Today was the one-week anniversary of my first day of work (whee!), so I thought I'd post a few more details about the job itself. Is it any coincidence that this is organized in bullet form? Nah, I make bullet-point lists like it's... well, my job. Which it is.

• Job title: Project Assistant, Financial Education


• Organization: Microfinance Opportunities
  


• What exactly is "microfinance"?: Microfinance, broadly speaking, is the creation of financial solutions for the developing world, with the goal of empowering people to lift themselves out of poverty.

• So what does MFO do?: We are a "microfinance resource center" - we are involved in financial education, market research, and some work with microinsurance (which is insurance against a very specific risk - for example, crop failure - that is affordable for someone at the poverty level). I work for the financial education team - the people who develop, market, and disseminate our financial education curriculum. The curriculum is targeted at people at or around the poverty line, and we train hundreds of people around the world to teach it every year. (For more information, click here.)


• What does your job entail?: A whole mix of things. I'm responsible for some administrative tasks like answering the phones, handling curriculum sales and requests for information, ordering supplies, keeping our databases current, etc. I make lists every day because the range of things I'm responsible for at any given moment is so vast. I also do a lot of logistical work - organizing training conferences overseas, booking travel, shipping things to faraway places... I made a phone call to Kenya last week. I also do just about anything else our two training officers and the rest of the MFO team need me to do - proofreading documents, taking inventory, coming up with ideas for keeping things in order... just about anything that needs doing.
  


• What does it feel like to place a phone call to Kenya?: Sadly, it feels exactly like calling someone in Kentucky. Or someone in DC who lives on Kentucky Avenue. I was kind of hoping to hear the Indiana Jones theme playing in the background, but alas.
  


• What's your favorite part of the job thus far?: It has to be the people I work with - we're a very small organization and everyone I've met so far is smart, passionate, funny, and genuinely a pleasure to be around. Much like when I interned with the State department, pretty much everyone at MFO has traveled and lived abroad, often extensively, so there are a lot of cool stories, funky jewelry, and respect/admiration for other cultures and ways of life.
  
  And they pay me! It doesn't get much better than that.

This morning I went for a run around the US Capitol building, and felt compelled to stop and say "Good Morning, America!" as I passed the National Mall. The sheer wonder-filled absurdity of this city just can't be captured in words, and I promise many pictures to come. But for now, I leave you to help one of my roommates put his IKEA furniture together. He's not Swedish, see, and we Swedes have this traditional ritual called Assembling Pieces of Particleboard With Allen Wrenches. And I would be a very poor Swede indeed if I didn't pass on the secrets of our craft.

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