In February, the weather in Islamabad was quite chilly in the mornings, but warmed up nicely by afternoon.  My garden was doing well, and I had continued harvest of broccoli, cauliflower, radishes and lettuce.  At work, I was now quite comfortable with my job, and my partner headed back to the USA on R&R.

R&R stands for Rest and Recuperation, and it is a Foreign Service benefit to offer us a chance to get away from stressful posts.  Many (indeed most) Foreign Service assignments offer R&R.  The more stressful, dangerous, isolated, or uncomfortable a post is, the more frequent we get an R&R.  For example, in isolated Fiji my wife Megan is entitled to one R&R during her 3 year tour.  In Pakistan (as in Iraq and Afghanistan) we get 2 per year.  My next post, Singapore, gets none, which indicates how comfortable that assignment is.

Those posts that get an R&R have a designated “R&R point”, and the State Department pays the airfare for a member (and his dependent family) to that point.  Those have family members back in the USA, could have those members flown to the R&R point, which was a wonderful benefit.

The R&R point is a large city that offers a comfortable place to relax.  For example, from Fiji the R&R point is Sydney, Australia.  From Pakistan it was London, England.  Alternatively, we can choose any U.S. State or U.S. Territory.  During our assignment in Poland, who’s R&R point is Rome, we instead choose Miami, Florida.  Another option, is to choose a point that is neither our R&R point or a U.S. State/Territory and the State Department will up to the cost of a flight to the R&R point.  For example, if the cost of a flight to London (full fare) from Pakistan is $2,800, then we could probably go anywhere else in the world, as the Government would pay $2,800 of the ticket!  For Megan, who’s R&R is Sydney, the cost is only $600, so she is quite limited as to where she can go from Fiji.  For this reason, we’ll probably do our R&R back to the USA.

My co-worker went on R&R back to her home state of Florida, and so I ended up running the office alone.  It was not too bad, and offered me a chance to learn many of the duties that she alone had been responsible for.  I needed this experience as I will be the sole Office Manager when I get to Singapore.

The day to day life in Islamabad remained unchanged.   My daily routine consists of taking an armored vehicle to work, working 12-14 hours, and then heading home in time to watch an hour’s worth of TV before heading to bed.  With my co-worker gone, I worked 7 days a week.  Exhausting, but I really can use the overtime, which approached 30 additional hours a pay period.  My paycheck is now triple what it was in Washington – but almost all of it was being used for our daughter’s college tuition.

I will take my first R&R at the end of March.  Until then, life drags on here in Islamabad.