Book excerpt: What is it like working in the field as an international aid worker? What kind of challenges and experiences might one expect? Are they the same as one would hear about in the graduate school classroom? This book chronicles the experiences of a short-term technical assistance consultant on projects in countries such as Albania, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Armenia, Myanmar, and the Dominican Republic. It expresses the frustrations, successes, and occasional fantasies of an aid worker confronted with all types of obstacles, some of his own making. Through a series of field dispatches, he describes how he started his journey in international development and where he is now. George Guess received his PhD in political science from the University of California, Riverside, and was a university professor in the US for almost twenty years. He worked for International Monetary Fund's Fiscal Affairs Department for two years while on leave from Georgia State University in Atlanta. He then became a full-time consultant on overseas public administration reform and public finance projects funded by: US Agency for International Development; Asian Development Bank; Inter-American Development Bank; World Bank; and the British Department for International Development. He lives in Budapest, Hungary, with his wife Regula.