Bidding

I swear that sometimes (okay, a lot of the times), the State Department seems like a hurry up and wait sort of place. It starts before you join. You sign up for the written exam and then you wait to take it. You take it and wait to get the results (3 months I think for me). You get the results and then wait for the oral assessment (seven months). You pass the oral assessment and wait to get your medical and security clearances (mine took 2 1/2 months, but only because I have had a boring life! Some take 2 years!). Once you get your clearances, you wait for "the call" to join an A-100 (the orientation class). Depending on your score, that could happen quickly (I got an offer almost immediately, declined it and took the offer for the next class) or you could wait 18 months, not get an offer, and have to start all over again.

Then you wait for the bid list, wait for your assignment, wait for tenure, wait for promotion, wait for your bid list again. It is an OCD's worst nightmare.

And so here I am, less than a week after getting tenure and I am in the holding pattern for not one but two things...promotion and bidding. Promotion I will find out about around Octoberish. The bid list is due out next week. It is weird to be bidding so soon after starting an assignment, but my position in INR Watch is only for one year, and so it goes. Getting tenure opens up all kinds of options for me, because before tenure, you are only eligible to receive one full course of language (I got Hebrew...useful only in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, neither of which I want to bid on after living in J'lem for more than 2 years).

Now I can bid on almost anything at my grade, since I am now considered a mid-level officer (no longer a Junior Officer! Woo hoo!), including language. But what to do? There are some interesting Public Diplomacy (PD) jobs (my career cone is PD), but there are also some desk jobs. I just found out a friend is going to be the Deputy Office Director for Western Europe, and I wouldn't mind working for him. The guy I did my bridge assignment for in NEA/PD (Near East Affairs Public Diplomacy) is now handling PD in DC's South Central Asia (SCA) office, and he was great to work for. There are analyst positions in INR, which would be lots of fun, and then there are any number of overseas posts offering a year of language training before you go to post. This might be my chance to get Russian.

So bidding this time could be fun. Of course, once I bid, it could be as late as January before I actually get my assignment locked in...Sigh.

I Got It!

The tenure cable finally came out. I'm tenured!!

Tenuring Troubles

Yes, I am still waiting. Impatiently. I have been refreshing the ALDACS cable que every few minutes. And sometimes it won't refresh. Maybe between me and all my A-100 classmates, we have broken it.

Like I said before, lots of really good officers don't get it the first time around, and largely for reasons beyond our control. I think that is one of the most frustrating things about this process. They could deny you tenure the first time for not going to Iraq, or not doing our consular work, or doing too much consular work, or having only one boss or not getting a hard language...and we have zero say in whether we get any of that. Our first two tours are directed, completely at the will of the Career Development Officers (CDOs). And yet this decision is made as though we had some part in the decision-making process.

One of my classmates suggested they just tenure everyone who did a good job, since they know they will eventually anyway. A part of me suspects they don't do that because they need to be able to direct people to Iraq or passport duty, and they can't really force tenured officers to go.

The longer it takes, the more edgey I get. It got worse last week when several of my classmates, all of whom I consider good officers deserving of tenure, got emails from their CDOs saying they had been passed over for tenure this time. I am cautiously optimistic because I got an email from my CDO saying I would NOT be getting such an email from her office.

But you never know until the cable is out.

I think I'll go refresh the queue again.

How I'm Feeling when I am Working at 2 am...

Anticipation

I have been trying to convince myself that I didn't care if I got tenure this time around. In the State Department, tenure is basically the same as in academia. If you have it, it is really really hard to fire you. So its job security basically.

You get considered for tenure at the first tenure board that meets after your 3-year anniversary of service. That was March 4 for my class, and the next tenure board met in late May/early June. But it takes a while, usually a couple of months, for the results to come out.

And for most of that time, I haven't given it a second thought. But now that the tenure cable is due any time now, I can think of little else. In my head, I know that it is quite likely I won't get it the first time around. You have to get it within your first five years or they kick you out, but having what the boards want is like shooting at a moving target. So some of the best officers I have served with did not get tenure the first time around and it had nothing to do with them. Some boards don't give tenure to folks who had long-term language training, some only give it to those with long-term training. And some people just have the misfortune of having bosses who couldn't write their way out of a paper bag, much less do a good job on an EER. So it is a crap shoot.

But that said, I know if I don't get it the first time around, I am going to take it personally. I shouldn't. I know I shouldn't. But I will. And what will be even more depressing is that those who get tenure this time get to go up for promotion immediately. But the promotion board, unlike the tenure board, only meets once a year. Sigh.

Shift I is Hard!

Let me tell you, these overnight shifts (they are called Shift I because they technically begin at midnight and so are the first shift of the day) are hard! It is 5:16 am and I'd REALLY like to be in my bed asleep!

Finally Getting Settled

I finally managed to get the condo in presentable shape, just in time for a friend to stop by after we had dinner together at the Indian restaurant down in Shirlington. This was just a few days after we went to dinner at the house of one of my A-100 classmates.

It is kind of interesting, seeing other people's places back in the states. Overseas, we basically all have the same Ethan Allen furniture and the apartments are chosen for us. So while we have some of our stuff with us, everyone's place seems like little more than a variation on a theme. Back in the states, you can see the apartment or home that people pick out for themselves and the kind of furniture they buy. It is sort of interesting to see how different a person's place is from what you might expect. And I wonder what folks think of our place. I wonder if our home looks like what people expect.

Dodged a Bullet?

Some of my friends from my A-100 class have started getting emails re-assigning them to the passport task force. Unless you have been living under a bridge, you probably have heard about how the State Department has a backlog of millions of passports that have to be processed. And since they don't have the people to process them quickly, and can't hire them quickly because you have to have a security clearance, they have been trying to get as many volunteers as they can to help out.

But of course, those volunteers can only work just so much in addition to their 40-hour plus work week, and lots of folks simply want to spend their extra time with their families, not processing passports.

Add to that the work is mind-numbing. I did it while I was in Jerusalem. You literally take a file, check to make sure that the paperwork matches what is in the computer, click to accept and transmit it, and stick on a barcode. Then onto the next file. Seriously mind-numbing. And I only had to do it occassionally to help out in ACS (American Citizen Services) because I was in visas (which has its own challenges, but is less mind-numbing than transmitting passports). I have a friend in Jerusalem who does several hours worth of transmittals a day. I fear for her sanity.

Anyway, they haven't gotten enough volunteers, so now they are drafting people. About to go to your new post? Nope, we need you for 2 months doing passports. Finishing A-100? Here is your assignment for the next two months. Doing an internship? Off to passports. Mostly, but not entirely, they are tapping more junior people who can't say no. Hence, they have gotten to my class. We aren't yet tenured, though we are up for consideration as we speak. And some of us who are coming off consular tours, and thus have training and experience (like me), are especially sought after.

I have gotten an email saying I could get an email assigning me to passports, but so far, they haven't (allhamdulillah!). And insha'allah, they won't. I like my job, and it is a critical needs position. Plus, if they took me out of the rotation, my collegues would be forced to pull more overnight shifts and it would be harder for them to get leave during the very months people like to take leave. I don't want to do that to them. I know my boss is fighting for me.

I hope it is enough.

Stuff!

The HHE finally it, alhamdulillah. But man is the house a wreck! Between us, we had almost 200 numbers. While a few of the numbers were pieces of furniture like bookshelves, most of those numbers are for boxes. So I literally have had to make pathways through the boxes. Last night, I had to clear a path to the bird cage!

On the bright side, I got a good bit unpacked, and I did discover that our parmasan cheese grater made it safely. I don't know how I lived without one (yes I do, I never used fresh parmasan. I always bought the canned crap).

I have to work this weekend, but I have a stretch of three days off next week, so I am hoping to make some good progress on the unpacking then. I unpacked enough yesterday to fill the dumpster with boxes and it still doesn't look like I made a dent!

Car Made It!

We got our car back today, though not in quite as good shape as when we sent it off. It looks like they either scraped against concrete on the back side or it was rubbing against the shipping container. It is rubbed down to the metal and will have to be repainted and have a new bumper. But it is fine mechanically and most importantly, it is NOT at the bottom of the Atlantic! You count your blessings where you can!


Poor scratched car!

Our HHE is here in DC (also not in the ocean...yay!), and we have it scheduled to be delivered next week. So insha'allah, we will have all our stuff here soon.

Now we just have to get tags for the car, but that will have to wait until Saturday when M is off. I got it inspected today, but I don't dare even get a car wash (and boy does it need it...we got a dust storm in Jerusalem after the last time I washed it there!) until we get plates!

Books!

One of the things I like about my new schedule is occassional weekdays off. Today was the first of those, and I got a lot accomplished. I was able to go to the DMV to renew my tags (though oddly, it was STILL crowded even though I went well before lunch) and was able to buy screws for my plates, a fire extinguisher, and a battery for the cordless phone.

But the biggest thing I did was get the office straightened out. I had put all of the book boxes in the closet, thinking it would be better to unpack the books once the rest of the books get here. I know we had our favorite, or at least most often used, books in Jerusalem. And I wanted to make sure we had space for them. Of course, we have several bookshelves in our HHE plus three new ones downstairs, and we will need the closet empty so we have room for the boxes when the HHE gets here. So today I dragged one of the older bookshelves upstairs and unpacked a bunch of boxes of books. At least nine I think. They were mostly my archaeology books that I had not deemed urgent for work on my dissertation exams, which is why they were put in storage. But I had forgotten how many really good books I have! And I love books...really, really love them. I don't think a house is a home without books. So now our home feels better, because there are books on the shelves!

New Beginnings

I've been remiss in writing. I kept meaning to talk about the trip to the Grand Canyon and then forgetting, being too tired, etc...

Anyway, the trip was awesome. The views are astounding and we were able to watch the sunset over the canyon (with a few hundred of our closest friends!). The whole trip was definitely what we both needed after our tour in Jerusalem.


Sunset at Yavapie Point

After our break (who knew 5 weeks could go so fast!), we are beginning new jobs in the department. So far, we both really like them. I am working in the bureau of Intelligence and Research (I could tell you what I do but then I'd have to kill you!) and M is on the Russia desk. For M, I think she is enjoying being back in her element since she specializes in the former Soviet Union. For me, I think the shifts will be hard, but it seems like morale in the office is excellent and the work is interesting. Unfortunately, the guy who recruited me for the office had his last day on Friday (everyone there adores him...he seems to be the usual combination of competent AND a decent human being!). The new guy was there last week training, and it seems like he is going to be good as well. I hear good things about him, and the PDAS said they vetted him heavily because they wanted someone who would keep the morale Ed built high. So I am cautiously optimistic.

Meanwhile, I am enjoying being home. Cayenne seems to like her new digs, and the other pets seem to really like the new furniture. I am finally getting things sorted out enough to be able to have the HHE delivered, should it ever arrive! Nearly every day I wish for something that is in it, like carpets and paintings to decorate the house, the special parmisan cheese grater, or the ironing board. Oh well, soon, insha'allah.

Together At Last

Cayenne, our African Grey parrot, passed the most important test of her life on Wednesday. It was the one given at the quarantine facility to determine if she had contracted bird flu while in Jerusalem.

She hadn't. Not that I was worried, but still. Having to get a bazillion forms of permission to get her back into the country left me less than confident that I would succeed in bringing her home.

And so I was able to go pick her up from JFK today. I'm exhausted from the whole ordeal, and not just today's part. But the important thing is that she is home, and so now our family (me, M, Noostie the border collie, Koshka and Pishik, the cats, and Cayenne) is all together in one place again! I can't tell you how happy that makes me.

I still need to write about our trip to the Grand Canyon and then out to Kansas. I will say for now that the jet-skiing and inter-tubing behind the boat were a blast!


Cayenne...the collar keeps her from picking herself

Canyon de Chelly

The winds died down and Canyon de Chelly re-opened. To go into the Canyon, you either have to buy tickets on one of the jeep tours led by a Navajo guide or have an SUV and hire a certified Navajo guide. We went for option one and took a jeep tour, since our SUV is on a slow boat from Israel.

We toured the canyon in an open-topped jeep with about ten other people. The canyon is full of petroglyphs and pictographs, as well as Anasazi ruins and Navajo homes and hogans.


Me and M at White House ruins

We also saw the site of the Navajo Fortress rock, a large butte where 300 Navajo held out against Kitt Carson for 3 months.


Navajo Fortress rock

The day ended on a sad note for me. My grandmother, my dad's mother, passed away this morning. She was 81 years old and had been blessed with seven children, twelve grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren who adored her. She and my grandfather got married a month after they met, were married more than 50 years before he passed away a few years ago and they loved each other very much. I know she is at peace and happy to join Granddaddy. But she will be terribly missed.

Monument Valley

Today we went to Monument Valley Tribal Park, which is located on the Navajo Reservation and straddles the Utah/Arizona border. We had planned to hike around the park, but the wind today was awful, making the area rival any of Jerusalem's sandstorms. In fact, Canyon de Chelly (pronounced de Shay) was closed today because the wind took out some trees. We are supposed to go there tomorrow. Hopefully it will be open.

So since the weather was too bad for hiking, we took the self-guided driving tour instead. Not as much exercise, but we still got to see some amazing views.


The road to Monument Valley


Monument Valley

Oh yeah, and today, we ran into a family of four Hebrew speakers, bringing the total I have run into in four days to eight. What gives? Did everyone follow me when I left? :)

Mesa Verde Pt. II

After the tour, we had lunch at the park restaurant and then walked down to the Spruce Tree House. This is the third-largest dwelling in the park (Cliff Palace and Balcony House are first and second), and honestly, the hike down was much more strenuous than the Cliff Palace. I found ladders much easier than the incline. Like Cliff Palace, Spruce Tree House was occupied from about 1200 to 1276. It had 114 rooms, eight kivas and housed about 100 people.


Spruce Tree House


M at Spruce Tree House

Some of the park's archaeologists were mapping the walls there, examining differences in construction techniques over time. There is a re-constructed kiva there that you can actually climb down into (it was by the kiva that I spotted the Hebrew-speaking couple).


Inside the Kiva

We finished by taking the Mesa Top loop. The road offers views of dozens of sites, including Cliff Palace. From the Sun Point overlook, I was able to spot at least seven different pueblos, including Cliff Palace, as well as the Sun Temple on top of the Mesa.


Oak House from the Mesa Top Loop

We are spending the evening in Bluff, Utah, population 320. It was established in 1880 by Mormons looking to colonize the Four Corners area and establish relations with the Navajo and Ute Indians. In town, the remnants of their original village can still be seen. There are several small independent motels here, though I am not sure why, and ours even has wireless internet access. From here, we will head to Monument Valley.


Historic Bluff, Utah

Mesa Verde

Okay, I am beginning to think I am being stalked. I mean seriously, Israel is a country of maybe 7 million people. What are the odds that I would run into two different Hebrew-speaking couples in three days about as far from Israel as I could possibly get? In fact, out in the middle of the desert in Arizona and Colorado? In their defense, neither couple seemed to notice me, but I am certain it is part of a plot to send me back to Jerusalem.

Anyway, we got up early this morning so we could head to Mesa Verde. Future Farmers of America was having a convention in Cortez, Colorado, and we feared that Mesa Verde would be filled with noisy high schoolers as a result (a fear founded in part by overhearing a chaperone at the restaurant where we had dinner last night saying she was taking a group out there). There were some teenagers at the welcome center when we got there, and as feared, they were pretty loud, but luckily we soon lost them.

The park is huge, and even the welcome center is 15 miles from the entrance! Two-thirds of the park have burned since 1989, so sadly much of the drive in is a combination of beautiful views and dead trees. I imagine the park was amazing before the fires, because it is still pretty amazing now. The highest point in the park has an elevation of well over 8000 feet!


Elevation sign at Park Point

By the time we arrived, all of the tickets for the first two tours of the Cliff Palace had been sold, so we go tickets to the 11:30 tour. The tour was described as "strenuous," which made us a bit nervous, but we went for it anyway. (A tour of the Balcony House was described as "adventurous, complete with a 12 ft tunnel to crawl through and a 60 ft. open face rock to climb...we opted to skip that one!). Since we had an hour to kill, we headed to the Chapin Mesa Museum.

From there, we went to Cliff Palace. The tour was not nearly as strenuous as we feared, just a few ladders to climb and a steep incline (you get more winded in the high altitude). And was it ever worth it! Cliff Palace, with more than 150 rooms and 23 kivas, was begun around 1210 AD, though the area was occupied by the Ancient Puebloans long before that. Construction was largely completed within 20 years. Only about 120 people lived there, and it is speculated that it was an administrative and religious center. No one knows why they suddenly began building above-ground structures to replace the semi-subterranian pithouses they lived in for centuries. What is known is that they didn't live in the Cliff Palace or similar dwellings for long, only until about 1300 AD. While there was a drought that began in 1276 AD and lasted until 1300, the guide told us that the site was never reoccupied and that it was only "discovered" by ranchers in the 1800s. That makes me think there was more to it than just the drought. At any rate, the palace is breath-taking.


View From Above Cliff Palace


Inside Cliff Palace

Chaco Canyon

I first heard about Chaco Canyon in I think 1994, when I was working for the Charleston Post Courier. My editor there told me about Chaco and jokingly told me I was never allowed to go because I wouldn't come back. Thirteen years later, I finally got the chance to see the place, and he was certainly not exaggerating.

Chaco Canyon National Park actually represents just a portion of the sites of the Chaco culture, with literally dozens of Chacoan Great Houses, which are large pre-planned multi-storied public buildings with distinctive masonry, formal earthen architecture and a Great Kiva, in the surrounding area. There are at least twelve Great Houses within the park, the largest of which is Pueblo Bonito.

We started out at Una Vida, which is located right behind the visitors' center. It was named by Lt. James Simpson during a military expedition to Navajo lands in 1849. Construction began at Una Vida in 850 AD and continued for more than 250 years, concurrent with construction at the other sites in the canyon. It has not had much excavation, and is pretty much a natural state of preservation.



Me on the slope above Una Vida with Fajada Butte in the distance

Next we visited the ruins at Hungo Pavi and then headed to Chetro Ketl. This is one of the larger Chacoan structures with a massive Great Kiva.It had about 500 rooms and 16 kivas, and underwent a major, 30-year construction phase around 1020.



The Great Kiva at Chetro Ketl

We finished the trip with a guided tour of Pueblo Bonito, the center of Chacoan culture and the largest of the Great Houses at more than 600 rooms and 40 kivas. Our guide told us that more than 85 percent of the site is original, with only about 15 percent having to be reconstructed. There is still wood that once formed roof beams there (desert archaeology makes me really jealous...the stuff that preserves in the dry climate makes the stuff we are able to recover in the Southeast seem sad!). In one room, the roof is still completely intact, including the straw covering! The Great Kiva there is massive, and even the smaller kivas are pretty impressive. Most of the rooms, however, had no ventilation and were therefore unihabitable. I wonder whether it was an administrative center and the inner rooms were used primarily for the storage of goods for use in the future. Of course, what can be known there is limited because when the place was excavated in the 1920s, none of the more than 100 thousand TONS of fill was sifted. In fact, it was dumped in a nearby wash, so all of the information was literally washed away. Today, we could have searched for the tiniest of seeds to see what was in the rooms. Sad.



One funny thing happened while we were waiting for the tour to begin. M was coming out of the restroom right as a little chipmonk ran out of the bushes. It saw her, and went to run away as she whispered to me to look. Just then, it turned around and ran towards her. She said, "It's charging me. Do you think it is rabid?" It stopped and staired at her, less than 3 feet from her. I said, "No, it thinks you have food." In fact, I am pretty certain I heard it demand, "Where's my cookie?" M didn't have any food to offer, so it turned and left.

By the end of the Pueblo Bonito tour, we were too tired to visit the rest of the ruins there. I can certainly see needing to stay for a while to see it all. One trail alone is 7 miles long and has lots of ruins to explore. But neither of us were up for that after a few days hiking in the desert heat! And we needed to save some energy for tomorrow's trip to Mesa Verde!

Oldest Occupied Community in America

We are having an awesome time on the trip. We are currently just outside of Albuquerque. Today we went to Acoma, the longest continuously occupied town in North America (since at least 650 A.D.). The town is still inhabited by the Acoma Pueblo people and is located on their reservation. They control the tourism there and they give great tours. Our tour guide was an older guy named Gary, a Vietnam Vet who lives on the mesa. He told us about the history of the place and in particular, of the abuses the Acoma people suffered at the hands of the Spanish. Particularly egregious is the history of the church there, which was built on top of the Great Kiva and ceremonial grounds by the forced labor of the Acoma. Those who died building it were interred in the walls of the church. Then when it was completed, the priest said they had to have a bell, and forced them to pay for the bell with four boys and four girls. There is a cemetery just outside the church, and there is a hole in the base of the wall to allow the spirits of the children, and 60 women who were seized after the Pueblo revolt, to return to the mesa. Many of the Acoma are accomlished potters, and so we bought a really nice seed pot with lizards on it. I saw another pot with bear paws on it, but it cost more money than I had on me in cash, and there are no ATMs or credit card machines on the Mesa! I did get the artists card, so I may send him a check and have him mail the pot to me. We also got a beautiful Pendleton blanket with a picture of Acoma on it, which M got me as as an early birthday present.



Acoma Pueblo with the church in the distance

After Acoma, we headed to the Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque and hiked up some hills covered with volcanic rock and petroglyphs. The mesa here was created by six volcanic eruptions about 130,000 years ago. The volcanoes are extinct, but as you drive toward the area, the fields along the interstate look like plowed up asphault from the eruptions. The petoglyphs at this site date to as old as 3000 years ago, though most are in the Rio Grande style, which developed around 1300 AD and continued until the end of the 1600s.



Petroglyph National Park

We finished up the day at the Pueblo Indian Culture Center and Museum. That museum is exactly what I wish the Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian had been, the tribes' history told their way. It was very much about "this is who we are," whereas the Museum of the American Indian seems more like, "see, we are really still here in spite of colonization."

Tomorrow we are heading to Chaco Canyon, though it seems as though we may have to use some of the original, unpaved Indian roads to get there!

Petrified Forest

Today we headed from Flagstaff, where we overnighted last night, to the Petrified Forest, a huge national park in Arizona. The park is about 28 miles long and is the site of, you might have guessed, a petrified forest in the Painted Desert. We spent pretty much the entire day there. The views are absolutely amazing. There are also some pretty cool petroglyphs and other archaeological sites there. We walked two miles to see one of them, a rebuilt pueblo made from remains from the petrified trees. We also got to watch Zuni traditional potter Eileen Yatsattie demonstrate her work, and M bought one of her pots.




What'd that guy ever do to that bird?



I can see why it is called the Painted Desert

Montezuma's Castle

We aren't having great luck with airlines! Today, our flight to Phoenix on Northwest Airlines was delayed more than 2 hours. I think I heard them saying something about having to fix broken seats.

But at least we finally made it, rented a car and headed north towards Flagstaff. Our first stop was at a rest area, where we discovered this can be a dangerous place!


Warning Sign at the Rest Area

We stopped along the way to visit Montezuma's Castle. The castle, which stands in a cliff recess 100 ft. above the valley, is a five-story, 20 room dwelling. It is not related to the Aztec leader whose name it was given, but to the Sinagua and Hohokam peoples, who built it and lived there from 1100-1400 AD. Just west of it is a larger, but less preserved 45-room structure that was 6 stories tall. It was abandoned by the time the Spanish arrived, but the descendants of the people who lived there continue to live in the area.



Montezuma's Castle

Stuff!

Alhamdulillah! Our UAB was delivered yesterday! And better still, it was all intact! We now have some dishes, pots and pans and utensils, as well as work clothes. The cats now have a proper litter box instead of the Harris Teeter cheapie we bought at 2 in the morning when we finally got to DC, and we have some more sheets, towels, another shower curtain, our ipod radio and a decent tv. Life is good!

Of course, I paid for that good fortune by going to the DMV to register my Ebay truck (yes, I bought a truck in Ebay. What can I tell you? I am cheap.). I waited for over an hour only to be told that the bill of sale showed I owed $3500 (I don't) and that I needed proof of residency (challenging, since I am a legal resident of NC...because we are on government orders, we don't have to give up our residency in another state). Luckily, the condo is only about 2 blocks away, so I got the proof that I currently live here and had the dealership fax a letter saying the truck is paid in full. It took me until 5:45, but I have tags on my truck...at least for the next month. I have to get it inspected and get the emissions tested before June 30 to get my two-year tags.

This morning, our new king-size mattress and the double bed mattress for the spare room were delivered. Now the dog will be able to resume sleeping in the bed with us at night...there just wasn't room in our old queen bed for the two of us AND a border collie. So now Noostie is happy too!

Still Waiting

So today is May 28. That means that nearly a month ago, I packed out my UAB (unaccompanied baggage, or airfreight). That is the stuff that was supposed to arrive in 7-10 days after packout, the stuff you need immediately.

So why am I still eating with plastic utensils?

Because the moving company didn't manage to actually SEND our stuff that we packed out two weeks before we left until a week AFTER we arrived in the states. Our transportation tech tells us that our stuff arrived in customs at JFK on May 23 (though the transportation person in Jerusalem says it got to JFK on May 20). Either way, we MAY get our stuff by the middle of this week. That means May 30, a full month after we packed it out and well over two weeks after we arrived in the states.

Fortunately, I packed sheets, a shower curtain, towels and stuff for the pets in my suitcase. But there is still a lot that we need in that shipment, and I am beginning to get a bit peeved. After all, I packed it out early so it would be here when we got here. And since we leave on June 1 for two weeks in the southwest, if it DOESN'T arrive the middle of this week, we won't get it until we get back, which is right when we start work. And most of my work clothes are in the UAB.

And a final great irnoy and annoyance...our HHE (household effects), which was packed out a week AFTER our UAB, was actually put on a boat BEFORE our UAB was put on the plane. Nice.

Finally Home!

There are still a few boxes here and there, mostly because most of our bookshelves are in our HHE on a slow boat from Haifa so there is no point in unpacking the books. I also have a few boxes filled with paper, but the dumpster is full, so that will have to wait a few days. But finally, it is beginning to feel like we are home.

It first hit me last night, sitting on my old leather sofa watching tv with Pishik curled up in my lap, Noostie sleeping at my feet and M sitting on the chaise with Koshka perched behind her head, that we were finally home. I can't wait for the rest of our stuff to get here, but even without it, and even with the "issues" left behind by the tenant, the place is shaping up.

And as an added bonus, Noostie and I went yesterday to Towers, our favorite dog park, and several of our friends (her doggie friends and my people friends) were there, like we had never left.

Never Again On Delta

So my day from hell with Delta in JFK got even better. We went to check in on the 4 pm flight on Monday, the one they rebooked us on because the pets couldn't get on the noon flight, and they tell us that pets can't go on THAT flight. They offer to rebook us on the 6 pm flight or on the 5:30 shuttle from LaGuardia. But they said they didn't have the pets! They tried to blame ElAl...that was their standard thing, its ElAl's fault. But of course, it wasn't ElAl's fault. We got the pets from them, went through customs, and then checked them with Delta. When we couldn't get on the noon flight, Delta's folks brought them to us so we could check on them. But the supervisor said no, that had never happened, as though I was lying! So M told them to find out pets and give them back, that we would drive back. They finally found the pets and returned them to us, and at 6 pm, we left New York and DROVE to DC. Not with our luggage, mind you. They couldn't find that! We ended up getting it the next day. Luckily, it found its way to DC. What a nightmare.

Then we get home, and find that we have bugs! So today, we had the place fumigated. The tenants will be paying for that, along with a blind the broke, a mirror in the bathroom, and part of the countertop that they somehow scalded or something. Sigh. And just now, the ceiling started leaking from the condescation line of the AC. So we have an AC guy on the way....even bigger sigh. But you are right...at least we are home!

Stateside, but not yet in DC

Well, we are in the states, sitting in the business lounge at JFK. We managed to get Cayenne, our African Grey, on the plane at Tel Aviv (with a little luck and a LOT of hutzpa..she didn't actually have reservations, mainly because the travel agent the Consulate used, the one who did NOT win the contract to become our regular agent and therefore had no incentive to do a good job for me, also has the misfortune of being an idiot). Cayenne did fine on the trip. We got to JFK this morning at 6 am and had to sit and wait until 9 for the USDA folks to come get Cayenne. Then we took our bags through customs and checked them in at Delta.

Our flight to DC was late arriving, and when we finally boarded the plane, I asked the stewardess to check and make sure our pets made it on board. Oops! They tell the ventilation system on the plane was broken and they couldn't have the pets there. And they weren't going to tell us!!! They also didn't have our bags on board...so the plan was to send us on our merry way with no bags or pets and NOT TELL US!!!! They said they could re-book us on the 4 pm flight, the one our pets, and hopefully our bags, would be on. But they said we'd have to wait in the regular waiting area, not the business lounge, because we weren't flying business class to DC. Never mind that we paid a full business-class fare and that the only reason we weren't in business class on the DC leg ISN"T OFFERED! Anyway, we came to the lounge anyway, and of course we were actually entitled, but we are furious. And the poor pets...by the time we get to DC, they will have been in their crates for 24 hours.

And to top it off...the screen on the cell phone died...so now I can't see anyone's numbers or check messages. And I won't be able home now for at least another 4 hours! Sigh.

Almost Done

I can't believe I am almost finished. One more day, and I will be headed back to the states.

I have such a crazy mix of emotions. I am really excited to be going home, really anxious that I am forgetting something vital that I need to do before getting on the plane, and really sad that I am leaving behind some really good friends. This is one of the hardest parts about being in the Foreign Service. You make some really great friends and then you leave them. You know that with the Americans, chances are you will see them again and maybe even serve with them again. In fact, two of my best friends here will be back in the states within a couple months of my return and will be serving in DC. Another we are hoping will serve in DC next tour.

But you also make really good friends among the local staff. And many of them you will never see again. I plan to just keep hoping they will get sent to DC for training, which happens. Not a lot, but it happens.

In the meantime, I'm sick. One of my best friends here told me that at the end of your tour, especially at a high stress post like this one, you often get sick as your body relaxes, realizing you have survived it. I dismissed that...but boy was she right! Tonsillitis as an adult. Who would have thought? I remember having strep as a kid, and I have had sore throughts periodically throughout my life. I usually get them when I get a cold, though knock on wood, I am usually pretty healthy. But MAN! This hurts! I have been running a fever for three days, usually around 100 degrees. I think either my throat or my ability to delude myself is a bit improved today. If it doesn't make some rapid progress, that flight tomorrow is going to be MISERABLE!

My Crazy Neighbor Died

I think I have mentioned my crazy neighbor before. Not crazy as in "he annoys me" but crazy as in he's fine on his meds and call the cops when he is off them. Crazy as in believing that God talks to him through a stick he has with an amulet on top. Crazy as in believing that he is invisible when he has his prayer shawl on his head.

He lived in a shack across the street and the small field from me. The shack was reminiscent of the most squalid slum you could imagine, constructed of plyboards set loosely together with no electricity. I take my dog out to the field and he would often follow me around the field pointing the stick at me and Noostie. Once he threw the stick at a collegue who also used the field for her dog, and once another neighbor who didn't even know me stopped and kept an eye on him while I was in the field so the guy wouldn't hurt us.

When he aimed his stick at me like a gun, I called our security guys.

One of our security guys went by to talk to him, and it turns out the man is a retired piano teacher and has been living in the shack for well over 40 years. He thinks all his neighbors are Shin Bet (Israeli Security Services) spying on him. He doesn't like dogs because they see him when he is invisible. His and one other shack are the last pre-67 dwellings and they are grandfathered in. They can stay until the owners die or leave. The land actually belongs to the Queen of England.

I found out he died because I was home yesterday for the packout of my HHE (household effects) and saw them bulldozing his shack. The guy from the municipality told me the old guy had died. As crazy and threatening as he was, it still makes me a little sad. He added color to a very yuppy neighborhood, and I had wondered if he was okay since I hadn't seen him in a while. Now I know.

Going Away Party

T, one of my and M's best friends in Jerusalem, agreed to host a going away party for us (which is good, since I don't think I could deal with having so many people in the apartment when we are trying to pack!).

The turnout was awesome...who knew so many people liked us! Or maybe it was the free food and booze! But I have to tell you...I am too old to stay up that late very often!!




T and T, two of our best friends in Jerusalem and two we will certainly be friends with for life!

Packing Out and Checking Out

There is nothing like packing your UAB (unaccompanied baggage, or your air freight) to show you how much you have that you really don't need. The department gives each officer 250 lbs of air freight, meaning M and I together had 500 lbs. Of course, since we are not legally married, we had to create separate inventories, but in the end, that amounted to packing until they hit 250 lbs and then calling that mine. Then they packed the rest of the stuff. Even with last minute additions of stuff we could probably live without (mostly more clothes), we still came about 125 lbs short. I argued for thowing in some of the carpets or paintings, but in the end, we just let it go as is.

The problem with packouts it that it signals the end. And without my planning it, my brain said, "Oh, we're done." I am now finding it positively unbearable to be in the office, not a good sign with two weeks left. Fortunately, at least for the most part, I have plenty to do between now and the day we leave, most of it involving preparations to leave. So maybe I will succeed in not driving myself insane between now and then!

Thrift Store Treasures Part II

I got my table back from Sandrouni's today, and it came out better than I had hoped to imagine! I am really pleased with it. I kept saying over and over that it was perfect and George's wife said, "Michelle, why don't you compliment him a little!"

I took a picture of it, which doesn't do it justice.




Speaking of Armenian pottery, I went back to the consular section yesterday to have lunch with the FSNs there. Even though I really disliked consular work, working with them was awesome. To a person they are incredible professionals and fabulous human beings. Anyway, lots of folks transfer to political and never look back. But I didn't want to be one of those people. So I ordered lunch for everyone in the section, ACS and visas. And at the lunch, they gave me a gift, an Armenian tile serving tray that is just beautiful.

It occurred to me after the lunch that I am prouder of that tray than of all the awards I have received here. Because that told me that the FSNs valued me the way that I value them. Spending time with them is one of the things I will miss most when I leave post.

Work? What Work?

Okay, it isn't that I don't have any. It is that I can't focus on it!

How am I supposed to concentrate on work and plan our packouts (UAB and HHE) plus getting the pets to the vet and Ministry of Agriculture for their health certificates. And then of course there are going away parties, checking out to do (physically...the mental checkout happened long ago), arranging deliveries to the house in the states and quarantine for Cayenne...

And if that weren't enough, then there are all the plans for home leave...field school, seeing the nieces, touring the southwest....

Like I said, what work?

They Weren't Mad at Us

Monday morning, we noticed a lot of traffic in front of the Consulate, and several police vans had even taken some of our very limited parking on the Independence Park side of Agron Road. I asked one of our guards what was going on, and she told me a few thousand university students were down the road protesting at Prime Minister Olmert's residence over proposed tuition hikes (from 10,000 shekels, or about $2457, per year, to 15,000 shekels, or about $3685, per year). She said the police were not allowing them to move, so I went on inside to work.

At lunchtime, I was sitting with M and some other friends from work in the garden outside our little cafeteria (eating some yummy homemade sweet potato ravioli made by Netta, who runs the cafeteria) when we heard some chanting and yelling. We could see that at least 10 buses were parked in front of the Consulate, and protesters were chanting and carrying signs. I asked Netta what they were saying and she said they were chanting (The government is f*cked. There is no future without education." So we all ran up to the third floor of the Lazarist Building so we could get a better view (we have a wall around the Consulate so we couldn't really see them).

Once we determined that they were in fact the students protesting tuition hikes and not protesting against the US, I went out front with one of our security guys to get a picture. At that point, they were yelling that Israel should be MORE like the US, which pays (!) for students' educations. Are they kidding? Have they SEEN my student loan debt??




Student Protesters in Independence Park

Holocaust Remebrance Day

Today is Israel's annual Holocaust Remembrance Day. At 10 am, they sound an eerie siren and have two minutes of silence to honor the memory of the six million people who were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

The observance of the day began last night at sundown, when many cable stations stopped broadcasting and put up memorial messages. During the siren, which can be heard throughout the city, everything stops, even traffic. People stop their vehicles in the middle of the road and stand next to their cars for the duration of the siren.

Happy Easter

This year, Orthodox and Western Easter fell at the same time, something that doesn't happen all that often. Plus, Passover is also this week, meaning that the city is packed. So I didn't even attempt to go to Easter service in the Old City.

Below is a picture of the Greek Patriarch, Theopolis, celebrating Easter service. He is a contact of mine, since I do the religious affairs portfolio, and I have met with him several times. He serves cognac at the meetings (too bad the portfolio wasn't given to someone who drinks!) and he once gave me a book about the church's manuscript collection (which is really extensive). He is an incredibly nice man, and I have enjoyed working with him.

Ceremony of the Washing of the Feet

This is an amazing time of year to be in Jerusalem, particularly this year as Pesach (Passover) and Easter fall at the same time. And since I am handling the religious affairs portfolio, I have been invited to some of the events.

Today I went to the Ceremony of the Washing of the Feet at St. James Cathedral of the Armenian Patriarchate. The ceremony lasted about an hour and was amazingly beautiful, even if I didn't understand a word of what they were saying!

I went with the DPO (Deputy Principle Officer, or the second in charge at the mission). When we arrive, he said we were with the U.S. Consulate, we were escorted in led by a fairly high-priest and two staff-bearing accollites. The accollites hit the ground with their staffs on every second step in the way that they do when they are leading a high ranking priest around town, so we entered the church to a "thump - thump - thump." We were seated in an area designated for distinguished guest right next to a large raised stage. On the stage, initially concealed by a large tapestry, is the altar and the seating areas for the head priest (who oddly, was NOT the Patriarch), and 12 high priests (presumably to represent Jesus and the 12 Apostles). Each of the high priests wore a black monks robe with the hood pulled up and had wrapped around their shoulders a tan cloak emroidered with pink, green and black. The head priest looked like a Catholic bishop.

Immediately in front of the state, situated between the two sections of dignitary seats, was the area where a group of 13 young men positioned themselves and sang throughout the service. Again, there seemed to be one higher ranking and 12 lower ranking. At first I thought they were sitting, but partway through the service, I noticed that they were actually kneeling! My knees hurt for them, particularly when some started sittting back a bit. I noticed one refused to sit back, remaining on his knees and occassionally bowing his head as if to pray for strength to endure it. I also noticed that as they sang, most of the high priests sat stoically, almost as though they were bored. But one older priest, with a full greying beard, sang along with the young men, his eyes glistening as if he would cry from the emotion of it.

The climax of the service was the washing of the feet, during which the head priest removed his ceremonial garments, knelt and one by one, washed the feet of the high priests. Each priest, after having his right foot washed, bowed and kissed two relics on a small table next to the head priest. Some also kissed the ring of the kigh priest.



The church itself was amazing. According to Father Jerry O'Connor's book "The Holy Land," it was constructed in the 1100s. It is cool and dark inside, with old paintings long since darkened by the smoke of incense and glistening gold icons everywhere.

As we left at the end of the service, we shook hands with some of the priests, including one dressed in the plainest black robe - the Patriarch.

More on the Golan

From Banias, we headed to Nimrod's Fortress. The fortress was begun in 1227 C.E. by al-Moatis, the governor of Damascus to protect the road to his city. The fortress was expanded westward in 1230. In 1253, the Crusaders tried unsuccessfully to take the fortress. The fortress was conquered by Mameluke commander Baybars in 1260, and he awarded the fort to Bilik, his second in command. Bilik refurbished the fortress and constructed the largest tower there.



Nimrod's Fortress

Today we went to Rosh HaNikra, right on the Lebanon border. At Rosh HaNikra, the Mediterrainian has carved out "grottos" into the rock walls. You take a cable car down to the entrance and can walk through pathways along the grottos. There was a storm at sea so the water was extremely rough, but it was still beautiful.




A Large Wave Comes Through

Weekend in the Golan

Tomorrow is the first day of Passover, and a holiday here. So M and I took today off and made it a four-day weekend so we could take a trip to the Golan Heights. We had planned to take this trip last summer, but the Lebanon War made the area off limits. In fact, some of the rockets hit in Tiberias, the town on the Sea of Galilee where we stayed.

The first place we visited this trip was Bet She'an, the ancient city of Bet She'an Scythopolis and the best preserved Roman ruins in Israel. Settlement at the site began in the 5th millennium B.C.E. (a good location is a good location), and was subsequently inhabited by the Egyptians, Phillistines, Israelites, Assyrians, and Hasmonians before becoming one of the ten cities of the Decapolis under the Romans in 63 B.C.E. Under the Byzantines, it became a large Christian center of more than 30,000 people, and later declined following the Arab conquest. A devastating eathquake hit the area in 749 C.E., and you can still see the columns where they fell.



View of Bet She'an from the Tel

After we finished walking around Bet She'an, we headed for our hotel, The Scot's Hotel on the Sea of Galilee. The hotel is built on a converted hospital from the 1800s, with parts of the hotel being in the refurbished old buildings. All around are the remnants of the Roman occupation of that city.

On Sunday we headed first to the Banias waterfall at the Hermon Stream Nature Preserve. The waterfall is the largest in Israel and is magnificent. We would have done the hike to the other side, where there is a temple to the god Pan (Banias is a corruption of Panaes), but one of the park officials advised us to drive since it was raining off and on, making the path muddy and slippery.



Banias Waterfall

My Life Didn't Flash Before My Eyes

I was out in Ramallah for my ninth, and insha'allah, last, SecState visit. Although I had managed to have a different role last month, this month I was back to site officer at the Muqata in Ramallah because the guy who was supposed to be taking over that role (since I leave in 47 days) was on leave.

One the way home after an 11-hour day, we came to a back road that had three cars stopped in the road, blocking it completely. All three faced away from us, two at an angle and a truck with a type of camper shell on the back that allows people to ride back there in the middle. There was no way to pass them, and of course, that always sets off alarm bells.

As I watched the vehicles in front of us and wondered what the driver of our FAV (fully armored vehicle) would do, the door of the camper on the truck opened and the first thing I saw come out of the truck was an AK-47. I gasped out loud, and I am not sure I was able to think anything beyond "Oh shit." As he got out, I realized he was a Palestinian soldier, though his uniform was a bit different than the others you normally see.

Of course, he just got out and the truck pulled away. They weren't interested in us at all...they just were making sure that President Abbas' route to Jordan (he went there after the meeting) was safe. But for a split second there, I thought this was going to be a kidnapping attempt...and like I said, my life didn't flash before my eyes!

Thrift Store treasures and Armenian pottery

I confess. I LOVE thrift stores. It is probably because I am cheap, coupled with having been a starving grad student for so long, but there are few things that please me more than finding a good deal at a thrift store. Like my solid wood bookshelf that was $25. Or my solid wood wine rack with two shelves, one of which has glass doors, for $40.

One find I am particularly pleased with is a butcher-block kitchen cart I found a few years back for $10. We use it all the time...it holds the cookbooks underneath and the papertowel holder on top. So when I went to a friend's house last year for Thanksgiving and saw she had a similar cart with hand-painted tiles inlaid on the top, it gave me an idea.

There is a sizable Armenian community in Jerusalem, and one thing they are known for is their pottery. Each of us, when we leave the Consulate, gets an Armenian tile "tombstone" with our name and the dates of our service in Jerusalem on it. So I thought it would be cool to get some Armenian pottery tiles inlaid into my thrift store kitchen cart.

M and I went to Sandrouni's in the Old City today (George Sandrouni is one of the best known of the Armenian potters) and picked out a design for the cart. The design is one from an Armenian mosaic located just inside Damascus Gate (the gate in my userpic) of a variety of birds, including an eagle representing Christ in the center. The design below is what it will look like, though the colors will be different (lots of dark blue). Of course, I am spending far more on the tiles than the table cost, but when it is finished, we will have something really unique from our time here.

Israel Museum

We finally managed to go to the Israel Museum Saturday. While the museum has a lot of interesting stuff (though the archaeology section is closed until 2009), what it is best known for is The Shrine of the book, where the Dead Sea Scrolls are housed.

They have a fair number of the actual scrolls on display. It was interesting to look at them after having been to Qumran, where they were found, last week. Even more interesting was the realization that though many of them were written in archaic Hebrew, I could still read a few words.

I continue to be amazed at how lucky I am to get to see so many facinating things as part of my tour here!

Israel recalls 'naked ambassador'

No comment needed...

Israel recalls 'naked ambassador'

Israel is replacing its ambassador in El Salvador after the envoy was found outside the embassy, drunk, wearing only bondage gear, officials said.

Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls

I finally got to Qumran, the archaeological site located on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. There is a lot of debate about who lived at Qumran. The latest theories argue that it was a pottery factory, and there are a huge number of kilns there. There are also a bunch of pools which were formerly thought to be mikves, Jewish ritual baths. Now they think that most of the pools were for water and clay for the pots.

These theories may or may not conflict with the traditional view of the place, which is that it was the home of the Essenes, who came to Qumran at the end of the second century B.C.E. They left because of an earthquake in 31 BCE, but returned and rebuilt it around 25 years later. They stayed there until 68 AD, when the Romans conquered the area.



M at Qumran

The reason the place is well known, of course, is because the caves around the site are where in 1947, Bedouin shepherds found some ancient scrolls, which we now refer to as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Archaeologists found additional scrolls between 1951 and 1956. The scrolls included included copies of the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, and the works of the Essenes. It is from these that we know so much about the Essenes, such as their focus on ritual bathing and purity. If the film at the visitor center is to be believed, among the writings are hints that members of the sect, upon hearing of the execution of John the Baptist, thought he was the same John who once lived among them.




Cave 4 at Qumran

S and the Pollard Protestors

I am beginning to lose count of the number of times I have worked on Secretary of State visits, but I think this was my 8th. At least this time, I got to do something other serve as site officer for whereever the meeting with President Abbas was. This time, I was S/ES liaison, meaning that the site officers and line officers used me as the point of contact for dealing with issues, putting out fires, etc.

The work was a lot more interesting because I got to see what the line was like and whether I think that would be an interesting job to bid on. Looks like the job would be fun but exhausting. Liaison work was tiring enough, because there are only two liaisons, one each from the Consulate and Embassy, and the office has to be manned 24 hours a day. That meant 12 hours a day for the whole visit, and this time she arrived Saturday evening and left this morning. Needless to say, I am very tired.

Last night we got a bit of excitement when some Jonathan Pollard protesters made it to the Secretary's floor, where we all were (except her. She was at a meeting). (Have to wonder how they knew the floor she was on and how they got up there, given all the Israel security around...hmmmm). They didn't get near her room, but they got near enough that we heard them yelling "Free Pollard Now" and "We want Pollard home." Jonathan Pollard, by the way, is an American who spied on the US for Israel. That has made him a national hero here, and people argue he should be released because he was just giving one of America's allies info it would have eventually been given anyway. Plus, they are convinced he did it for ideological reasons because he is Jewish. The truth is he didn't "give" Israel anything, he sold it, and only after Russia turned him down. That's not ideology or zionism or anything else. That is greed. And he belongs just where he is, in jail. Which, by the way, is now where some of the protesters are as well.

Drivers here are really bad

You might remember how I said that people here, because they live in a place where they could die at any moment, really live in the present. So basically, they attend to their needs regardless of the needs of anyone else. It's all about them. So like I have said before, if they need to stop at the 24 hour store and there is no parking, they will stop in the middle of the road. Because it is all about them. And the police won't write a ticket generally, because that would be too much trouble and it is all about them.

When I first heard about the Ha'aretz story below, I assumed the woman was arrested for driving recklessly while having sex in the fast lane. But no. She had stopped in the middle of the fast last. Because it was all about her.


Woman ticketed for having sex with passenger on highway fast lane

By Reuters

Police investigating why a car was blocking traffic in the fast lane of a major highway on Sunday found a couple inside having sex.

A police spokesman said the female driver and her male passenger gave in to their passions without pulling over to the side of the road, causing congestion and leaving other motorists having to swerve to dodge their stationary vehicle.

A patrolman gave the woman a ticket for holding up traffic.

Excavations in the Old City

You have probably heard about this on the news. Now you can watch it online!

Mughrabi Gate excavations webcam

I think a camera on the protestors would be an interesting addition.

Singing Happy Birthday

I went to a friend's last night to celebrate his birthday. We sang happy birthday for him...but being foreign service geeks, we couldn't possibly do it just in English. By the time we finished, we had sung for him in English, Arabic, Hebrew, Spanish, Danish, Georgian (no, not a soutern drawl, that was when I sang in English), Greek and Russian. I think would could have rummaged up a few more, but at that point, he just wanted his cake!

We finally got some sunshine today. It has been pretty rainy lately. This shot is from about Sunday three weeks ago and is the only rainbow I have seen here.

Clashes in the Old City

If it hasn't been overridden by the death of Anna Nicole Smith, I am sure you probably saw stories on the news about the protests in the Old City. Basically, the Israelis are excavating near the Haram a-Sharif/Temple Mount, and that is a particularly sensitive area for all people here. So as you saw on the news, some 200 Israeli police went into the compund at the Al Aqsa Mosque and there was lots of stone and tear-gas canister throwing. There were no serious injuries and it didn't spread significantly outside of the Old City. I did see about 150 protesters outside the gate yesterday, but they were peaceful, and today while I was out, we came on some Palestinian kids burning garbage and wielding stones. They didn't throw them, maybe because our driver was Palestinian.

Anyway, I mostly wanted to let everyone know that I am safe and everything is quiet here.

Ein Gedi

One of the things I like best about Israel is the country's national park system.

Today M, three friends from work and I drove down to Ein Gedi, an oasis on the Dead Sea with some great hiking trails and some cool archaeological sites. The park is about 400 meters below sea level and has two rivers and four springs on it, as well as a nature reserve. We saw Ibex (sort of like a gazelle) and Rock Hyrax, which look like a beaver without a tale, plus a variety of birds. There is a spectacular water-fall, especially for the desert.





The nicest archaeological site in the park is that of a 3rd century AD Synagogue with beautiful mosaic floors. The mosaics include inscriptions in Hebrew and Aramaic. The inscriptions include the geneaology from Adam to Japeth, lists of donors to the synagogue, and a curse on anyone who reveals the city's secrets to strangers.

Yay Police!

I got good news last night. the Israeli police caught the guys who robbed us at knife point last month, and they both plead guilty. Woo hoo!

Frustrations

We are having some frustrations with the department. My orders are set, so I will definitely be coming back to DC. In fact, I even know the date.

M, on the other hand, is not bidding on critical needs position, so the department put off allowing those positions to be filled until they got enough bidders for Iraq. But the position she bid on said she was the BLC (Bureau's Leading Cadidate), so we were pretty confident. Then a cable came out saying that they had gotten enough bidders for everything but FS-2 positions (FS-2 is a rank...Mary is an FS-3, just below that). They said they would start "open season" for everyone but people ranked FS-2. For those who were ranked FS-2, they were creating lists of people with regional experience and language skills and they would ask those people to "volunteer." If there weren't enough "volunteers," they would move to forcing people to go. And they said they would target "fair share" bidders first, that is, people who have been at relatively cushy posts for 6 years or more.

So open season started the 23rd and M immediately got an email from the position she applied for offering a "handshake" (official job offer). If she accepted, they would send it to human resources, who would get everything done so she could start the job. M immediately accepted.

Not so fast. Her Career Development Officer (CDO) sends an email saying he can not register the handshake because she has been put on one of those lists for a job in Baghdad because of her regional experience and her language skills. Never mind that she is not ranked at a FS-2 and they promised to let people get jobs except FS-2s. Never mind that she is not a "fair share" bidder. In fact, far from being at a cushy post for the past 6 years, she has spent the last five at hardship/danger posts.

She has sent a letter to AFSA (our "union"), who had agreed to the whole postponing of open season (it was supposed to start in November) and this new opening of the season for everyone but the FS-2s because they were told this would keep the department from having "directed assignments" (forcing people to go). But from the tone of the email to Mary, they are not doing what they told AFSA they'd do and they are threatening to direct people to Baghdad. She also sent an email to the position she bid on telling her she had no intention of "volunteering," and they responded that they wanted her and were holding the job. So we'll see what happens. Her CDO said he was reasonably confident that they would not force her to go and that she would have an answer in a week or two. In the meantime, we wait...and we are NOT happy about it.

US Embassy in Athens

If you read the news today or where near a television, you heard that the US Embassy in Athens was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade. I have friends who have served there or will serve there soon...I am really glad no one was hurt.

So many among my friends and family were worried about me coming to Jerusalem, but really, there is no safe place in the world. What bugs me is that practically everyone, regardless on their views on the war, supports our troops. And I agree with them completely. But people are only reminded when these attacks happen that those of us in the State Department also but our lives on the line to serve our country but without the added benefit of being armed. And people will that forget within days after the attack, within hours if no one was hurt.

Back in J'lem

All good things come to an end, and so I am sad to report that our vacation has ended. We are back in Jerusalem.

It was good to get back...the plane ride was one of the most turbulent I have been on but I mostly slept through it (waking periodically as I bounced about!).

We got in last night at about 6, and I made it less than 15 hours before I had to use my car horn again! Sigh. Southern drivers are so polite!

It is nice being back because the cats clearly missed us. What I especially like is how the cats are SOOOO nice to me as a means to punish M for leaving. It is the only time they really like me better than they like her! Of course, I'd have slept better if they hadn't spent the entire night sleeping ON me to make sure I didn't leave again!

I Love America!

I love how polite people are, and how Christmas-y everything is. The stores are big (a little intimidatingly big actually) and so are the roads. Ben and Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch ice cream is just as good as I remembered it! So are Outback steaks and cheese fries! And there are movies without intermissions!

This is just what I needed!

Okay, now I REALLY need a vacation

Okay, let me start off by saying we are all okay and no one got hurt.

There is a course you take before you go overseas with the Foreign Service called Security Overseas Seminar. In it, they tell you that a really high percentage of foreign service officers are the victims of crime at some point in their careers, something like 85% if I recall correctly. Like everyone else in the room, I thought, well, hopefully I will be in the lucky 15%. But as you probably already know, my apartment here was robbed two months after I arrived at post. So I had already done my part to contribute to the percentage. And I hoped that would be the end of it.

Yesterday, M and I, along with two other friends from the consulate, decided to do the ramparts walk in the Old City. That is where you walk around the top of the Old City walls. The views are great and we all took some great pictures. We were all talking about what a beautiful day it was, how much fun we were having and how Jerusalem overall is a pretty easy place to live. That is probably what jinxed us.

We walked up the stairs to a wide part of the rampart (maybe 20 feet wide by 40 feet long....most of it was only a few feet wide). In hindsite, all of us looked up at the two Palestinian teenagers and thought it was odd that they were up there. But all of us dismissed it...true we were on a remote part of the walk, but we were barely a few steps from Lion's gate, the end of the tour, where the police stand. And we knew most of the Old City is covered by cameras, so few crimes more serious than pickpocketing ever occur there.

I was in the lead and the first guy, by the stairs up onto that part of the rampart, asked me in English "what clock," pointing to his wrist. I told him it was almost 1. He said thank you in Hebrew, then stammered a bit and said "you're welcome" in English. I continued on across, figuring this wasn't a place to dally and plus I was hungry and ready to go get lunch. And I as I walked past the second guy, who was standing near the stairs going down on the other side, he said, "wait wait." I looked at him and he said, "give money." I thought he was begging and I said no. Then he pulled out his knife and said "give money." This made me mad, and I said no again. Then he pointed to my camera (a little canon elph) and said "give camera." And I yelled no and put it in my pocket. What I didn't see was that the first boy, the one I had told the time, was clearly the leader (the guy demanding money from me was clearly nervous) and was angry at my defiance. M said he lunged towards me with his knife, a switchblade. She yelled, "Give him the f**king money." This stopped the first guy, and I reached in my pocket and pulled the first bill off the money in my pocket, a 100 shekel bill (a little less than $25 dollars) and handed it to him. M told him I had her money and I told him that was all we had.

In the meantime, our two friends pulled out their wallets. One handed them everything she had, $150 and 120 shekels. The other pulled out a 20 shekel bill and when they demanded more she gave them another 20 shekels (she had about 800 shekels on her). They kept demanding more, but Mary yelled "that's enough." And since some more tourists were coming, the two ran off. In retrospect, I think the one friend giving them so much money was what kept them from continuing to demand more or from hurting us. I don't think the one who asked me for the money and my camera would have hurt us. He was clearly nervous. But the other seemed more dangerous.

We went straight downstairs and reported it to the police, who ran into the city and grabbed every Arab kid they could find in a red shirt (none the right one). One poor group of boys got brought to us twice. Our security came down and sat with us while were inviewed in the police station. It took hours. We didn't get out until nearly 5.

I am hopeful they will catch the guys because of all the cameras. Plus, the police seemed really concerned about the boys having weapons and attacking diplomats.

So like I said, now I REALLY need a vacation!

Church of the Ark

Last Friday, December 1, I went to the settlement of Shilo. While I was there, they showed me a Byzantine Church they are excavating on the Tell by the settlement. The Tell is the site of the Biblical town of Shilo, for which the settlement is named.

Today there was an article in The Telegraph about the church. The mosaics are amazing. They showed me the inscriptions they refer to in the article, including a new on they had just uncovered Thursday evening. They read: May the Lord Jesus Christ Keep Watch over the Inhabitants of Shilo and may he bless Antonius the Bishop, Germanius the priest and Zorys the mosaic maker." Off to the side is a baptismal font with the inscription they uncovered Thursday. There is an additional inscription by a bench that says "This seat was made by Zoyrs the mosaic maker."



Inscription calling for the protection of the residents of Shilo

There are actually two levels of mosaics. Apparently the older church was built in an area of bad drainage. So they covered it up (which preserved the mosaics really well) and build a new one slightly overlapping the old. There is a mosque on top of all of that which is 1100 years old. I took some pictures, which I will download later.

Getting to see cool archaeological sites while working is awesome! Some days, I really like my job! :)

Christmas dinner for Bethlehem University

Last night, we went to a fundraiser dinner for the Bethlehem University scholarship fund. A really good cause and I hope they made lots of money for the students.

We had a blast. Dinner was pretty good but the company was excellent. We were at a table with a number of our good friends from the consulate. There was a musician who performed dance music periodically (priests probably shouldn't dance) and did sound effects for the door prize drawings and the raffle, which was the best part of the evening. Everyone on our side of the table won something except one friend, and we told him that was God's retribution for him trying to stack the odds in his favor when he drew a ticket (the tickets came in different colors and he picked one the color of his tickets on purpose). We won dinners to Askidiniya (one of my favorite restaurants here) and the American Colony (I don't like it as much but the garden you sit in is nice). We bought 200 shekels (about $40) worth of raffle tickets, so we made out pretty well. Of course, the emcee (I think he was a university official)did even better. His wife won a plane ticket to Brussels, which he gave back, and then he one a piece of art, which he kept (aside from that sounding rigged, I think he is seriously in the dog house for giving back his wife's trip but keeping his prize!).

M and I are thinking of donating a scholarship to the University. The students there are pretty devoted...you have to be to go to school in this climate. Many of them have to walk hours and past numerous checkpoints just to get to school, and they stay on campus until they absolutely have to leave. The Christian population in general is in pretty dire straits in Bethlehem. They used to be the majority there, but with the economic and security situation, they are only about 20 percent of the population in Bethlehem now. Tourism, their only real industry, has virtually dried up, and much of their agricultural lands have been seized by the Israelis for the wall and a nearby settlement.

Guess What I Did?

Were you watching the news? Yep, that makes number 6. Six times that I have worked as a site officer when the Secretary came to visit.

At least this time, I got to go to a different place. We had the meeting at the Intercontinental in Jericho. The Intercon is a really nice hotel, and we had the meetings with the First Lady there back in May of 2005. The staff is really nice and helpful, and the hotel would be a great place to stay if we were allowed there without security. The grounds are immaculate, the rooms large and comfortable, and the pool is amazing. There was a casino there, but it has long since been shut down since the Intifada pretty much dried up the tourist crowd.

The best part of today was getting to body block two cameramen who were trying to get out of the door to get one last shot of the Secretary. I jumped in front of him and grabbed the door handle, forcing the door closed. Then I got a hotel security guy to hold it closed. I got another security guy to hold a second door closed...boy were the press folks peeved!

Cease Fire

Depending on who you talk to, the cease fire in Gaza is a real chance for peace, an opportunity for Hamas to re-arm, or likely to amount to nothing. The cease fire may spread to the West Bank, or the violence in the West Bank may spread back to Gaza. Honestly, I am not optimistic, if only because I have been optimistic before, only to have it dashed.

Who knows?

People seem to think that the Palestinians speak with one voice, but nothing could be further from the truth. Most ideas people have about this place are wrong. There is no one Israeli voice nor one Palestinian voice. Israelis aren't just defending themselves against Palestinian suicide bombers in the home God promised them, though some are, and Palestinians aren't all innocent victims of Israeli oppression, though lots are. Some Palestinians are suicide bombers, but even all suicide bomers aren't the same. Some Palestinians are reasonable and peace-loving, and some are unreasonable and hate Jews. Some Israelis are Palestinian hating and some aren't. There are lots of shades of grey. Mostly its shades of grey.

Anyway, they still haven't gotten buy-in for the cease fire from all the Palestinian groups in Gaza (I think the news said Islamic Jihad claimed credit for the last two qassams), which seems to lessen the chances of the cease fire lasting for long. But Olmert is talking again about land for peace, the first time he has really talked about evacuating settlements since before the Lebanon War. So maybe there is hope...I wish I were more optimistic.

Meanwhile, I am just counting down until my R&R.

Happy Turkey Day!

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! We had an excellent dinner with 20 or so friends from the consulate with turkey, dressing and all the fixings! There was even pumpkin pie!

A few things I am thankful for:

* A wonderful partner
* Awesome family and friends
* My grandmother's health
* My furry and feathered children
* and that I get to come home for Christmas!

Softball Diplomacy

Yesterday, a group of us from the consulate met at one of the local sports fields on the east side for a little softball. We didn't have enough people there to really play, so we were mostly just taking turns batting.

After we had been playing for a few minutes, some Palestinian teenagers starting hanging around, first one, then two, and ultimately about six. With a bit of coaxing, we convinced them to join us. None of them had ever played softball, so we had to show them how to hold the bat, where to run, etc. And with me and my handful of words in Arabic being the only ability to communicate, it was challenging! But we were able to communicate none the less, and one turned out to be a great hitter while another did pretty well as a pitcher.

We all played together for about an hour, when several of the guys had to leave for work. I yelled "fursa saideh" to them, which is Arabic for "nice to meet you," and one turned around and asked how to say that in English. I told him, and he called out "nice to meet you" to everyone. It was a lot of fun playing with them, and I think we sent away five young men with good feelings towards Americans.

It made me feel particularly good since Thursday and Friday at work had demonstrated to me just how accustomed we get to awful things. I had to take two groups, one each day, on a tour of the Jerusalem part of the separation barrier. It is pretty depressing to see how it splits families, dividing Palestinian neighborhoods in half. The first day, two separate places near one checkpoint had been closed off since just 5 pm the day before. Both the UN-employee who was driving us and I knew to have our badges on in case we passed a checkpoint or police...it has become ingrained in us. But the guy we were showing around had to fumble for his badge, because in his three months in country, all in Tel Aviv, he had never come across a checkpoint. And both days, we went to Augusta Victoria hospital, a Lutheran Hospital on the Mount of Olives that serves Palestinians. It has a great but depressing view of two checkpoints, one of which is only for foot traffic and one which is only for Israelis (of the 12 routes into Jerusalem, only four are open to Palestinians and one of those is the pedestrian one) as well as the barrier and the ever-expanding settlements.

While at the hospital on Thursday, a doctor came up while we were there to speak to our guide. She told him she was doing a UN film on Palestinian access to health-care (or more accurately, lack of access) and he said he had a kid she could talk about. The child, maybe seven-years old, has leukemia and was running around the hospital alone. I said, "Parents couldn't get permits, huh?" And he said yes, so they had sent the child through the checkpoint alone, where he went from taxi to taxi until he found one to take him to the hospital. He didn't know who to ask for at the hospital, only that this was where he should go.

When I got back to work, I told my co-workers about the little boy with leukemia who was wandering around the hospital alone, and my co-workers, without being told more, said "Parents couldn't get permits?"

...but I was in Cairo!

So more than a month back, when we saw that this past weekend was both a long weekend AND the weekend of the Marine Ball (no offense to the Marines...some of our guys are good friends, but ball gowns are not my thing and we went last year), we decided to go to Cairo. I can't remember ever NOT wanting to see the pyramids.

We flew over on Thursday night after work. The flight is only about an hour from Ben Gurion Airport. A friend at work, Heather, told us she had a friend in Cairo from when she lived there and he drove a taxi for a living. We called Ali first thing Friday morning and hired him for the day to take us around. Let me tell you, that was a great decision! We drove down first to Dahshur, home of the Red and Bent Pyramids. These are the third largest pyramids in Egypt, after the ones at Giza. The Bent Pyramid was one of the first attempts at the kind of pyramid we know today, built by the 4th dynasty Pharoah Sneferu (2613-2589 BC). But the angle was too steep and the pyramid became unstable, so his engineers had to reduce the slope, hence the name. Not satisfied, Sneferu tried again, this time creating the Red Pyramid using the angle his engineers had used at the top portion of the Bent pyramid. It is the first true pyramid. Sneferu's son, Khufu (aka Cheops) is the builder of the first, and largest, true pyramid at Giza.




The Bent Pyramid

We actually went inside the Red Pyramid because we had been advised that the big pyramids would be just as empty inside but would be more crowded. We got hit up for bakshish, a sort of tip, usually one Egyptian pound (about 20 cents) for the first time there, and by none other than the tourist police. We paid again to the old guy who took us down into the pyramid. You have to back down the ramp to go in, and while the ceilings inside are amazing, the smell is well, I guess there aren't toilets around.

Our next stop was Saqqara, home of the Step Pyramid of Djoser. The Step Pyramid is the first pyramid and was built by Imhotep in six mastabas for the 3rd dynasty Pharoah Djoser. It was here, in the pyramid of Titi, that we got the "Fish Tour," our new descriptor for all bad tours. A guy wanting bakshish followed us around the tomb, pointing to the wall carvings and saying "fish" when he saw a fish. Accurate, but not so very helpful. I think he knew maybe 6 words in English. He would point to an empty pedestal and say, "Baby statue. Not here. Egyptian Museum Cairo." We ultimately gave him a pound to go away.



Me at the Step Pyramid

From there we headed to Giza. A friend had recommended we ride camels around the back side of the pyramids, and after coaxing M a bit, we decided to do it. Ali, our taxi driver, took us to a reputable camel stable and we got an hour ride around the pyramids. It was a great way to see the pyramids, away from the traffic and vendors. But boy does that make you sore! Our camel driver said that this is how you really learn to walk like an Egyptian!

On Saturday we went to the Egyptian museum. Ali had warned us about people on the streets luring you with with how they love America and their brother was in America and blah blah. And still we almost fell for it, with a "doctor" (read: perfume shop owner) telling us the museum didn't open until noon and trying to get us to come to his shop. At the last minute, we escaped and continued to the museum. The Egyptian Museum is every bit as incredible as it is billed, and though we opted not to pay the extra 100 pounds to see the mummies, we did get to see some amazing stuff. We even saw Tutankamen's burial mask, which is extraordinary. That night, we headed back to Giza for the sound and light show. In our defense, we already knew it was hokey before we went, but some kitsch you just gotta do. So we went. The talking sphinx was a riot, and at least now I know that the three biggest pyramids there were built by father (Cheops or Kufru-2589-2566), son (Khafre) and grandson Menkaure). Khafre also built the sphinx, and the face on it is his. His is the most recognizable of the three pyramids, with some of the limestone exterior at the top. It is actually smaller than the Great Pyramid in deference to his father, but it looks bigger. The real highlight of the show, however, is the end, when Egyptians dressed in the kind of "ancient Egyptian" costume you'd have worn as a kid at Halloween played the Road to Tiperary on bagpipes as an exit march.

Sunday we went to Old Cairo and visited Salah Eddin's Citadel. Built in 1176, it has amazing views of the city and two really beautiful mosques, the Mohammed Ali mosque and the Mohammed Nasser mosque. Since this was an organized tour, our Muslim guide also took us to the Hanging Church (named for its location) and the grotto where, according to the guide, Muslims and Christians hid Mary and the baby Jesus when they came to Egpyt. I'll leave it to you to figure out what is wrong with that picture. She also took us to a synagogue that she said was no longer used because there were no Jews in Cairo. Of course, she also said Christians were 50% of the population. It is more like less than 10%. And she wrapped up the tour with a trip to a perfume factory. I left with a headache but no bottled scents.



Me and M on camels at Giza

No, I Wasn't at the Rally...

There was a Gay Pride rally here on Friday. It was supposed to be a parade, but the Haredi (the ultra-Orthodox) responding with a week straight of nightly riots, as well as threats to harm the marchers. So it was decided to have a rally instead. It made the international news, so in case any of you were worried, I never even had to think about whether I should or wanted to go. We had long since planned to take the long weekend and go to Cairo. I'll write more on that later, but let me just tell you that Mary didn't come anywhere close to falling off that camel no mater what she says.

Also, in other news, I got a job offer in DC. Looks like I am heading back to INR Watch! The Op Center, my first choice, decided not to offer jobs to any second-tour officers which took me out of the running. But this does mean that come May, I will be back in the states for at least 14 months, maybe more. Woo hoo! Outback, can I do call ahead reservations now?

Yay Mail!

Our mail folks and the ones at Tel Aviv are awesome. They had someone standing by 24/7 in case there was a break in the strike. Over the weekend, they called a 2-day halt to the strike for emergency negotiations. And in that time, our folks got the mail that was here.

So now I have a 24-day supply of diet Mountain Dew! Woo hoo!

No Mail!

I have never before given a great deal of thought to strikers, and that would certainly be true of the current baggage handlers strike at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv except for one thing...

Our mail comes by plane.

The baggage handlers unload our mail in addition to the bags.

Or, more accurately, they don't unload our mail. We have heard that some of our mail flew away with the planes that came here and left again.

That makes me cranky.

I voted!

Yay! The board of Elections relented and faxed me a ballot. I checked out the information on each of the candidates so I could make informed decisions, and then I faxed in my ballot. We are luckier here than at some posts, in that we have APO (military postal service) twice a week, so I will actually be able to get the ballot post-marked in time (they require you to mail the original for auditing purposes. So insha'allah, my vote will be counted.

I was especially glad to get to vote for a guy who was mayor of Carrboro, the town next to Chapel Hill, for 10 years and was one of the state's only openly gay politicians. He is running for the Board of Commissioners, and still lists improving opportunities for LGBT folks as one of his priorities.

Yay Democracy!