Every Friday I get an "End of Week" report from our Embassy in Dili, Timor-Leste detailing the events of that week; programs that started, events the Ambassador or other officers attended, the status of bilateral issues, etc. This week there was a domestic violence awareness event. Men of Timor-Leste walked through the streets wearing shirts that said something to the effect of "Real Men Don't Hit Women" and were sponsored by the U.S. Embassy.
There was also a note about an agricultural project that USAID is working on to help Timorese farmers diversify their crops and start selling produce so they can earn an income. Last week there was a note about a project to help pregnant mothers living in rural areas get medical advice and prenatal care.
There were so many reasons I wanted to join the State Department, and this was one of the biggest. There are a lot of negative things in the news right now about the Department and the U.S. government in general, but today I was overwhelmed by how much good there is. There are so many people, like myself, who want to help the world and serve our country at the same time.
From my desk in Washington I help move these projects along and get them the attention they need but I can't wait to get out there and be the person working with the kids who want to learn English so they can get a scholarship to study in the U.S. I want to help a couple get a passport for their newly adopted baby. I want to help parents find the child they fear has gone missing in a foreign country. I want to get a new project started that helps people out of poverty.
Yeah, there is going to be bad. But you can't let the bad outweigh the good because there is so much good.
Friday, June 14, 2013
Friday, May 10, 2013
Rushing Headlong into the Future
When I was a kid I was always excited for the future. I wanted to be older, grown-up, getting to do things like drive a car and go to high school (and then go to college) and then be an FBI agent or whatever crazy thing I thought I wanted to be that day. I was always excited for the next thing and it didn't matter what it was.
Apparently I have not changed at all in this respect.
People always say you should savor the time you have, but I have never really understood how to do that. I can't stop time or hold on to anything for any longer than I can move past the moments I'm done with.
The last couple years have flown by. Like, in a ridiculously fast way. When we first moved to Ohio, I thought we were going to spend years ago. I called people, got involved in the historical society (I was the youngest person by 30 years, they were so excited to have me), got involved in a church, found a house I really liked; I had plans to stay. A mere four months later, I had plans to leave.
I wasn't think about rushing into the future while we were there. I expected we'd live there between three and five years, so I was digging in. Now I find that I really miss our time there. It was a quiet and pleasant life. I wonder if part of my fondness is the peace of mind I had while I lived there and that fact that maybe I was savoring that moment, even though I didn't even realize it.
Now, I am once again trying to rush into the future. Don't get me wrong, what I am doing right now is really great. Sometimes I can't believe they let me work on these issues and talk to Ambassadors and foreign dignitaries. But I cannot wait for what is next. In a few short months my first tour will be over and I will be heading into long-term language training at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center. I am so looking forward to that.
But even once I'm in training, I will want to rush into what is next: finally going overseas for the State Department. I want to hurry my way out to post and get to the consulate and learn my new job and be totally overwhelmed again like I was when I started this tour.
I can't stop wanting to rush to the next thing. And I imagine I am going to be feeling this way a lot in a career where you move every few years.
Apparently I have not changed at all in this respect.
People always say you should savor the time you have, but I have never really understood how to do that. I can't stop time or hold on to anything for any longer than I can move past the moments I'm done with.
The last couple years have flown by. Like, in a ridiculously fast way. When we first moved to Ohio, I thought we were going to spend years ago. I called people, got involved in the historical society (I was the youngest person by 30 years, they were so excited to have me), got involved in a church, found a house I really liked; I had plans to stay. A mere four months later, I had plans to leave.
I wasn't think about rushing into the future while we were there. I expected we'd live there between three and five years, so I was digging in. Now I find that I really miss our time there. It was a quiet and pleasant life. I wonder if part of my fondness is the peace of mind I had while I lived there and that fact that maybe I was savoring that moment, even though I didn't even realize it.
Now, I am once again trying to rush into the future. Don't get me wrong, what I am doing right now is really great. Sometimes I can't believe they let me work on these issues and talk to Ambassadors and foreign dignitaries. But I cannot wait for what is next. In a few short months my first tour will be over and I will be heading into long-term language training at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center. I am so looking forward to that.
But even once I'm in training, I will want to rush into what is next: finally going overseas for the State Department. I want to hurry my way out to post and get to the consulate and learn my new job and be totally overwhelmed again like I was when I started this tour.
I can't stop wanting to rush to the next thing. And I imagine I am going to be feeling this way a lot in a career where you move every few years.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
One year ago today
On April 27, 2012 I woke up in my parent's basement in a room without windows (I called it the "dungeon;" truth is, I prefer it over the adjoining room because I like to sleep in total darkness). I was in Colorado because I was finishing my last class for my master's degree; Scott was still in Ohio because we'd moved there in January. It was a Friday morning and the next day was my very last classroom session for my degree. I was headed back to Ohio on Sunday afternoon.
I grabbed my phone, as I do most mornings, and checked my email. And there was an email from the Department of State. I was invited to be in the July A-100 class for the Foreign Service. I was in shock. I had stopped paying attention to the Foreign Service message boards months ago and I knew I was going to expire off the register in July. In the back of my mind, I always thought it would be nice to hear from them, but I had honestly given up hope.
Here I am a year later. I live in Washington, D.C. and I am a few months away from finishing my first assignment (first tour DC positions are only one year tours). I've met former Secretary Clinton (on more than one occasion) and now Secretary Kerry. I've visited Timor-Leste and Indonesia as a representative of the United States, places I never thought I would see. I got to bid farewell the Ambassador from Timor-Leste at a reception at Blair House (its an awesome place - http://blairhouse.org). Soon I may be working on the credentials for a new Ambassador from Timor-Leste as well as preparing our Ambassador to Timor.
If you had asked me on April 26th how the next year was going to look, it would have included a lot of discussion about rural Ohio and looking into how to get a teaching job out there. Now, my coming year includes learning a language I know little about (Cantonese) and preparing to move to Asia.
It all just keeps getting better and better. I can't imagine what two years from now will look like.
I grabbed my phone, as I do most mornings, and checked my email. And there was an email from the Department of State. I was invited to be in the July A-100 class for the Foreign Service. I was in shock. I had stopped paying attention to the Foreign Service message boards months ago and I knew I was going to expire off the register in July. In the back of my mind, I always thought it would be nice to hear from them, but I had honestly given up hope.
Here I am a year later. I live in Washington, D.C. and I am a few months away from finishing my first assignment (first tour DC positions are only one year tours). I've met former Secretary Clinton (on more than one occasion) and now Secretary Kerry. I've visited Timor-Leste and Indonesia as a representative of the United States, places I never thought I would see. I got to bid farewell the Ambassador from Timor-Leste at a reception at Blair House (its an awesome place - http://blairhouse.org). Soon I may be working on the credentials for a new Ambassador from Timor-Leste as well as preparing our Ambassador to Timor.
If you had asked me on April 26th how the next year was going to look, it would have included a lot of discussion about rural Ohio and looking into how to get a teaching job out there. Now, my coming year includes learning a language I know little about (Cantonese) and preparing to move to Asia.
It all just keeps getting better and better. I can't imagine what two years from now will look like.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Favorite Things
Do you know why you like your favorite things? Like your favorite color, why is it your favorite color?
I don't really have a favorite color but when I was a kid and someone would ask I would usually say "seafoam green, cerulean blue, and daffodil yellow" because I had three crayons and that is what was written on their sides. And those three colors looked the best together. Silly childhood memories.
One memory I've been thinking of a lot lately is why my favorite flower is my favorite. Spring has come to DC (also a little bit of summer, in April...) and my favorite flower is all over the place. I love it. Daffodils in all different colors and styles are everywhere.
Why the daffodil? It's not because of the crayon, although this might be why I liked that crayon. It's because of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I used to watch it all the time when I was young, (the original one with Gene Wilder, not this crazy technicolor one with Johnny Depp) and it was so magical. I wanted wallpaper I could lick. I wanted gum that was a whole meal (I'm still holding out hope on that one). I wanted everything in that factory.
There is a scene when the kids are exploring on their own for the first time and Wonka sings a little song while he strolls around. At one point he picks a daffodil and pops the top off and drinks from it like a teacup with a saucer still in his hand. And then he bites the flower like its a biscuit. For some reason, I loved this. And daffodils have been my favorite flower ever since.
I am not sure I could give reasons as to why all of my favorite things are my favorite, but the idea that a daffodil could also be tasty treats makes it my favorite.
I don't really have a favorite color but when I was a kid and someone would ask I would usually say "seafoam green, cerulean blue, and daffodil yellow" because I had three crayons and that is what was written on their sides. And those three colors looked the best together. Silly childhood memories.
One memory I've been thinking of a lot lately is why my favorite flower is my favorite. Spring has come to DC (also a little bit of summer, in April...) and my favorite flower is all over the place. I love it. Daffodils in all different colors and styles are everywhere.
Why the daffodil? It's not because of the crayon, although this might be why I liked that crayon. It's because of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I used to watch it all the time when I was young, (the original one with Gene Wilder, not this crazy technicolor one with Johnny Depp) and it was so magical. I wanted wallpaper I could lick. I wanted gum that was a whole meal (I'm still holding out hope on that one). I wanted everything in that factory.
There is a scene when the kids are exploring on their own for the first time and Wonka sings a little song while he strolls around. At one point he picks a daffodil and pops the top off and drinks from it like a teacup with a saucer still in his hand. And then he bites the flower like its a biscuit. For some reason, I loved this. And daffodils have been my favorite flower ever since.
I am not sure I could give reasons as to why all of my favorite things are my favorite, but the idea that a daffodil could also be tasty treats makes it my favorite.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Road to Recovery
It has been a tense couple of days but MeiLi is slowly getting better. Today she brought me a toy but she wouldn't fetch it. Maybe tomorrow.
Friday, April 5, 2013
How fast things can change
Shocking really, how fast things can change. It takes no time at all.
A post or two below this one is a picture of my dog, MeiLi, in the bathtub. She's round and happy and stuck, but she's healthy. That picture is so recent. But if I took a picture of her right now, you would see a completely different dog.
Last night MeiLi was seizing and lolling her head back with a completely vacant look in her eyes. She had no idea who I was, where she was, nothing. It was awful.
On Saturday, MeiLi was pretty ill. She was having tremors and extending her legs all the way out and throwing up all her food. She has been sick before, but it was the stiff legs and shaking that really concerned me. By Sunday she was a little improved, but still not her old self. We kept saying, "If she's not better by tomorrow..." then we would take her to a vet. Each day she seemed a little better and by Wednesday she was back to her old self. When I came home from work we played and she ran around (still didn't want to walk very far outside, but she's always been more of an "indoor" dog). I was relieved. The dogs get sick, but they always get over it; it never lasts very long. Except, she didn't eat. I should have noticed that.
Yesterday, she deteriorated fast. She got sick three times and still hadn't eaten anything. Scott picked me up from work and we took her to the vet. They checked her out and diagnosed her with motion sickness, mentioned other possible problems, and sent us on our way. They noted she only weighed six lbs., a full two lbs. less than she normally weighs. In a tiny dog, thats a big deal. But I figured that was it. Glad we took her in.
Six hours later a different dog, the one I mentioned in the beginning, was the dog I was holding in my arms. I was just trying to keep her head pointed the right way and I clutched her little body to me each time she seized up. At 11:30pm we headed to a 24-hour urgent care, got lost on the way there (a super frustrating extra ten minutes that felt like an eternity) and handed frail MeiLi over to be put into ICU.
Difficult hours and hundreds of dollars later we learn she would have died in mere hours had we not brought her in. Her glucose was 24. I don't know medical things, but that is really bad. Really, really bad. That is what was causing her seizing. They found out she has Addison's disease, which is something we will have to treat for the rest of her life. It also makes her very susceptible to problems in stressful situations, which is not ideal when you belong to a Foreign Service Officer.
I always had a little bit of pride in the way our dogs handle moves. In the last couple years we moved four times and they were troopers every time. The drive across the country, no big deal. They settled perfectly in the car and then made the drive from DC to Ohio a number of times too. But Addison's is a genetic disorder than manifests right around the age MeiLi is now. And now we are going to have to examine what situations, like moving around the world, might bring on stress and prepare her with medications.
We are moving to Hong Kong in 2014. But MeiLi is not. It would be too hard on her. We wouldn't be able to medicate her properly and the stress of flying in cargo alone for 14+ hours and then being in quarantine in Hong Kong for 4 months would be too much. We had already decided that they were not coming, but I was holding out a little bit of hope. Maybe something would change and it would be easier and more humane to get them there. But this just clenches it. For the foreseeable future, the United States is the only country MeiLi will ever live in. And that breaks my heart just a little bit.
A post or two below this one is a picture of my dog, MeiLi, in the bathtub. She's round and happy and stuck, but she's healthy. That picture is so recent. But if I took a picture of her right now, you would see a completely different dog.
Last night MeiLi was seizing and lolling her head back with a completely vacant look in her eyes. She had no idea who I was, where she was, nothing. It was awful.
On Saturday, MeiLi was pretty ill. She was having tremors and extending her legs all the way out and throwing up all her food. She has been sick before, but it was the stiff legs and shaking that really concerned me. By Sunday she was a little improved, but still not her old self. We kept saying, "If she's not better by tomorrow..." then we would take her to a vet. Each day she seemed a little better and by Wednesday she was back to her old self. When I came home from work we played and she ran around (still didn't want to walk very far outside, but she's always been more of an "indoor" dog). I was relieved. The dogs get sick, but they always get over it; it never lasts very long. Except, she didn't eat. I should have noticed that.
Yesterday, she deteriorated fast. She got sick three times and still hadn't eaten anything. Scott picked me up from work and we took her to the vet. They checked her out and diagnosed her with motion sickness, mentioned other possible problems, and sent us on our way. They noted she only weighed six lbs., a full two lbs. less than she normally weighs. In a tiny dog, thats a big deal. But I figured that was it. Glad we took her in.
Six hours later a different dog, the one I mentioned in the beginning, was the dog I was holding in my arms. I was just trying to keep her head pointed the right way and I clutched her little body to me each time she seized up. At 11:30pm we headed to a 24-hour urgent care, got lost on the way there (a super frustrating extra ten minutes that felt like an eternity) and handed frail MeiLi over to be put into ICU.
Difficult hours and hundreds of dollars later we learn she would have died in mere hours had we not brought her in. Her glucose was 24. I don't know medical things, but that is really bad. Really, really bad. That is what was causing her seizing. They found out she has Addison's disease, which is something we will have to treat for the rest of her life. It also makes her very susceptible to problems in stressful situations, which is not ideal when you belong to a Foreign Service Officer.
I always had a little bit of pride in the way our dogs handle moves. In the last couple years we moved four times and they were troopers every time. The drive across the country, no big deal. They settled perfectly in the car and then made the drive from DC to Ohio a number of times too. But Addison's is a genetic disorder than manifests right around the age MeiLi is now. And now we are going to have to examine what situations, like moving around the world, might bring on stress and prepare her with medications.
We are moving to Hong Kong in 2014. But MeiLi is not. It would be too hard on her. We wouldn't be able to medicate her properly and the stress of flying in cargo alone for 14+ hours and then being in quarantine in Hong Kong for 4 months would be too much. We had already decided that they were not coming, but I was holding out a little bit of hope. Maybe something would change and it would be easier and more humane to get them there. But this just clenches it. For the foreseeable future, the United States is the only country MeiLi will ever live in. And that breaks my heart just a little bit.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Exciting Times
I feel like if there is any word I overuse, it is probably exciting. But there are just so many exciting things going on and that have been going on for over a year. I am constantly excited about the future, so I just keep expressing it with the same word! Perhaps I need to invest in a thesaurus.
Anyway, things have been exciting! Non-stop, as always.
With work: I sent out my first cable today! Like, the first cable that has my name as the drafter. And people actually have to read it and carry out some meetings based on it. Thats exciting.
With home: Scott has finally moved here! I walk around all day every day with a silly smile on my face because I know that when I go home the house won't be empty. And for the next few weeks we have the same schedule, which is so exciting.
With the future: We are headed to Hong Kong! I didn't think we were going to get our first choice (again) but we did. I am thrilled. We are thrilled. But honestly, I would be excited to be going almost anywhere. The world is a fascinating place and I can't wait to experience all of it.
In short: life is exciting.
Anyway, things have been exciting! Non-stop, as always.
With work: I sent out my first cable today! Like, the first cable that has my name as the drafter. And people actually have to read it and carry out some meetings based on it. Thats exciting.
With home: Scott has finally moved here! I walk around all day every day with a silly smile on my face because I know that when I go home the house won't be empty. And for the next few weeks we have the same schedule, which is so exciting.
With the future: We are headed to Hong Kong! I didn't think we were going to get our first choice (again) but we did. I am thrilled. We are thrilled. But honestly, I would be excited to be going almost anywhere. The world is a fascinating place and I can't wait to experience all of it.
In short: life is exciting.
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