Flag Day

The State Department has a very dramatic tradition for letting new diplomats know where their first post will be.  It's called "Flag Day".  In our case, all 89 of us newbies come into an auditorium with our family and friends sitting in the back.  Then, one by one, the master of ceremonies displays a national flag on the screen at the front of the room, while Ambassador Patterson holds a small version of the flag.  The announcer says, for example, "Chennai, India, the consular officer position goes to Bill Smith!"  Then, a smiling Bill Smith comes up to receive his flag from the Ambassador, have his picture taken, and get a folder describing the remainder of his training schedule and his probable date of departure for his new home.  In our case, the announcer said "Port Louis, Mauritius, in a Political/Military Officer position, David Campbell."  My additional instructions were that I would have about a month of job skills training, followed by six weeks of additional French language lessons, and another couple weeks of security and consular training.  All told, about 3 months of training at the Foreign Service Institute, with a departure in mid-August.  When I arrive, I will join the Ambassador and staff already in place.  The U.S. Embassy in Mauritius also serves as the US diplomats to the Republic of the Seychelles, whose flag is unique:

Shelly and I are learning everything we can about out new homes and preparing to move there in 90 short days.  We are told to bring plenty of sunscreen!

Meanwhile, our daughter, Heather, had her own Flag Day last Saturday.  While she already is living in Kazakhstan, with her Peace Corps training program winding down, she was assigned to her post within the country.  She will be living in the South Kazakhstan Province in the "county" called Oblast Shymkent, and in a city called "Zhetisay".  Her Kazakhstan flag is this:

 Heather also has several more months of language and job training in her new town.  She will be working with currently serving Peace Corps volunteers to teach at a summer school in Zhetisay. She is excited about the new move, yet melancholy to be leaving her Kazakh "family" with whom she has lived for over two months.  Her parents and brother are very proud of her, and excited for tales of her next adventures.  We're hoping that her access to the Internet will be better in her new location, so that (selfishly) we will have more contact with her!  She actually has a swearing-in ceremony this Saturday, May 14th in Almaty, Kazakhstan, when she becomes an "official" PCV. 

While we wish she was closer, one unanticipated benefit of our new post is that we'll be in the same time zone as Heather, but when she has winter, we'll have summer, and vice versa.