMR deals with. Will is a Liberian who returned home from the US just about a month ago to work with the government- another encouraging sign of the expansion of the nation’s talent.

Will and I share an office with a couple of the interns and our windows are above Broad Street, the busiest street in Monrovia- read: CONSTANT honking and humdrum of voices, street music, welding machines, and yes, occasional street fights. Never a dull moment…