Washington is very hot and humid right now, but coming from Singapore I am not too uncomfortable.  Speaking of Singapore – I miss the food

Megan finished her Anti-Terrorism Driving Course last week, and we both will be in our Iraq Familiarization course later in the month.  Right now I am taking come computer courses while Megan is taking some leadership training classes.

I got my #1 choice – Islamabad, Pakistan!  I am scheduled to depart here October 6th. Woohoo!

The flight from Washington is over 14 hours, so I am entitled to a rest stop.  The original itinerary they gave had me flying to Kuwait and then on to Islamabad with just a plane change. I went down to the travel office and said that I would like a rest stop. The travel tech asked, “Where do you want to stay”? I never thought I had a choice..  I thought I’d have to stay in whatever city I was scheduled to pass through.  So I said, “How about “London”? He said, “Sure, no problem. I found out I could also have stayed in Paris, Frankfurt, Istanbul, or Dubai, but London will be very nice.  I really love that city, and the rest will do me a lot of good after the long training.  He then booked me a night in a nice 4-star hotel, at government expense. Sweet!

I emailed my future office-mate and told her that I was flying in on Sunday.  She wrote back and said that Sunday is their only day off – so if I don’t mind would I please stay another night in London?  Oh yah!  That would be excellent!  I immediately called the travel office, changed my tickets, and booked another night in the hotel!  Sweet!

Now I still have OMS training here at FSI – plus the Foreign Affairs Counter Terrorism course.  Adding in some leave and I do not depart for Pakistan until October.

• Islamabad, Pakistan
• Bogata, Columbia (Narcotics)
• Beijing, China
• Vienna, Austria (United Nations Affairs)
• Montevideo, Uruguay
• London, England
• Hanoi, Vietnam
• Berlin, Germany
• Belgrad, Serbia
• Caracas, Venezuela
• Guatemala, Guatemala
• Jakarta, Indonesia
• Nairobi, Kenya
• Panama City, Panama
• Yaounde, Cameroon

All are all two-year assignments with the exception of Islamabad, which is one. I placed Islamabad at the top because Megan is on the way to Fiji for 3 years – and there is no way I can join her there. The small Embassy in Suva is just too small, so there are no additional office managers there except Megan. So, we’ll be apart for at least three years, but visiting each other a couple of times a year will help. Islamabad is the only assignment in that list that is only 1 year long. Most of our directed assignments are two years long – so unless I take a 1-year post like Islamabad, I would be away from Megan for 4 years! My next assignment (after Islamabad) would be a 2 year tour, so when combined with the 1 year in Pakistan that would bring my assignment rotation equal to Megan’s and then we will be able to go on our future assignments together. Also, since I would be coming off a hardship assignment I would get priority on choosing my next assignment – so I should have a better chance of getting a posting closer to Fiji.

I also would not mind the extra money from the incentive pay that Pakistan offers. This would be an extra 20% of my base pay for something called Hardship Differential (due to the extra hardship of living in a third world country), and an extra 35% of pay for Danger. Danger Pay is given at posts where there is an increased threat to our lives. So together, I would get a 55% pay increase for this year – enough to pay off some depts! Also, Islamabad is very busy with the “War on Terror”, so I will be working a lot of overtime, which will also help pass the time, while making the extra overtime pay.  By the way – i hate that term, “War on Terror”.   The sad truth is that many still believe that we can wage a “war” on the “acts” of terrorism.  You can not militarily defeat an act. You can, however, influence people that doing such acts will not help their cause.  The problem is that you can only influence those who are NOT terrorists already.  You will not change the mind of someone who has already accepted their own death for a cause. You must change the minds of those who have not yet been converted to find a less violent way to self fulfillment.  Killing their brother or mother, or any of their extended family only converts them to terrorism faster!.

Anyway, back to the story.  Islamabad is only 1 year long and would receive 2 R&R’s (vacations). I describe R&R in the “What is the Foreign Service” page, but just to refresh it is free travel to either the designated R&R point for this assignment (London in this instance), the 50 USA states, its territories, or anyplace with an equivalent airfare as a flight to the R&R point (London). From Pakistan I would probably be able to fly to Fiji for the same cost as a flight to London.

So I submitted this list as above – and now have to wait an agonizing 3 weeks before I know what the outcome will be. The good news is that no-one in my class wants Pakistan, so I stand a really good chance of getting it!