the first set of pictures are just random ones from around the country. most were taken during a day-long atv ride in the jinja area. the source of the nile river is here. i also went white water rafting in class 5 rapids there.

[svgallery name="uganda"]

here are some gorilla pictures. the gorillas did not cooperate at all and i didn’t get very good shots. but, i have my memories - especially the one where the gorilla saw me, and as i got my camera ready it stood up on its legs, beat its chest with a fist, ran at me, punched me in the leg (thereby knocking me over) and ran off. it was awesome.

[svgallery name="bwindi"]

finally, i went to a little national park where one could do walking and driving safaris. it gave me a taste of what my trip to tanzania will be sure to deliver in high doses.

[svgallery name="mburu"]

also, because i’m on “country team” (the group of folks who are heads of departments/agencies/sections/etc.) i was on the receiving line. yes, me! i was there next to the ambassador (well, two away from him, but still) shaking all the hands of the guests and vips. it was pretty cool.

july 4 is kind of an inside joke with the foreign service. it’s not a party for us, but for others. and generally, folks hate july 4. it’s tons of work, it’s no fun, it’s stuffy, it’s everything july 4 isn’t meant to be. but this year, i have to say, i actually had a really good time. in dhaka we were supposed to mingle and talk with guests. because i was so low on the totem pole - i had no contacts of my own so i was supposed to chat up strangers. i’m not good at that, as we all know. but this year, i know nearly all the americans in country (well, that’s an exaggeration, but the big players i know), and they’re my contacts, so i was able to talk with them all night. i actually had a really enjoyable time. the food was great, the place looked great (i’ll get to that in a moment) and it was good company. people commented that the lack of politicians gave the affair a different feel. everyone had a really good time.

so two additional things i want to mention: a) it’s winter here and this week has been especially frigid. it’s been between 45 - 50 degrees at night. it was freeeeezing. i bundled up in my winter wool coat, hat and scarf. and long johns. and a heavy wool sweater. man, it was so weird to be in that attire. but i managed to stay warm. we also had a bonfire which was awesome and helped in the heating.

b) i was chair of the decorating committee. i volunteered to chair a committee and was assigned that one. those who know me know i have no design/decorating/anything eye at all. granted, some of the ideas weren’t mine, but i was able to put it all together very well and the place looked awesome. i had help from a committee who all did a great job. the place looked beautiful and classy and welcoming. seriously, i got lots of compliments on it. it made me feel good. the embassy photographer was taking pix so hopefully i’ll be able to snag a few and put them up. i’m really proud of how it looked.

i got offered it last thursday. yay! i’m really super excited about it. as i mentioned in my last entry, it’ll be real challenging and i’m up for a challenge. i really am.

at first there was a lot of drama regarding the start date. the position description said april and when they offered me the job they gave me a date of may. still very early. i think i mentioned all this in my last post. well, i found out this morning that i successfully negotiated a july start date. this is pretty impressive if i do say so myself. i had someone tell me that if i couldn’t make the start date then i shouldn’t have bothered to bid on the position. so, yeah, my hopes weren’t too high. and getting it pushed back like 4 months (i’m never sure how to count it. it went from april to july. is that four or three months?) is a big victory.

i’m willing to sacrifice and i really only plan on taking like a week or home leave. that’s fine by me. i’ll just negotiate my next job to allow me the max amount of home leave as i can. i think i’d need it more after baghdad than tana.

my mom’s freaking out. i thought she was semi-ok with it when we first discussed the possibility but now that she knows it’s for real, she’s having a hard time. they’re telling my grandparents this weekend and i’m interested to see how that goes. i’m frankly not scared about safety issues at all. i’m scared about the job, and the stress and the possibility of getting woken up at 3am by air raid sirens (i really hate getting woken up in the middle of the night) and working long hours. but nothing security related.

this blog will become a very different thing when i arrive there. i can’t wait…

i entered really cute comments when i uploaded these to facebook but, as i mentioned before, the comments when using the software i use here aren’t very manageable. so, no comments, unfortunately.

the first gallery is of marrakech. most things are self-evident.

[svgallery name="marrakech"]

this gallery is detail pictures from a palace in marrakech called the bahia palace. it was one of my favorite places. it was built some time in the 17 or 1800s, i can’t remember. the architecture and decorating was very buddhist, in my opinion.
[svgallery name="bahia"]

and finally, the pictures from barcelona.
[svgallery name="barca"]

so, the bid list for iraq/afghanistan/pakistan came out last week. i took a look at consular and refugee jobs. there is one position as a refugee officer at my grade. as i looked at the position description and thought of all the pros and cons of the job, i decided that it was for me. in addition to all the perks of serving in iraq (one year, great pay with all the different differentials, free food and laundry, tons of r&rs with admin leave included, etc.) it is a great opportunity for me to try my hand at this refugee stuff. if i like it, i can then consider doing it for longer in another location - bangkok, nairobi, etc. if i don’t like it, at least i tried it and it was only for one year. i figure it doesn’t get much better than that.

i decided not to bid on the consular job. it was to be the head of the immigration visas unit - processing all the special immigrant visas we’re giving to those working at our embassy and with the military. i can do iv anywhere and i’m just not sure i want to spend a year doing iv right now.

i wrote a good letter of introduction to those who make the placement decisions and am trying to reach out to folks to put in a good word for me. as i talk to folks, i know a decent amount of people also bidding on baghdad positions.

i’m really excited about this and really hope it comes through. last i saw, which was friday, there were only 5 bidders on the position. we’ll see what happens. if i don’t get it, i’ll be looking at doing consular work in south east asia. at my conference a few weeks ago i was given a special shout-out from one of the higher ups in consular affairs who said i could basically get any job i wanted b/c i’ve done such a great job here. that was of course wonderful to hear. the regular bid list isn’t out yet, so i’m not sure what’s available. i’ll keep everyone updated…

i actually have lots to discuss and i’m ashamed that i haven’t updated before now. i was actually able to get out of here for a few weeks in may. consular affairs, i’ve said it so many times, is fabulous. they asked if i needed a break. i said, why as a matter of fact, sure. i’m never one to turn down a break. so they arranged to get tdy support in here for me for three weeks (nearly) while i attended a conference in johanessburg and gallivanted off to barcelona and marrakech with my mother.

the conference was pretty good. the last day was all “crisis management exercise” and i said “my last four months has been crisis management. i’m through.” but that didn’t get me out of it. so really, only 2 days were really useful in any way. i wish, as i did with the last one, that there was more time just to sit and bring up questions and discuss. everything is so structured and all these video conferences with this person and that one. there isn’t time to say, okay, so when someone comes in for x, what stamp do i put on it? stupid things like that. that said, i met great folks and got some new ideas on how to do things differently or new projects to start - which is always good. i also found out that there are folks out there who are more bored than i am. which is incredibly hard to believe. i also had amazing sushi and saw a movie!

then i was off to barcelona. there was all sorts of drama with my plane flight that i won’t bore you with. so, we did four days in each city. even before we left, as i finally received the guidebooks and we did more research, we regretted our itinerary a bit. we both knew we’d like marrakech more and regretted not making more time for there and sacrifice some time in barcelona. but plane tickets had already been purchased, so we did what we could. it was as we suspected. marrakech was amazing. we did a hike into a berber village in the high atlas mountains and ate a tajine with some of the neighborhood women. we did tons of walking and siteseeing. we had absolutely amazing food - north african food is one of my top cuisines. no meal disappointed. tajines were great. the pastillas were scrumptious. it was all perfect. and the shopping. oh, the shopping. of course there was tons upon tons. but i got everything i wanted which is a great achievement.

one of these days i’ll upload my photos. everytime i do it i forget how i did it before and i always screw something up. but i’ll try to get to it this weekend. it’s really bad how i’ve sort of foregone this journal and taken up with facebook. but there are many readers who aren’t facebook friends, so i mustn’t forget them

barcelona was great too. i did my first hop on/hop off bus trip. it was one ticket and you got to do three lines. i think we were on that thing for like 6 hours. it was so much fun - literally got to see the entire city. we also bought an art pass that was the best use of money. we got to every museum, including the museum of contemporary culture which had an exhibition of african photography. it was entitled mali but it was on a lot of sub-saharan africa. madagascar was included. they had photos from a well-known french photographer who i think has lived here forever. anyways, the photos really upset me, actually. it was one of the few non-me photos my mother has seen of the place and they were so bleak. so dreary. showed the miserableness of tana. the poverty, the dirt, the grime. which is all true and very real here. but, i think the composition as well, they were in black and white, just made it seem so hopeless and desolate. and it really upset me. that’s not how i see this place at all. nevermind the political situation and the uncertain future of aid and sustainability programs here. there’s still a vibrancy and life about this place. and none of that was captured in the pictures.

i’m going to end by giving a sort of shout out to tripadvisor.com, actually. i had looked at the site before, but never really used it. for this trip, we did, as my guidebooks hadn’t yet arrived. in barcelona we stayed at the number 2 and 6 recommended hotels, i think. and in marrakech like 1 and 4. yes, we stayed in two hotels in each place. our schedule was crazy. something like that. they were all absolutely amazing. this one place we stayed in marrakech we got an amazing deal and we were in the lap of luxury for a night. barcelona had us in an extremely quaint, old world europe place that was exactly what i was hoping it would be. (the free wifi combined with my netbook made them all the better!)

bidding season is already here and i have lots to say about it. i’ll save it for my next post. sometime later this weekend.

so, we’re still in ordered departure. things were looking fairly good since the coup d’etat and more than a few of us had been hopeful that next week we could make a recommendation to washington that ordered departure be lifted. then, today happened. well, actually, monday happened. there were a few gun shots on monday and about three people injured. then today, there was about two hours filled with gunfire. early reports have some injured, including children, though no fatalities yet. i guess this makes us all rethink a recommendation to bring back family members and non-essential personnel.

before this week, for the past three weeks, on the surface everything seems normal. although there are huge fissures under the surface, there had been no violence and although there is opposition to the “new government,” it all seemed fairly contained. now, who knows.

my life goes on as normal throughout this. i took a trip down south a few weekends ago which was great. it was a vacation of ups and downs but overall it was tons of fun and i have great memories from it. unfortunately, the food was not good (and made me sick) and i didn’t have my camera on me for my favorite part. i was going to upload the photos to here but haven’t done so yet. unfortunately, i use facebook much more than this now and generally just upload pix to there.

the bureau of consular affairs proves yet again they’re the place to be by approving a tdy’er to come out and give me a much-needed respite. i will be able to attend a conference in johannesburg may 20-22 and then i will fly to barcelona and marrakech to have the second tourical (it’s not really annual, so would it be second biannual?) mommy-daughter holiday. i can’t wait. i finally purchased my plane tickets today and got a great deal ($600 from jo’burg to barcelona on turkish airlines) and we found some wonderful hotels to stay in. a cute little one in barcelona that will give me the old world europe feel i craved in amsterdam and then two beautiful riads in the medina in marrakech. one is going to be super fancy and out of this world. the other looks fabulous as well, though more in this world.

as for me, the work has slowed down. a lot of the americans who had departed are slowly returning. they’re used to the situation now and call on me a lot less. we had a big run of immigrant visa applications as folks were getting out of the country, but now that too seems to have stalled. our non-immigrant visa numbers are way down from this time last year. perhaps surprisingly, though, is that the refusal rate hasn’t gone up. those who qualified before still qualify and although they are coming here in fewer numbers, the ones who do come are still ok.

it’s also evaluation season. the way evaluations work in the state department is archaic at best. i believe i’ve rambled about this before. mine is great and i’m really proud of the work i’ve done these past seven months. yes, that’s it, seven months. meanwhile, what i did was supposed to take care of me for a year not only seven months and i’m now i’m wondering what the heck i’m going to task myself with for the next year. i feel as though i’ve done everything. like it seriously worries me. i need some out of the box ideas, i’m struggling here! but, my father read my evaluation and said it reads like jack bauer’s evaluation, if he did admin work

this blog entry discusses a subject i’ve been thinking about a lot lately. democracy and faith in a system. what went down in madagascar over the last three months. it’s sad, it’s disappointing, it’s frustrating, and it’s not actually that surprising. this country has had its share of failed regimes (both during and after colonialism). how do you instill a sense of democracy, freedom and faith in a system when a country and a people have known first hand the opposite? is it even possible? we have great expectations of populations who are coming out of years and centuries of repression in one way or another. and we expect them to be able to embrace a concept that was grown out of an experience, not thrust upon us.

this thing we created in america, it’s amazing. it really is. and what’s most amazing is that it actually works. yes, there are flaws. yes we still encounter corruption. yes we have people trying to take advantage and manipulate a system. but overall, it’s our common faith in the system to heal itself and work itself out that makes it so wonderful. the faith and understanding is the big thing.

first off, we all know about it. we go to school, we learn how the system works, we are instilled with it from very early on. we have an education system that, although it has flaws, creates a civil society. a healthy and strong one. in different sectors with different voices. that doesn’t happen here. and with that civil society and with that education, we can understand the strength of the system and its checks and balances and so on and know that it will work itself out. that there are rules and ways. they might be imperfect, but more often than not they work. and nearly everyone will abide by them and we will all work within the system - together and separately - to keep it going. and that’s a pretty amazing and special thing.

i dunno, this isn’t really going where i want it to. i just wanted to express something about all this. how can you get another culture and country and people to believe in a system like that? is that even the answer for everyone? or just us? does it really all start with education? honestly, i think yes.

we were supposed to have an emergency action committee meeting on wednesday i believe it was to discuss the situation and make a recommendation to the ambassador.  turns out, overnight he and washington decided that ordered departure was the way to go.  i went to bed feeling sick, expecting this to happen.  i woke up feeling even sicker.  and now i feel, i dunno how i feel.

my daily life, still, has yet to change.  there was no work on wednesday but yesterday and today were normal.  hell, i even did niv interviews of seamen (the least important category.  well, maybe not important. but the least essential category.  it would be the first to get rescheduled anywhere).  still no violence.  there hasn’t been any violence since the attempted storming of the palace.  when was that?  more than a month ago now, i believe.  what little sense of time i once possessed is now totally and completely gone.  friends have left.  some remain.

during the daytime i don’t think much of it.  life goes on.  but all my stress seems to come out at night with weird dreams and waking up at 3am and having difficulty getting back to sleep.

it’s all just so strange and surreal.  who would have thought it would come to this?  and how has it come to this.  honestly, i’m still a little unclear on that one.  i know one thing that’s influencing all this big time is the fact that somehow, the media keeps blaming us.  why?  i don’t understand.  the rumors that we are harboring the now former president won’t cease.  we are critical, as we’ve been from the start, and now that things have progressed exactly the opposite of how we had hoped, we’re still critical.  no surprise there!  an undemocratic regime change occured.  of course we will comment on it.  oh, i want to go on and on about the politics behind all this.  i have so much to say.  but we all know this blog isn’t as secure as i would hope it would be and i don’t feel comfortable saying anything in this “open” forum.  suffice it to say, i have a lot to say.

so, now there’s a new head of state.  he claims there will be elections within 24 months.  don’t even get me started on that one.  the us government will hopefully be releasing some kind of statement soon - we have yet to do so.

my job is still crazy some.  i’ve been getting a lot of phone calls. all americans want to know “what’s the update on the situation.  what’s your recommendation.”  they expect us to be a news service, which we’re not.  i tell them nothing they don’t already know.  i recommend what we’ve been recommending for the past two months now.  we have new travel warnings.  we have an incredible number of warden messages.  i seem to be bff with several folks back in dc.  for the very few complaints i receive, i get many many more compliments and praise.  people are happy with the job i’ve done.  especially considering i’m a one-woman shop, i’ve been getting as much info out there as quickly as possible.  whether or not the american community realizes, i’ve been telling them a lot more than many other embassies do.  we’re obliged to tell them certain things, and certain things we do are sort of CYA.  but i really try to go the extra step and put out extra messages and information.  it isn’t too big an imposition on my part and if it’s feasible, why not?

we’ve had a decent number of americans leave.  though, even with all this, i just found out we’ve had like 150 come during february and march.  crazy!  i’ve been working really hard on getting our estimates of us citizens in country in good shape.  it’s difficult, though.  i always said in dhaka that if we had immigration numbers getting the estimate would be so much easier.  i spoke too soon, apparently.  here we actually do have immigration numbers, and good ones at that.  i believe i’ve mentioned they keep track of tourists and residents by nationality.  but still, distilling those numbers into a real estimate is tough work.  how many international trips does the average american take?  2?  if so, then we have like 2500 amcits residing here and that just seems like way too many.  4? that leaves us with 1200 or so.  but doesn’t 4 seem like a lot?  i don’t know.  but washington wants updated numbers daily and i do my best.  frustrated that i can’t do better and frustrated that they seemingly expect better when it can’t be done.

so yeah, that’s my life in this situation.  life goes on, though.  today i bought bagels, went grocery shopping, got gas, etc.  no problems whatsoever.

tuesday morning i got to work and saw that consular affairs in dc had already written up a travel warning alerting the public that we had gone to authorized departure status.  let me explain: authorized departure means those non-essential mission personnel are authorized to leave post if they wish.  no one is forced to under this status, but employees and family members who no longer feel safe and/or comfortable are able to leave post and go back to the states with penalties.  i will not be taking advantage of this.  first off, i’m considered essential even if i wanted to leave and secondly, i don’t want to leave.  i understand the situation has gotten serious, and even grave, but i don’t feel unsafe or uncomfortable and i have a duty here.

as i understand it, about twenty people so far will be taking advantage of this.  i believe they’re all family members, but i’m not positive.

so the department authorizes this and then every thirty days reevaluates the situation.

yesterday, in a case of “wrong place wrong time” the two groups who have been fighting (those who support the president and those who are of the opposition) butted heads right in front of the embassy.  apparently there was rock and stick throwing but i don’t think any casualties or bad injuries.  we had already evacuated the embassy (we did not work monday, worked until noon on tuesday, and are not working today) so no employees were involved.  but this is just an example of the escalation and the fact that we can’t predict anymore what areas of the city are safe (save our neighborhood which is in the suburbs and as far as i can tell, totally fine).

we will have a town hall meeting today for all americans.  i’m interested to see what will happen because all i hear are thanks for the work i’m doing but others are telling me that they’re hearing they wish i do more.  i don’t have a good handle on how many americans have left the country since this started.  but i assume a lot more will be leaving now that we’re on authorized departure.

oh, and i’m not sure if you knew, but a faction of the military mutinied over the weekend.  i believe it’s mostly under control now, but that was also a big factor that led to this decision.  as far as i can tell, this hasn’t really made american news.  it’s all over the french press and obviously here.  but it’s weird being in a place where so much is going on yet no one really knows about it.