criplomats

Pins and needles

October 23rd, 2016

John speaking at the Binational Center

John and I are on pins and needles waiting to hear about our next assignment! Since we’re bidding on DC, we know where we’re going (unlike in other years), but we don’t know exactly what we’ll be doing. We’ve both received some good feedback and feel like we’ll probably end up with jobs we like – but you never know until you sign on the dotted line. Hopefully by this time next week, we’ll know our fate!

The photo is from John’s speech at the binational center. He gave a great presentation on the election process. I was happy to be able to see it this time. He made a complex process understandable (if you’ve ever tried to explain primaries, caucuses, and the electoral college to anyone, you know how crazy it gets!). Good job, John!

I was particularly busy this week since my boss was visiting the agency in Vallarta. We had a number of special citizen services cases that required a lot of hand-holding (all with good outcomes!), plus our normal heavy workload for passports and citizenship cases. I’m also training a new officer, which is rewarding but time-consuming.

The highlight of the week was finally selling Mom’s house in Hot Springs. It’s been on the market for a while – unfortunately, when we listed it, there were five other houses for sale at the same time (very rare in that lovely neighborhood). But it’s done! I have to admit that while I was glad to not have to worry about it any more, it was very sad to think of how much happiness that house brought her, and that it was one of the last links I have to her.

Mom 2012

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Mary and Lynna come to visit!

October 16th, 2016

Mary, John, Ramona, Lynna overlooking Guanajuato City

It’s been a busy two weeks and I missed blogging last Sunday, so I’ll try to catch up!

John got home on the 5th in the wee hours of the morning – it took him almost 24 hours to get from Suriname back to Guadalajara. He hit the ground running – back in the office the next day and gave a presentation to the principal officers from across Mexico who were here for a conference. No rest for the weary.

Mary and Lynna arrived from Little Rock on Friday the 7th. We loaded up the car on Saturday morning and drove to San Miguel de Allende, a beautiful little town about four hours away. We stayed there for a night at a lovely little hotel, then drove to Guanajuato City the next afternoon.

We loved Guanajuato, and stayed there for two nights. The city was a zoo when we arrived on Sunday afternoon. They were having their annual Cervantes festival, so lots of people were in town. And festival or not, the city is hard to access. For one thing, it’s practically vertical and built into the hillside. Cars are prohibited in much of the space above ground, so you use a maze of tunnels to get around under the city. The hotel had to send a bellboy on foot to find us, then he directed us to parking and walked us to the hotel. It’s really incredible!

We hired a guide on Monday and went to the mummy museum, to the mirador overlooking the city, to an old silver mine, and to an old hacienda that’s basically been turned into a park. The mummy museum was really interesting – the mummies were inadvertently preserved due to the conditions in the crypt. The bodies were disinterred when the families didn’t pay for them to be perpetually interred.

We visited the Diego Rivera museum (the house where he was born) before we left town on Tuesday.

Mary and Lynna explored downtown GDL on Wednesday, and John took them to Tequila on Thursday. Friday, I took them to Tonala and Tlaquepaque for some shopping and sightseeing. Yesterday morning, we had breakfast at our favorite Oaxacan restaurant, then we sadly took them to the airport in the afternoon.

Now I’m afraid it’s back to the real world for us! John has gotten some good feedback on jobs in DC, and I hope to get traction this week. We’ll know more by the end of the month – the suspense is maddening!

Here are a few photos from our travels – click to see all of my photos.

Prayer, Guanajuato

Dog in window, Guanajuato

Late night scene in San Miguel

Mary and a mummy

Mummy Museum

Mariachis waiting for work, Guanajuato

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Islas Marias

October 2nd, 2016

Islas Marias Prison Visit

Our most unusual prison in Mexico where we visit American citizen prisoners is the island of Islas Marias, sort of a Mexican Alcatraz. The difference is that the least dangerous criminals go to Islas Marias. They live in communal houses and most of them have jobs, so they have a lot of freedom. The thousand or so prisoners can work in maintenance, construction, shrimp farming, cheese-making, woodworking, animal husbandry, horse training, landscaping, etc.

Our morning flight took about an hour to get to the island, and the landing strip placed us alongside the ocean. We visited our six prisoners, then the prison director loaded us in a van and spent a couple of hours driving us all over to island to visit the camps and see their work. The prisoners can actually have their families come visit them and spend a week on the island – while they are there, the prisoners stay with the family in provided housing. And get this – some families actually live on the island. When the prisoner is getting close to release, the family may be eligible to come live there. There is even a school for the children to attend and there are several churches, too. It’s really an incredible set-up.

We visited one of our prisoners as he worked with the pigs – he takes care of them, helps with birthing, does castration, etc. – he really loves what he’s doing. He had 200 piglets when we visited, and of course I had to hold one. It was so cute! And amazingly clean. The pigs seem fond of him, too (they’re very intelligent) – he went over to one huge (and I mean huge) male who was all sacked out and started scratching him under his chin, and the pig started making these wonderful noises of pleasure – so funny!

During the week, I had three interviews for potential DC jobs. It’s pretty nerve-wracking because you just can’t tell if they like you or not, and since it’s by phone you can’t see facial expressions. I just have to wait and see.

Friday night I went to a fun party downstairs at our Canadian neighbors’ apartment – good food and good company.

Yesterday I went to the office to try to get caught up on work, so it will be much nicer to walk into a clean desk on Monday!

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Bidding!

September 25th, 2016

Bidding season officially opened this past Monday, and I’ve been consumed by thinking about it. I keep looking at the list, watching the bid count on the jobs I want go up (meaning my competition increases), re-reading job descriptions, contacting people in DC who can lobby for me – it’s nerve-wracking! I went to the office yesterday to send information to the folks in staffing in Consular Affairs to rank order my five bids, and I used the quiet time to go through each position and write up why I want that particular job and what I can bring to the table on it. It was time that I needed just to focus. Next week I have my first telephone interview, so wish me luck!

John, of course, is also bidding. It’s more difficult for him at the moment since he’s on a TDY in Suriname and is spending most of his time at the new embassy building and getting the move going. But, they successfully moved into the new space last week and hopefully he’ll have some time to concentrate on bidding, too.

The easy part is that we know we want to go back to DC. We love being out in the field, but common wisdom is that you really need to go to DC for career purposes – so off we go! As much as I have resisted going back to the U.S., I know it’s the right thing to do and I am excited at the thought of being in such a lovely city and being closer to friends and family.

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Next up, Gulf Coast

September 18th, 2016

David and Alison

I returned to Guadalajara from Puerto Vallarta on Tuesday. I really enjoyed my time down there and got a lot done. I was back in the office on Wednesday, but then took off again Thursday morning, this time to meet David and Alison in Destin, Florida.

I don’t think I’ve been to Destin before – the beach is so pretty! The white, powdery sand is incredible.

Destin

David and Alison rented a lovely condo right on the beach…just walk off the deck into the sand. We generally just goofed off and had fun together. Thursday night we grilled burgers on the deck. Friday we took a long drive and stopped in several little villages to shop and poke around. We had a great lunch at the Red Bar, and we fantasized about which of the fabulous homes on the beach we’d buy. Saturday it was a bit rainy, so Alison and I took the obligatory trip to Wal-mart and to another store, then we took a long walk on the beach to scope out condos for the next vacation!

We all left at oh-dark-thirty this morning – they hit the road for Hot Springs and I went to the airport. I had a nice trip back, good connections and a quick breakfast at the new Centurion Club in Houston – and before I knew it, I was back home!

Here are a few photos from my travels this week.