THIS AMERICAN LIFE: A YEAR IN REVIEW

And suddenly it’s been almost a year back in ‘Merica. Somehow, the months have just kept rolling by. I hardly noticed the time passing… other than the weather, which went from sweltering humidity when we arrived in DC last August, to arctic tundra in the first months of 2022, and now back to the muggy heat again.

A stroll around the DC sights early on during our time here - and complete with face masks.

My “job” while we've been in DC has been mainly to “learn” to speak and read Indonesian. Getting paid to go to school? I mean, that’s not a bad gig. But it’s been intense. Beginning in September, I had daily instruction with a teacher and a few colleagues, and then “self-study” assignments and homework. It’s like I’m in college again, except every class is the same. Every day. All week. For nine months. And, except most of my training has been online. It’s been a slog. 

View from the bottom...

...and the top of the Washington Monument.  Quite a view from up there!

Before I returned to DC last August, we all hoped COVID was behind us and we would soon be back to “normal” – including the State Department, which mandated all employees must report back to Washington DC for training so we’d be ready to attend in-person classes as soon as the coast was clear. But as reality set in that this pandemic was not done yet, my “classroom” remained a weird little windowless room off the kitchen of our 1-bedroom apartment. I dubbed this glorified closet “the language lab.” Meanwhile, Andrew has also been working from home. His “office” is our dining table. We’ve definitely been winging it. 

We tried to get out of our little apartment as much as possible.  We didn't have a car but were able to keep ourselves quite entertained with DC's assortment of museums and monuments.

But what is really nice about long-term training is that, in general, my evenings and weekends are free. No late nights, frenzied deadlines, or turns on the duty phone* that come with overseas embassy jobs. That’s given us lots of time and opportunity to reconnect with family and friends – both the 2-legged and 4-legged variety – from California, Portland, DC, Belize, and Zimbabwe. So wonderful to celebrate birthdays, holidays, and other special occasions with lots of people we haven’t seen for awhile! 

*All officers rotate through week-long assignments as “duty officer.” During that week, in addition to our day jobs, duty officers remain on-call after hours to answer calls from U.S. citizens who have an “emergency.” What has become been clear from my duty officer experiences to date is that Americans think everything is an emergency. Alas, most calls are, in fact, not a major crisis, and the answer is usually, “Please call back tomorrow during normal business hours.” Another category of calls includes things that are what I describe as self-imposed emergencies. These include Americans who have made bad decisions – gotten arrested, run out of money, gone off their meds, all of the above – and now need the U.S. government to fix their problem, usually sometime between midnight and 5am. I’m looking at you, Belize. Then, there are the actual emergencies. If it’s a policeman on the other end of the duty phone, it’s going to be a long night. I got duty calls about U.S. citizens who’d been in car accidents, had strokes, died, been murdered... I’m looking at you again, Belize. So yeah, it’s been nice to not be duty officer for over a year.

So fun to get together so many friends who passed through DC from all over the world, including Zimbabwe...

...and California...

...and Belize...

...and from right here in DC!  A highlight of our time here for sure has been seeing all these fine folks again.

And, of course, we also got to reunite with many of our favorite 4-legged friends too, like Mokum!

We’ve also revisited favorite stomping grounds, museums, bars, and restaurants, and found some new ones. And I didn’t realize how much I missed the changing seasons, especially when the northeast hardwoods donned their best autumn colors and the cherry blossoms worked their magic. It’s been fun to be here again to see all of that again. 

Autumn put on quite a show.

One of about six snow storms that hit us this winter. We almost needed an ice axe to use the crosswalks.

But the cherry blossoms in the spring make it all worth it.

We also sprinkled in several side trips over long holiday weekends, including Philadelphia, New York City, Chapel Hill, Tampa, and even Merida, Mexico. (A perk of this job is meeting so many awesome people who end up living all over the world. We’ll never run out of places to visit!) 

A ladies weekend getaway to Merida, Mexico in January was a great way to beat the winter chill.

We got in a quick weekend trip to NYC too to see a couple Broadway shows, play tourist... and catch COVID.  (We're both back to 100% now, but that was definitely not the souvenir I'd envisioned.)

And we got to mark the holidays with a full dose of Americana, including a trip to Harpers Ferry with my parents over Thanksgiving, and a Christmas and New Year’s celebration at our friends’ 200+ year-old stone house in rural Virginia. 

The houses in our neighborhood put on quite the Halloween displays!

A (zbsolutely freezing) day in Harpers Ferry with my parents during their Thanksgiving visit with us.

Some holiday festivities in DC...

... and then Christmas and New Years at our friend's circa-1780s house in rural Virginia.  

But all good (and not so good) things must come to an end, and so too does our time here. Tomorrow we'll leave DC for a little rest and recuperation in Hawaii before we make our way on to Jakarta, Indonesia at the beginning of July. We were also able to squeeze in one more quick trip to Portland last month to make the rounds with family and friends there before we set off. This is always the hardest part of this job. As much as I’m tired of the almost year-long training, and the cramped apartment, and the routine… and as much as I’m looking forward to a new job, and uncharted territory, and a fresh start… I always get a lump in my throat leading up to our actual departure. Leaving behind the known, and the comfortable, and many of the people I love is never easy. But having Andrew by my side to be a familiar face and a reassuring voice strengthens my resolve. It’s not an easy transition for him either, having to figure out how to get up and running with his job in a dramatically different time zone every few years. I’ll always be grateful that he agreed to go on this crazy ride with me. 

And with that, our latest installment of This American Life comes to a close, and the first episode of This Indonesian Life will soon begin. Stay tuned for the first chapter, coming soon! 

See you in Indonesia!

HOME(LESS) LEAVE

Foreign service officers are required to return to the U.S. at the completion of each overseas tour for a minimum of 20 days to reacquaint themselves with their home country.  We call it “home leave” – but those in the ranks tend to refer to it as “homeless leave” because it’s not as if we have a physical “home” to return to.  After our Belize tour, we spent several weeks in Portland, couch-surfing with friends who would have us, dog- and house-sitting for others, and generally living a migratory existence out of a suitcase for the better part of a month.  This time, we did things differently.

Oregonians and others know this iconic PDX carpet.  Definitely a sign that I'm home.

First, after surviving the 40-hour trip back from Harare*, we spent two weeks in Portland in an Airbnb.  When we first started planning our leave, we weren’t sure if we’d be vaccinated, or need to quarantine, or what the COVID rules du jour may be, so we figured we’d play it safe with a space of our own.  We found a 1-bedroom basement apartment.  At first, I wasn’t too sure how I’d feel living like a mole person.  Then I realized how coveted our basement spread would become as we experienced the first (of TWO) 100+ degree heat waves while we were there.  In a city where A/C is not commonplace, that basement apartment turned out to be just the spot to beat the heat.  In between stints of hiding from the scorching earth in our subterranean apartment, we were able to get in some visits with family and friends, hikes around Portland, and LOTS of Tex-Mex food.  (A favorite of mine that was decidedly absent in Zimbabwe.)

* Our trip back from Harare really deserves a post in and of itself.  It was nothing less than a miracle that after a journey of four legs (Harare-Johannesburg-Paris-Atlanta-Portland), we arrived on time AND with all our luggage.  Our flight from Paris was an hour late, leaving us less than 45 minutes to get our bags, clear customs, recheck our bags, go back through security, and get to our gate in Atlanta.  I credit the heroic efforts by airport staff and complete strangers in Atlanta for pulling this off.  The slightly crazed look in our road-weary eyes may have helped a tad too.

The roses were in full glory in Washington Park.

Catching up - and rehydrating - with friends.  A great way to survive a heatwave.

Next, we headed to Hawaii for an actual vacation.  We started off on Oahu, meeting up with our friends Joe and Michele for a few days to kick off our rest and relaxation.  While seemingly the entirety of the U.S. decided to vacation in Waikiki at the same time as us, we were able to find some quieter spots on the west shore.  

A Santa Cruz reunion in Hawaii with Joe & Michele.

Just looking at that view makes me go "ahhhhh..."

And then we headed to the big island and met our friends Meg and Chris there to wrap up our vacay.  This was my first trip to the big island, and let me just say, it is FANTASTIC!  The crowds that had swarmed Oahu had not found their way there – or there was more space to accommodate them – and we thoroughly enjoyed getting to see all the sights.  We swam in amazingly clear water, hiked through volcanoes and lava tubes, saw dozens of sea turtles lounging beachside, took in some incredible sunsets… drank many mai tais.  It was everything I’d hoped it would be, and it was some down time that we both desperately needed after an especially hard year.

Getting to hang out with our friends Meg & Chris in Hawaii!  Last time I "hung out" with Meg in Hawaii, we ran a marathon.  This was definitely better.

These guys were EVERYWHERE!

Working off some mai tais with a hike at Volcanoes National Park.

Just strolling through a volcanic crater.  No big deal.

One of many gorgeous sunsets during our stay.

We wrapped up our home(less) leave back in Portland and stayed with my parents for our return visit, so we got to play a lot of bridge… and drink a lot of wine.  We did much of that card-playing and wine-drinking in their basement, since we were there for 100+ degree heat wave #2.  It was great to be back in Portland for summer to see all the flowers blooming and get to celebrate Father’s Day and my parents’ anniversary with them in person for the first time in several years… but I could have done without the sweltering heat.  Good practice for what comes next, I suppose.

This is actually the perfect spot to play cards (and drink wine) during a heat wave.  Look at the multi-tasking you can do!  Laundry?  No prob.  Need some potato chips?  You're set.

Now we’re back in Washington DC where I have some training – including “learning” Indonesian – before we head to Jakarta next year.  After our palatial digs in Harare, we are getting acclimated to living (and working – since we’re both teleworking for now) in a 700-square foot apartment – our “home” for the next year.  But Whole Foods and Trader Joes are a stone’s throw from our front door.  It’s good to be home. 

FAREWELL TO ZIMBABWE

This blog post is coming to you from the Johannesburg airport. We are ¼ of the way home. From here, to Paris, to Atlanta, to Portland. We’ll arrive sometime tomorrow night. Getting to Zimbabwe isn’t exactly easy. Getting home from Zimbabwe is even harder since it means leaving behind a lot of friends and good memories from our two years here. 

The process began about a month ago as we started sorting through all our stuff and making decisions about what would come with us in our luggage, what would get sent to DC where we’ll spend the next year, what would meet up with us in Jakarta a year from now (hopefully), and what would just go into storage since our DC and Jakarta housing will be considerably smaller than our Zimbabwe home. Tough decisions! But the movers came a couple weeks ago and had everything packed up in a couple days. Smooth seas and fair winds, stuff! Hope to see you again someday!

So. Much. Stuff.

Despite the written description, these are didgeridoos... not "candle stands."

We spent the morning of our last full day in Zim yesterday with my boss (and now just friend). He said he’d give us some practice answering the question we will inevitably get when we arrive back home, “So, what was Zimbabwe like?” In trying to answer that question, we immediately realized how hard it is to describe in just a couple of sentences. Simply put, it is a place that fills your heart – the wide open spaces are teeming with wildlife, the skies are the bluest I’ve ever seen, and the people are so gentle and lovely. But at the same time, it is a place that breaks your heart – the corruption and cruelty of those in power is unmatched, the economy and infrastructure that once flourished now sits in ruin, and the poverty and desperation of the majority of the population is ever-present. 

A refugee camp near the border with Mozambique was set up to temporarily house people who lost their homes in a cyclone that hit in March 2019.  They were still there over a year later while the Zimbabwe government came up with a "plan."

Downtown Harare looks like a metropolis - especially when the jacaranda trees are blooming in October... but I'm convinced most of these buildings are empty.

I called this traffic light "dealer's choice."  On the plus side, at least it's on.  The majority of the traffic lights didn't work at all. 

Harare's potholes are no joke and were rarely repaired in any official capacity.  More often, entrepreneurs with a few bricks and a shovel would see them as a fundraising opportunity.

And yet... a lovely sunset outside the embassy.

In our “diplobubble,” we were quite sheltered from the daily struggles that most people endure here. When we arrived, the U.S. dollar was the equivalent of about $8 Zimbabwe dollars. Now, a U.S. dollar is about $120 Zimbabwe dollars. If you earn a salary in U.S. dollars and have access to U.S. currency, Zimbabwe is very livable. But most Zimbabweans who earn local currency have watched their incomes plummet and their lives get that much harder. 

Billboards... Zimbabwe style.

Typical street scene in Harare.

Watching and reporting on all of the government’s political and economic shenanigans – which has been my job here – has been draining. But I’ve also been rewarded by seeing Washington pay attention to what I’ve been reporting. Over the course of my tour, I relayed constant information regarding the Zimbabwe government’s mistreatment of workers, harassment of union leaders, and disregard for internationally recognized workers’ rights. In response, Washington is looking into whether Zimbabwe should be allowed to participate in a trade program that allows countries to have reduced taxes on various goods they import to the U.S. provided they respect workers’ rights (among other eligibility criteria).  Pretty cool to know that the work I’m doing has direct implications for our foreign policy.

"Flattie" spiders.  Harmless... but everywhere.

This weaver was busy admiring himself in my sideview mirror one day.

Anyway, besides all that, some of the highlights of my time here – aside from the AMAZING safaris – have been almost daily walks through our neighborhood which started when the COVID lockdowns began as a way to get some fresh air and maintain some sanity, and our regular get-togethers with a small group of friends who became our “pandemic pod.” 

The "lab pack."  We regularly saw this group walking through our neighborhood.

This was our street - and fairly standard condition for residential streets in Harare.

The exterior of our house - a walled-in, barbed-wire paradise on the other side.

See what I mean?  Not a bad place to wait out a pandemic.

Complete with vegetable garden!

I’m forever thankful that Andrew has been an enthusiastic partner – and my constant champion throughout our foreign service adventures to date. (I bestowed upon him the title of Minister of Home Affairs for his tenacious efforts to get sh$t done in a country that does its best to throw up roadblocks at every turn – literally and figuratively.) We will take with us some good photos and even better memories of our two years in Zimbabwe. 

Our pod - and a mini UN.  The nationalities represented in this group include Swiss, Egyptian, Kuwaiti, Israeli, Brazilian, Uruguayan, Australian... and American.

RETURN TO CAPE TOWN

In March 2020, just before COVID shut everything down, we spent a long weekend in Cape Town seeing the sights and catching up with some friends who were passing through.  It was our second visit to Cape Town, and we didn’t expect it might be our last.  But then the pandemic hit and we were confined within Zimbabwe’s borders for last 15 months.  So presented with one final week of vacation, and with travel outside Zimbabwe a bit more open, we opted to return to Cape Town as our last adventure before our time in southern Africa ends.

In our first two trips, we’d covered the basics – Hiked Table Mountain?  Check.  Toured Robben Island?  Yep.  Tasted wine in Franschhoek?  Done.  So this time, we decided to do something a bit different.  We started with a couple days checking out some new-to-us wineries in Stellenbosch and then headed further east to hike around the Elgin Valley. 

The views from the tasting rooms (or patios) in Stellenbosch did not disappoint.  This was our vista at Jordan.

Wine tasting in the time of COVID at Hidden Valley.

Fall colors abound at Thelema.

It's like looking at a painting at Delaire Graff.

The Elgin Valley is a cooler part of the region and home to some stellar pinot noirs.  Some friends in Zim gave us a tip about this “wine hike” that would include four days of hiking (anywhere from 6 to 11 miles a day).  We started early each morning with a drive to a trailhead – or would start right from the guest house where we stayed each night – to hike a different loop around Green Mountain.  We hiked to the summit on day one, and the other days we walked various routes around the mountain and through the “fynbos” – the shrubland around the cape that’s dominated by proteas, heather, and an immense variety of other unique plants.  We had an incredible guide point out interesting facts about the landscape to us and the two other couples that joined us for the duration.  And perhaps the best part - each day’s hike either ended at a winery or with a private tasting back at the guest house from one of the local vintners.  We earned our wine each day!

We had views like this from the trail for four days.  Amazing!

At the top of Green Mountain.  Our lunch spot on day one.

Even though we're coming into winter, so many plants were in bloom!

We hiked along and through some of the valley's vineyards too.

Winding our way through the fynbos.

On the trail.

One of the many cool plants we found along the way.

And another one.  There were some new birds for me too - orange-breasted sunbirds! - but I didn't manage a decent photo of them, so you get plants instead.  They don't move as fast.  Makes 'em much easier to photograph. 

The sky!  The mountains!  It's beautiful country.

We spent our last two days in Hermanus, a coastal town about an hour and a half east of Cape Town.  It’s winter here, so we didn’t venture far into the ocean, but it was refreshing to walk barefoot on the beach and hear the crashing waves after being landlocked for more than a year. 

The coastline along Hermanus is pretty spectacular.

A coastal trail runs along the waterfront in town.

Full moon and a clear night.

We did one last (very short) hike up to a lookout point above town.

We took the long way back to Cape Town and stopped in at one of our favorite wineries in Franschhoek before heading to the airport.  It was a beautiful way to say goodbye, for now, to one of our favorite cities.  And it was a fitting last hurrah to our time in southern Africa.

Not a bad view to accompany a glass of brut at Haute Cabriere.  So long, for now, Cape Town!