Unga Bunga

Photo courtesy of Laura Kramka Petrie

Happy news! I have completed the fast course for Bahasa Indonesia at FSI. I loved it and admitting that automatically guarantees me a seat at the inner circle of the high order nerd club. 

Lilac bush. Photo courtesy of Terri Dunggan Schwartzbeck.

I am perfectly happy with that because Sean and I plan to make extraordinary use of our new language even after we leave Jakarta. We look forward to buying a car and being able to talk in front of the sales person without giving away our bottom line or which of us is the easy mark. 

Photo courtesy of Mary-Catherine Dennehy.
Lupines in the White Mountainsin New Hampshire.   

We have already practiced these skills while complaining about something one of our kids has done using our Bahasa Indonesia - while the kid is in the room. So far so good...

Aren't purple flowers lovely?

Iris. Photo by Gregg Shipman Photography

I've mentioned this before but initially Bahasa Indonesia sounded something like alien creatures talking in the cantina of the first Star Wars movie. In fact, I found a blog that makes me think I'm on to George Lucas and the Bahasa Indonesia thing. Very interesting~ deserves a little more research I'd say!

Mountain Laurel.
Photo by Ginger Sipes Young

Some of the words are funny sounding- they just are. There have been times when I have had to turn my head as I tried to stifle a giggle or hide my amusement, such as the day our exercise was to add the word "dong" as an added emphasis (no real meaning). I know it's juvenile but I was dog tired and everything had become funny. I'm pretty sure anyone would have laughed if they had to say "Ya dong" to answer a question when they were so tired that it seemed that the ceiling tiles had started to dance. I "mostly" maintained my dignity, mostly... 

Photo of a lavender rose by Joseph Crabtree

Bahasa Indonesia's pronunciation is not difficult at all.  For the most part the vowels are all long vowels, except for the vowel "a" it is an "ah" sound, such as the word "soft". Basically, it sounds the same as the Spanish alphabet minus a few letters here and there. 

Here is one of the words that had me hiding my face: 

"Kakak" (kahk-kahk) means older sibling. Here is a picture of my Kakak!

Kakak saya, Robin.

Here comes the grammar lesson:
  
"Orang putih" (or-ahng ...the ang part sounds the same as in the word long) Orang means person  and (pooh-tee) putih means the color white. 

This noun phrase has an opposite word order from English so it translates literally as "person white". Ex. Robin is an Orang Putih.

  "Sepupu sepupu baik" (seh-pooh-pooh 2x's) sepupu means cousin and (buy-eek) baik means good person, well made or of good character/quality. Again, note the word order. In Bahasa Indonesia you are literally saying cousins good.

The beautiful young ladies in this photo are my kids' sepupu sepupu baik (to make something plural you say it twice). Hope and Zoe are sepupu sepupu baik!

 Sepupu Hope, Kakak Robin and Sepupu Zoe! 

Words that would otherwise have made me either cringe or giggle now have meaning.  And that is how language training goes- 

Photo by Kaye Kohler

So, recently, while explaining some of my favorite Indonesian words to a friend I had a sudden realization that I now know what  "Ungu bunga" means! That's right, (oon-gooh) ungu= purple  (boon-gah) bunga= flower.  Who knew? Ungu bunga means Purple flower! Over the years we somehow must flipped the word order, it should actually be "bunga ungu".

And, there you have it. If you ever find yourself outwitted in crowd of know-it-alls you just might be able to impress the dong out of them by telling them what ungu bunga means!

Here is a test: please watch and translate this Bugs Bunny cartoon:

-L

What Does a Consular Officer Do?

So, having escaped with my life and career prospects intact from Indonesian language training, I have moved on to professional training at FSI, specifically consular work.

Many of my friends, upon hearing I had chosen the consular cone for my new job, took me aside and told me that while they valued my steady friendship, they were very worried that my personality type (INTJ) wasn't very well suited to counseling people, what with me being introverted and cold and all.

When I explained that instead I would be at a visa window interviewing dozens of potential immigrants and visitors to the US every day and deciding whether or not they were eligible based on the law, the facts and my judgment their concerns for me were reduced on the personality scale, but they then decided my new job was well, the DMV but for Indonesians.

But as I already knew (and my training has made even MORE clear), consular work is a lot more than that. We live in a global economy, and the US depends on international trade and tourism to a huge and growing degree every year. So you can imagine the interest our government, private companies and people overseas have in consular types facilitating legitimate travel as much as possible.

There are also people out there who want to hurt us, and they also very badly want to get into the US. As consular officials, we are the first of many lines of defense against those kinds of people. Whenever something bad happens in the US now, one of my early thoughts is "who was at the visa window, and how did they make their decision on that visa application?"

Then finally by our history, heritage, and character the US welcomes immigrants and visitors from around the world. This diversity is a tremendous source of strength for our country, and something that sets us apart from many others. We always have to apply the law fairly but with an eye towards who we are.

So, with these important and sometimes competing goals, we now have to add the element of speed. In many places around the world, non-immigrant visas are given 5 minutes or less to be determined. So, the job at the visa window comes down to "let the right ones in, keep the wrong ones out, as quickly as possible." It isn't the job for everyone. But as I continue with training, I am coming to realize more and more that it IS the job for me.

-S

It's Always the Best Ones- Rest In Peace Anne Smedinghoff

A young woman joins the Foreign Service in her mid-20's. Having just entered the service myself last year, let me tell you, that is YOUNG. Most FSO's have an advanced degree (or more), time in the Peace Corps, etc. For someone to pass through the filters and join the Foreign Service, she must have shown the examiners something special. After A-100, her first tour is in Venezuela. Interesting times to be in that country, to be sure.

After her first tour, she volunteers (you HAVE to volunteer) for a tour in Afghanistan as a public diplomacy (PD) officer. Tours in the A-I-P (Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan) are not like regular tours. Security concerns are high, and restrictions on travel are tight. For a PD officer, whose job is to make contacts with the host country media and people and help explain America, it is a particularly challenging environment. You want to be safe, so you can't travel around and meet with people a lot.  If you are going to present America in the best light and be a good PD officer, you have to travel around and meet with people a lot. Many people have a really hard time with this, and for a young officer on her second tour, it could be even harder. How well did she meet the challenge? Well enough that when newly-appointed Secretary of State John Kerry came to Afghanistan, she was the Control Officer. What does that mean? It meant she was entrusted with figuring out all the details and needs of a visit at that level and working with all the different sections and divisions that have responsibilities and making sure everything is covered. This is a big deal, and she did it well.

So yesterday she and some other State and Defense Department personnel are going to deliver books to some schoolchildren. This is a quintessential PD activity. We buy books and deliver them to needy schoolchildren, and take pictures of the event. And on the way to do her job, her convoy is attacked by the Taliban and she is killed along with a Defense contractor and many others are wounded. Just like that, she is gone.

It gets me thinking about Ambassador Stevens and the others killed last year. You know, the ones that volunteer and go outside the walls because they know they have to. And we send them because we know they have to go. And then they get killed and I think that the people they were trying to serve didn't deserve them. Why should we lose the best and brightest like this?

But then I remember my A-100 class, and how many people rated the dangerous places on our bid list the highest. I hear from them, and how they were able to report directly about when the fighting stopped because they no longer heard the shooting outside their window, etc. And I worry because even though they don't have ships or planes or guns, they are going to leave the embassy and go out and do their jobs. Not because it is safe, but because it has to be done. I can guarantee you someone soon will post to Afghanistan and fill Anne Smedinghoff's job, even if they can't fill her shoes. 

It is not safe. It needs to be done. We will do it, because that is what we do. We are Foreign Service Officers.

-S

Language Loser No More

Well, it's certainly been a long time since I've been able to blog! Or read a book, go to a movie, drive into the city, or anything else that was not eating, sleeping, and studying Indonesian. You see, back in late February I went in for what at the time I thought was The Great Test, but which turned out only to be Language Test I.

This failure did a lot of things for me and to me. The loss of face was immense, of course. You don't often get a chance to be told exactly how you are doing in your profession if you aren't an athlete, but at State in language training you either make the required grade or you don't. I joined a sad army of shaggy language veterans at FSI, a building full of brilliant people who aren't used to failure. As a consequence of failing the first test, my training schedule between now and July had to be completely rewritten. There was enough space there to allow for another month of language training and still leave at the same time, but only just. If I wanted to get off language probation and still leave in July, it was success at the second attempt or bust.

Of course there was a brief urge to look into returning to insurance or law, but this did not last long at all. No, instead getting the required score became a huge focus in life. I went on mental afterburner for a month. I mean, I had passed two state bar exams and the horrifying tests to get into State in the first place, right? I'll just work harder! Here are the results:

Blog Entries-0
Caffeine Intake-up 30%
Percentage of Hair Now Gray- 65%
Weight gain- Out of Range High
Attendance at A-100 Classmates' Events-0
Social Interactions with Fellow Human Beings-limited to Indonesian students, teachers, and the guy I keep bumping into in the coffee line at FSI.
Ability to Speak/Read Indonesian- Up from 1+/1+ in February to 2/2+ in March.

So, after all that, how do I feel?

Bruised, battered, missing a finger and otherwise scarred, but with the task accomplished. That's about right. Now I look forward to Con/Gen, which is full of rules, regs and legal language. It will be a good transition between Indonesian and English, I think.

Puji Tuhan! Inilah Selesai! (Praise God! It is over.)

-S 

I Want To Be An EFM When I Grow Up

 I knew the first or second time that I was referred to as an E.F.M. (Eligible Family Member) that I would end up wrestling feelings of resentment and that I would have to contend with my own desire to make a contribution while living here or abroad.  Please don't picture me as an executive or even a full-time employee prior to this move. I was not. I home schooled my youngest child (in order to teach him English) and taught art to kids and did a lot of volunteer work. But I have learned that no matter where I am or why I'm there I must find my own stride, or it can find me, either way works as long as I'm doing something I love to do that lines up with my skill set or calling in life. I care about people and love being at the right place/right time to make a difference in someone's life. I've found my calling is usually centered around advocating for people or by giving someone an opportunity to express themselves through art.

Kitties in an Old Town gift shop window- I couldn't resist taking this picture! 

I'm not a domestic goddess by any stretch, I'm not a seaweed spa kind of lady- but I'm open to giving it a try- oh, yeah!  I am a creative, artsy sort of person. I could learn all day, listen all day and/or engage in a cause that I feel compelled to be a part of until I'm so tired I can barely function. That's why I simply can't imagine living the next 20 years in Sean's shadow or waiting for him to get home before my day really starts. Thankfully, he would never want or expect that of me either. Hopefully these descriptions help explain why the last few months have been oh so dreary and dull for me. I AM SO BORED AND SO OVER THIS PART OF THE F.S. EXPERIENCE THAT I COULD JUST PUKE!

So, instead of going mad or shopping all day (just to get myself out of the apartment) I had to come up with a plan for my sanity. Sadly, I've not found my social outlet to be heavily centered around relationships made here at the apartments where we live. I've met a lot really amazing, interesting people that I truly enjoy talking to but it's rare to get together- fun when it happens but really rare.

Here's my personal recipe for not having a nervous breakdown at this point in our FSI training/waiting phase here:

Totally by accident that this photo ended up under that last sentence! Ha!
This is the cemetery behind Oakwood, Falls Church, VA.

1. Taking an art class! I signed up for an awesome photography class through the Art League/Torpedo Factory. It's been great and has forced me to get outside more than I really wanted this winter. I've been COLD but I've gotten out and am quite glad for it.
.

This picture was taken for an assignment based on manual white balance settings. 

2. Language classes! A few other Indonesia bound FS spouses and I have joined up and hired a man to teach us Bahasa Indonesia. Pak Alex has been a great teacher and has been a kind encouraging "guru" (Indonesian word for teacher).

Also- This coming Monday I start the B.I. fast course at FSI. I'm excited and can't wait to see what this new adventure holds. Learning Bahasa Indonesia is important for me because I plan on having lots of Indonesian friends one day soon.

Pachamama dancer in the President's Day Parade, Feb. 2013

3. Visit the doctor: Here's something people just coming into the FS will hear over and over by their Northern Virginia or DC area medical professionals- "Let's make sure we take care of that before you go overseas." 

Oh yes... if you bring up even the slightest health concern the doctors here will order a number of tests and if you want you can be running to the doctor for this or that several times a week for your entire nine months, or whatever, length of time that you are here:

Patient: Hey, doc- I think I have a wart on my ring finger. Can you take a look at this for me?

Dr: Yes. Hmmm. Well, by golly... that looks like a wart but actually it could just be the tip of an iceberg. We better remove that before you go overseas. Let's order an MRI just to rule out a tumor. And, let's do a stress test. And an ultrasound. I know a guy with a great clinic for warts, I'm happy to write a referral for you.

Plus, the obligatory follow-up visit one month later.

And there you go- one wart = five days of not being bored or in the house all day. It's amazing what your life can become if you let it.  Now, if I can just make these doctors' visits stop while I'm in language training.

 President's Day Parade, Old Town, Alexandria, VA- February 18, 2013

4. Volunteer. I have also discovered it can hard to find places to volunteer here in the NOVA area. You won't be alone if you hear "but you'll be moving in nine months, right?" at some point during your stay in this area of Virginia. Do not give up, keep looking! People do need volunteers around here but YOU have to look for them. I also recommend being a hearty participant in the school's PTA if you have kids in the schools here. Please, comment below if you know of anyplace that needs local volunteers, or if you want to learn about some of the volunteer opportunities that I've found here. 

E.F.M. questions I'm dying to know the answers to:

Will it be this boring once I get to post?

How do other EFM's manage to do what they love doing?

If you're out there, please leave me some sort of idea of what daily life is like at post... or how others have kept busy, contributing and growing personally?


-L

100 MPH in the Wrong Direction

If you would like to read a straightforward account of combat in Afghanistan, I highly recommend the book pictured to the left. I tells the story of various units as they rotated through a ridiculously difficult to defend outpost in NE Afghanistan.

This is not the book for you if you want your war stories in one of the following varieties: John Wayne stories about noble American troops always outsmarting and defeating their ignorant and immoral foes, or Vietnam War-type stories about our horrible soldiers who put babies to death in service of a war for oil or for votes.

Instead, guys with lives outside the service who are educated and dedicated are doing the best they can with what they have in service of a strategy that many recognize as misguided but over which they have no control. They aren't saints, they are professionals. Many have a love and respect for the local culture that begins to show results. These are the ones targeted most by the enemy who know that connections between the populace and our military would be the death of them.

The conundrum that lies at the heart of the book for me is that every time the soldiers at post use their initiative, intelligence and pride to overcome the shortcomings of a bad strategy, they only sustain the use of that bad strategy. After all, it can't be all wrong because look what our soldiers have achieved! That's what I mean when I say 100mph in the wrong direction. Our guys on the ground were working so hard to do their best, and they did, but every setback and death is, in the end, fruitless because the strategy itself cannot be overcome by our excellent tactics.

We had one of these at State recently, too. Here I am talking about Benghazi, and the results of the internal investigation. Because Ambassador Stevens was The Man when it came to Benghazi, he was less questioned in his decisions than most. After all, if someone had a question about anything in Libya, it was him they would ask.

The facility there was not up to the security risks that were present. But each team of Regional Security Officers (RSO's) would do everything they could to help upgrade security. What they really needed to do was evacuate the building when bad stuff happened earlier in the year and actually build a Consulate with the proper security measures. But that wasn't happening, so each guy did the best they could with what they had. And every success they had only made those who put the strategy in place more complacent. 100 mph of hard work by RSO's in the wrong direction of trying to make the facility safer when what they really needed was a new facility.

Do I have the magic strategy 8-ball that will fix all this? No, I don't. I just wish buildings, combat outposts, and other stuff didn't have to be named after dedicated members of the military and foreign service after their deaths in order to fix strategy problems, and I really wish their efforts to overcome  bad strategy with good tactics didn't result in a continuation of bad strategy.

-S

Not Home For The Holidays

Happy Holidays 2012- The McKeating Version


Establishing new holiday traditions sounded like a welcome
challenge for me because for years I've gone with the obligatory flow of cook this, go here, do this...all established long ago. However, I cautiously admit that I've dreamed of doing things a little differently- like having Christmas at our own house, not having to haul all the gifts to and fro, not having to add a "road trip" to the already exhausting drum beat of the holidays. It's a lot to do year after year and most of it falls on me. So, this holiday season I finally had my chance to do things the way I had envisioned but in all honesty the task proved difficult, depressing even -no surprise considering our sunlight deprived bunch.

 Here was one of my favorite moments of this holiday! Hannah and I were coming home from the store and we got stuck behind this wildly decorated Santa toting firetruck. It was just ahead of us and as we turned onto our street we could tell that it was turning into the Oakwood Apartment complex. It was blowing it's sirens and also blasting "Here Comes Santa Claus". I was as thrilled as any kid would be!

 

Hannah ran up five flights of stairs and down our hallway to get her little brother. Sintayehu grabbed shoes and ran outside in time to see Santa. All the boys waved at him and ran along side the fire truck as it slowly rolled through the parking lot. It was a huge, huge moment for all of our kids! There were firemen walking around and handing out candy canes, and telling people "Merry Christmas". It was an exciting and awesome moment. I literally teared up over it all.

Thank you, Falls Church Volunteer Fire Dept!


Maybe it's because we have all hit a wall of relative heaviness lately but the holidays seemed to bring it all to head. We are all missing our home, our old church, our many friends, our FAMILY, our way of life (way more laid back than NOVA/Northern Virginia)  which would be no big deal and expected if we were new to "change" or if we were normal people but we are not. Though we are new to the Foreign Service we are not new to change (big or small, we're usually game) nor are we shy of a challenge or two, in fact we have a bit of magnetic draw to such chaos, but right now I am really wondering how much more difficult it will be once we are in Jakarta? In all honesty, I've been shocked by our need for familiar comforts. I thought we were heartier than that. I thought we were a free spirited band of gypsies who are so grounded in our ideals than we could celebrate our Lord's birth anywhere but it turns out we may be more creatures of habit than I realized. I'm thinking our lack of holiday cheer is particularly concerning because we suffered so much just being away from "home" but we are still in the United States- how much more "un-Christmas-y" will it feel when we are in Jakarta, a majority-Muslim country without Target and without the usual repetitive Christmas tunes pumping through  Safeway's speakers?

Here is one thing that the kids loved- our Gingerbread House. 

I think it will take purposeful planning and effort. We will have to be the ones making our holidays cheerful, not expect someone else to do it for us. I don't think I realized how much my parents do to make our holidays meaningful.

Here are a few traditions we can do no matter where we live:

-Make an actual list of things I'm thankful in the days leading up to Thanksgiving.
-An Advent calendar and daily time to reflect on the miracle of Christ's birth as days draw nearer to Christmas.
-Cook the family favorites. Unfortunately for us, there is no restaurant that compares to our family's holiday dinners and I learned this year that those tastes are important, even though it is work intensive I will cook the usual's, even if I have to order specific items online.
-Sharing what you have with others is the true Spirit of Christmas, have others over and/or go to their event if you are invited.
-Be social and have friendly connections before the holidays are even a thought.
-Make fudge or other treats that remind us of our holiday favorites and give them out as small but personal gifts to lots of people.
-Participate in ex-pat community events, such as cookie exchanges or caroling (ie..check community calendar every few days).
-Go all out and decorate no matter how little space there is for a tree and no matter how little storage space is available for storing it all afterwards. Kids need Christmas trees, with lights and stuff all over it.
-Play your favorite Christmas carols and sing songs as often as you can (don't just listen to NPR or worry about what Congress is or isn't doing, or focus on terrible tragedies as events unfold).
-Buy a red or other cheerful holiday tablecloth and have some sort of centerpiece that goes with the season.
-Get family and friends to email favorite holiday recipes way ahead of time so that we aren't scouring the internet for one that is "close enough" the day before I plan to cook it.
-Talk about what each member loves and needs to make their holiday away from family as meaningful as possible, and do it.
-Plan the actual day, like Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day, and talk about our expectations ahead of time.
-Wrap presents while are carols playing in the background, make it a happy occasion :)
-Mail the extended family their gifts at least 10 days before Christmas, probably a lot sooner than that once we are abroad.
-Refuse to do it all by myself.
-Christmas gift shop with my spouse. Remind him this is a good thing, reward good behavior with Starbucks.
-String up or display all the beautiful Christmas cards that friends and family send us.


Here's what we will not be doing next time:

-Forget to charge the camera batteries.
-No laundromat nor studying on Christmas day after all the excitement has died down.
-No going to just "any" Chinese (or ethnic) restaurant that is open on Christmas day in place of a traditional homemade dinner.
-No trying to make up for any lack of holiday cheer by cooking all of our favorites all day for the WEEK after the holiday has passed.
-No more making homemade tamales all by myself!

Photo op after the play ended. One of my kids is in the group of shepherds :) 

Here is what we did right:

-Watched "Christmas Story" together as a family, my kids have it nearly memorized by now.
- Cooked a nice dinner for Christmas Eve.
- Went to a beautiful Christmas Eve church service, complete with a children's play and a candlelight round of Silent Night (Christmas Eve service is one thing we have longed to add to our family's holiday traditions).
- Gave our kids and each other meaningful gifts.
- Called relatives and shouted Merry Christmas as crowds of family shouted Merry Christmas back to us via speaker phone.
- Went to see Les Miserables- an amazing movie that basically pours Christ's message of grace and mercy out of every scene.
-Decorated some areas of our apartment with lights and greenery, made snowflakes out of coffee filters.

My New Year's Resolution?

 To make holidays in 2013 cheerful and meaningful, no matter where we are!


-L