Today I met my counterpart at the World Wildlife Fund, Dr. Patrick Williams. Patrick is the Program Officer for the Guyana branch and is one of two employees, the other being his assistant.
It wasn’t until about 11:30 today that Patrick was able to find the time to meet with me. He came by the Peace Corps office, where I was waiting in the volunteer lounge. We then got in his car and drove about two miles south for a tour of his office. Located in the Bel Air Park area of Georgetown, I found the office to be quite comfortable. I hope to post photos sometime in the next month or so. In the meantime, here is the contact information:
WWF Guianas
Lot 87A, Ituni Street & Issano Place
Bel Air Park
Georgetown, Guyana
592-223-7802 tel
592-223-7801 fax
[email protected]
https://www.wwfguianas.org/
Due to Patrick attending a conference this week, we were really only able to visit for about 15 minutes. So I still do not know an awful lot about what will be expected of me, but here are some basics.
The WWF Guianas website was developed by a Peace Corps volunteer located in Suriname. She will be leaving soon, so I’ll likely take over that project — which is just what I was looking for. I’ll also be developing a Knowledge Center that will enable the Guiana offices to share information with each other over a private intranet.
Part of my duties will also include conducting research on topics that interest the WWF. I’ll likely be attending various conferences and workshops, as well as making trips into the field. These travel opportunities, in addition to their IT needs, are what interest me the most.
So all in all, our brief meeting today was very inspiring and offers me a lot of hope for an exciting and fruitful two years. While I would love to spend more time this week learning more about my duties, I’ll just have to learn to be patient and to wait for training to end.