Day 313 - One More Month of Normalcy

The month following my first five weeks were the last month of what we later referred to as normal.  I spent much of that time outside of Yemen.

Image of Jerash, north of Amman
by  filmvanalledag 

My first trip was to Amman, Jordan, for a conference to discuss how we would transition one of the programs previously managed by the United States Information Service, or USIS. Until fiscal year 2000, USIS was a separate agency from State. But FY 2000 marked the beginning of a merger of USIS into State. All USIS employees became State employees. All funding for USIS programs were rolled into State's budget and were distributed to embassies for the same functions from State. That was the year before I arrived in Yemen.

But there were some operations that were overlooked that first year. One of those was English Language Teaching Programs not handled through a binational center or a private organization. Only a handful of these programs still existed, including the one in Sanaa.

In addition to the business of discussing how to transition the English programs from being managed by USIS to being fully independent, we had some time to get out to the archeological site of Jerash, one of the largest and most well-preserved ancient Greco-Roman cities, as well as getting some shopping done downtown in Amman.

Toward the end of that last month of normalcy, I traveled to Budapest for a travel conference. All embassies were encouraged, with the prospect of the encouragement becoming a requirement shortly thereafter, to set up a travel management center as a way to save costs on travel. A conference was held the same week each year to bring administrative staffs together to understand the best practices for setting up these centers. To those in Washington, it seemed simple enough to put together a request for proposals and then collect bids from travel companies to be followed by selecting a successful bidder. But in most countries of the middle east, businesses were not set up along the western model. A travel company in the middle east would not be able to offer advantageous fares on all airlines since each company was connected with one airline. Thus the need for these annual conferences.

Sandra and Ludmilla in Budapest

At one of the first sessions, I sat near the front and when the session ended and I turned to walk to the back of the room, a woman I didn't recognize walked up to me and gave me a big hug. She was Ludmilla, my Russian language teacher when I was in Moldova. Ludmilla had moved from being a teacher that each of us paid privately for lessons to being hired by the embassy in Chisinau as the travel specialist. We spent most of the rest of the time we were in Budapest together, catching up on changes in Moldova and our personal situations.

After that week, I traveled to England to meet up with Alex. We hadn't made any specific plans so I hadn't told anyone at the embassy how to reach me for the week of leave that had been approved before I left. At the end of the week in England with Alex's mother and other family members, I flew back to Sanaa to a completely different environment, the beginning of what we hoped would become a new normal. This was the situation after the USS Cole had been attacked by suicide bombers while it was being refueled in the port of Aden. 

by  avlxyz 

Bad things never happen when I am in a country. The attack on the Cole happened while I was in Budapest. I still feel a bit of guilt for not getting in touch with the embassy as soon as I heard about the attack to find out if I should return right away. But if I had, I would have worked the 20-hour-a-day schedule that everyone else was keeping, necessary because a third or more of the embassy staff relocated to Aden to provide logistic support for the FBI, NCIS, DIA, and other intelligence and security staffs that converged on the city to investigate what happened. Since I did not return directly to Yemen after the travel conference, I was rested when I returned and could provide some relief to all the others who needed some time away from the office. At least that is what I tell myself when the guilt begins to creep into my thoughts.