Month: February 2018

I have been working for the Liberian government for over 1.5 years now. I had worked in partnership with governments of other countries before, but this was the first time I truly worked for one.

Last week, we had a series of meetings with a development partner to plan the next four years. It was part an envisioning exercise and part a “realistically, what can we implement” brain teaser. I found my colleagues and myself trying to explain, again and again, the challenges, visions, and opportunities we see.  Struggling to explain it in a diplomatic way that development partners can understand. To bring them onto “our” side.

I was surprised how much I am starting to understand this dynamic between “recipients,” “donors,” “assistance,” and power. I’m really grateful I have this opportunity to work “on the inside” for a while. I hope I never forget these lessons.

For some reason, I have not been able to blog/journal consistently over these years. Whenever I read back to my old entries, I always find them interesting and useful, so I really want to be more consistent at this! Here’s to another attempt at being more consistent.

Life is all about trying again and again, right? I’m starting to learn this lesson slowly over the last few years.

I recently read about setting “micro-goals” as a way to encourage us to form habits or get things done. It’s always better to do a tiny bit of what you wanted, rather than nothing at all. I need to keep reminding myself that!