In Which I Invite You To Get Up In My Bidness

Time for tour #2 bidding time!

Bidding on a new post is no one’s favorite part of Foreign Service. This is likely not my last time visiting the topic: the tour #2 process was different than tour #1 and different still will be the process for all subsequent tours. WARNING: this is #deepdive and #howthesausagegetsmade. Skip it unless you really want to understand why I still haven’t listed Barbados as my top choice.

The first time I bid, my class of 21 received a list of 21 posts. We had to rank them all, knowing there was one for each. This time around it was different, with a list of 42 posts, of which I had to pick my top 25. I wasn’t sure how many of us there were since this list was presented both to my class and the class before us. 

If I had to use the list to pick my top potential vacation spots here’s how I would have ranked things: 

1. Tbilisi, Georgia
2. Antananarivo, Madagascar
3. Kyiv, Ukraine
4. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
5. Nairobi, Kenya
6. Tokyo, Japan
7. Seoul, Korea
8. Santiago, Chile
9. Helsinki, Finland
10. Panama City, Panama
11. Wellington, New Zealand
12. Brussels, Belgium
13. Bridgetown, Barbados
14. Baku, Azerbaijan
15. New Delhi, India
16. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
17. Kingston, Jamaica 

But picking a vacation destination is different than picking where to live. Does Ulaanbaatar have enough to keep me busy for two whole years? Could I afford to live in Tokyo? Would I go stir crazy on an island? What creature comforts are unavailable in Dar es Salaam?

If I was only looking at where I would I want to live for two years, my list looks more like this:

1. Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina
2. Helsinki, Finland
3. Tbilisi, Georgia
4. Prague, Czech Republic
5. Brussels, Belgium
6. Kyiv, Ukraine
7. Santiago, Chile
8. Seoul, Korea
9. Panama City, Panama
10. Baku, Azerbaijan
11. Moscow, Russia
12. Wellington, New Zealand
13. Tokyo, Japan
14. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
15. Managua, Nicaragua
16. Bridgetown, Barbados
17. Kingston, Jamaica

Now, while bidding is about where you want to live for two years, it’s not just about that. Other considerations to take into account:

Timing: When is the post vacant? Some posts need someone in June of 2020. Those posts are better for the class before mine since most of us are scheduled to depart in October 2020. There’s maybe one month of wiggle room but I can’t leave six months early or arrive three months late. And if the post requires a language…

Do you want to learn a language? Some posts require language proficiency. Foreign Service Officers get language classes at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) automatically. Some specialists (med folks and techie folks) get ZERO language. Some, like OMSes, aren’t required to have language but can get training in some circumstances, time allowing. Career-wise it helps to have a language but the “time allowing” is tricky. If you have the Spanish proficiency of a toddler, are leaving post in May and need mid-level Spanish for a job that starts in December, that’s probably enough time to get your proficiency where it needs to be. But if you are leaving in October, probably not. You need to find a position that asks for language and allows for enough time to get it.

Career Moves: In your first two tours you should try to get as much diversity of experience as possible so when that sweet post in the Iceland embassy comes up in HR, but you haven’t worked in HR, you’re in a stronger position to say “but I can work in any office.” If you have two tours in a row with the regional security office (RSO), they might think all you can do is make badges. Also, a policy called Fair Share requires you to serve at a post rated at least 20% hardship every few tours. 

Money and other perks: Danger pay, hardship pay (somewhat euphemistically called “post differential”), COLA, and language incentive pay (select languages only) all combine to make up your final paycheck. If you just want to make a lot of money…well you probably shouldn’t be working for the government. But if you pick a really hard post you could perhaps get an extra 30% in hardship and 35% in danger pay. The really hard posts are often shorter (one year as opposed to two) and usually come with two or three R&R plane tickets. My current post in Almaty gives me 15% differential pay and one R&R. Helsinki gives no R&Rs and no differential pay but does give a 25% COLA because it’s expensive there.

People with more complicated lives than mine also need to factor in spouses and children and even pets. Danger pay posts often require you to leave the spouse and kids and Fluffy at home. If the international school only goes through 7th grade you better be comfortable sending your teen off to boarding school. If your spouse or child has a medical issue, can it be managed at post? One of my colleagues said that medical issues took their list from 42 possibilities to 14. Are you a same sex couple? Some countries won’t accredit same sex spouses. I’ve also heard that people with all the above considerations have these things considered in their assignments and then…the singles get the leavings. 

When I got my list I was still in Moscow. Obviously my friend Ana and I put our heads together as she’s bidding from the same list. We combed websites like TalesMag and various Facebook groups for info. By the time I landed in Dushanbe I’d pretty much exhausted these sites and was ready to sit down at the State Department intranet and head down even deeper rabbit holes, exploring specific housing info, internet availability, and “personal post insights.”

Finally, here’s how I made my list:

I started with non-RSO (diversity of experience) that provided language opportunities.

I mostly wanted to expand my options for future posts. I am not great with languages but Spanish is my best bet—no incentive pay but I have a basic start, learning some when I was younger and my brain was more absorbent, and Spanish uses the Latin alphabet unlike my other starter languages, Arabic and Russian. There were several posts with Mandarin training but I thought that might break my brain and Mandarin is only useful in one country. 

Bummer, of five Spanish speaking posts, two are in RSO and four require a start date in the Oct-Dec time frame. If I leave my own post in October and take my required 20 working days of home leave (congressionally mandated!), I couldn’t obtain the level of Spanish they need in the required time frame. So while I could bid on those, I ranked them low because my Career Development Officer didn’t want to see me bidding high on unrealistic posts. But there was one Spanish speaking post—Managua—that is not another RSO post and, with a March 2021 start date, would give me time to get my Spanish up to par. Since Nicaragua has had some upheavals lately, it’s also pretty high on differential pay. Ticks all boxes.

Next up were Tbilisi and Moscow. Both are non-RSO posts and while there was no time for language training at FSI, the Russian I have already been working on would be handy in both cities (more so in Moscow) and I could continue lessons at post. Tbilisi ticks the timing box and most of the career consideration box. It’s only 15% hardship pay which is the same as Almaty so I’d need to start considering a more difficult “Fair Share” bid for my next post but at least I wouldn’t be taking a pay cut. Tbilisi was the most “the heart wants what the heart wants” of my bids, but many of my co-bidders felt the same.

Moscow added a tick box with 20% hardship (due to issues with the frosty Russian-American relationship, not for things like non-potable water) but it rated just a little lower because my heart wanted it less. 

I rounded out the top five with Prague and Brussels. While these offered neither language opportunities nor hardship pay, they were non-RSO positions with good timing and seemed like lovely places to live for two years although I’d go broke with spending on weekend mini-breaks. 

The rest of the list—a mix of all the considerations listed above including the possibility of boosting Arabic with at-post language lessons, starting from scratch by taking six-months of Mandarin, my heart wanting what it wants even if it means working in another RSO office in the land of the midnight sun—looked like this:

6. Seoul, Korea
7. Guangzhou, China
8. Bridgetown, Barbados
9. Helsinki, Finland
10. Khartoum, Sudan
11. Beijing, China
12. Algiers, Algeria
13. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
14. Nairobi, Kenya
15. Kyiv, Ukraine
16. Panama City, Panama
17. Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina
18. Santiago, Chile
19. Antananarivo, Madagascar
20. Manama, Bahrain
21. Baku, Azerbaijan
22. Baghdad, Iraq
23. New Delhi, India
24. Wellington, New Zealand
25. Tegucigalpa, Honduras

In my 250 word narrative I mentioned that former SSRs, YSRs, and Spanish-speaking posts would rank higher if the timing was better. Just in case there was wiggle room…

I submitted my list less confidently than last time, where I thought I had at least a 50/50 shot at my top choice of Kazakhstan. But as my classmates and I shared stories of who bid on what, and no one was listing Nicaragua, I started making plans for being in Central America. True, I didn’t know what the class before me was bidding but surely it was safe to start making plans for a lighter weight wardrobe and side trips to Panama City and Costa Rica? 

The assignments came in. Many of my classmates got their first choice. I got…Guangzhou. 

 

I’m kind of still in shock. I am trying to be positive about it and after all, it WAS in my top ten, but it’s hard to see all the emails flying around about the people who got their top choice when I got my seventh.

But “going wherever I am needed” is what I signed up for and I have until June 2021 to get used to the idea. I guess I better start. 

Monday, Monday

My room with a view (of the world’s largest teahouse)

I love a TDY (temporary duty). You get to explore a new place and frankly, unless you are splurging on the finest horsesteak for every dinner, you can tuck away some of that authorized per diem for a rainy day. Or pay off your AMEX from the trip you just took. My first TDY, to Astana, came right on the heels of my trip to Morocco. This time I went straight to Dushanbe after returning from Moscow. TDYs, my credit rating thanks you.

I am lucky that my supervisor, who knows I yearn to see as much of Central Asia as I can in the all too short (it’s starting to feel) time I am here, generously lets me take advantage of opportunities like the call for someone to assist the front office of Embassy Dushanbe for two weeks.

What is Dushanbe? It’s the capital of Tajikistan and it means “Monday” in Tajik, because it was once not so much a town as simply the sight of a weekly market on…maybe you can guess which day of the week?

Tajikistan is a jigsaw puzzle piece of a country, 90% mountains, bordering China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan. It’s that last one that leads to a slightly increased security posture for U.S. Government personnel in Tajikistan vs. Kazakhstan.

Tourists, if they come at all, come in order to leave, immediately taking off into the mountains. Sadly, I wasn’t in country long enough to head that way myself but I did do some serious urban trekking. The taxi app I know and love from Kazakhstan and Russia hasn’t made it to Tajikistan and there’s nothing like the paralyzing fear of speaking Russian to a taxi driver to force a person out onto their own two feet.

The closest I got to Tajikistan’s mountains was in flying over them

In Almaty they told me Dushanbe is like Almaty but a decade or two or five ago. I can see it. There are older soviet buildings, many of which are being (rashly?) bulldozed to make room for newer buildings similar in look to those in Almaty. The new buildings aren’t quite so tall or fancy as Almaty’s though—Kazakhstan and Tajikistan are on absolute opposite ends of the scale when it comes to Central Asian economies.

Dushanbe is low on specific sights, unless the world’s second tallest flagpole is your thing, but I nonetheless found things to enjoy. The city is filled with flowers and fountains and tea houses and green spaces.

Dushanbe had the world’s tallest flagpole from 2011-2014, until the Saudis did them one better.

Flowers and Mountains

I could have tried harder to hit up a museum, but when the one I was interested in was closed, I didn’t try again. My experience with museums in Central Asia is that they can be hit or miss. Besides, I really just want to see all that soviet art and architecture. Free of charge, although sometimes in heartbreaking stages of disrepair and increasingly endangered. (Tip if you actually visit Dushanbe: the south end of Abuali Ibn Sino Avenue has some of the best stuff).

Woman, holding cotton aloft

Justice Center reflected in a newer building

Lady Justice

Puppet theater

Avicenna Mosaic

Dushanbe Culture House

The main boulevard through downtown is pleasant and tree-lined and hosts a few decent souvenir shops. I am a sucker for textiles so I picked up two basic Suzani embroidery pieces.

Rudaki Avenue

If cities are any indication, Tajikistan is a much more obviously Muslim country than Kazakhstan. In Almaty I never noticed restaurants closed for lunch because of Ramadan. Tajikistan is a different story. And guess who got an extra holiday because she was in Tajikistan, not Kazakhstan, for Eid al-Fitr? On a scale of Kazakhstan to Morocco in religious observances, my impression is that Tajikistan is in the middle. In addition to Ramadan observances, I saw far more women wearing headscarves in Dushanbe than Almaty, albeit in a very casual manner, often leaving their neck and even a lot of hair exposed.

Based on my limited observations the people of Tajikistan also look and dress quite differently from those in Kazakhstan. Ethnic Kazakhs are considered Turkic, and look more east Asian, while Tajiks are more Iranian/Persian. In Almaty and Astana everyone dresses in a very western style, excepting on holidays that might call for busting out traditional costumes. Not so in Dushanbe where most of the women I saw on the street wore a salwar kameez set of matching pants and top. The most traditional fabrics are called atlas or adras (depending on if it is all silk or a combo of cotton and silk) and you can go crazy shopping for fabric in Dushanbe.

The men were far more likely to be in “western” costume but I saw many older men sporting traditional skull caps, as seen on one of my new best friends, whom I met in a cafe when searching out Kurutob/Qurutob, Tajikistan’s National Dish.

Qurutob is a filling vegetarian option made with bread topped with a sauce made of those hardened salt cheese balls that they love so much in Central Asia, made far more palatable with the addition of some fresh veggies.

The Tajik connection to Persia can be felt throughout the city. Based on the soviet era teahouses and statuary, that connection doesn’t seem to have been completely discouraged during USSR times, although during that time the city was renamed Stalinabad and the main street was Lenina. Post-independence, as Tajikistan has looked to establish a distinct and non-soviet national identity, they have adopted a 10th century monarch and a 9th/10th century poet as the primary symbols of the country. So the currency is the Somoni and the main street is now Rudaki and both men have significant monuments around town. The push and pull between old and new is fascinating.

Post independence Ismoil Somoni Arch

Ismail Somoni Vodka

The soviet era Wall of Great Tajik Writers features Rudaki front and center

The Rudaki Arch in Rudaki Park off of Rudaki Avenue replaced a monument to Lenin in Lenin Park off Lenina Avenue

Soviet era Rohat teahouse

Inside the open air Rohat teahouse

Luncheon companion

Post independence Tea House and park

In the distance: soon to be the largest mosque in Central Asia

Qatar has provided much of the funding for this mosque

Mehrgon Market is the newer alternative to the now closed soviet era Green Bazaar

Inside Mehrgon Market

Bread vendors Inside Mehrgon Market

Will I ever get to come back to Dushanbe? Or explore more of Tajikistan? I hope so, but time is starting to feel so limited! At least I got my two weeks of Monday.

Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Moscow

As a child of the cold war (circa 99 Red Balloons not The Manchurian Candidate) I can’t help but be a little intimated by Moscow. Should I be? Well, they make it hard to get to, tickets to the top sights can be complicated, lots of the best sights don’t allow any pictures and are filled with menacing security guards enforcing those rules, and if you don’t pay attention to the regulations around your visa, watch out! (Hey American tourists–think about the poor American embassy personnel who have to deal with your f*!k-ups at 3:00 am and pay attention to visa regulations!)

Even when the embassy is closed, a staff member is always on call to help American citizens in distress. Here’s Ana at the Moscow Four Seasons filling out paperwork for two women who overstayed their visas. (We were en route to Lenin’s Tomb and the Four Seasons was the closest open establishment that could provide us with a table and a pen. And a $10 cup of coffee.)

But not a single towering Russian told me they must break me and with some advance planning and a metro map (Yandex app!) Moscow is pretty awesome.

My first stop was the Kremlin. What exactly is the Kremlin? I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know. You hear “the Kremlin” and know it means the government just like “the White House” does. But what is it? if you’d asked me a few months ago, I maybe would have said, “Hmmm…I know the square with St. Basil’s in it is Red Square. Are they the same thing?”

For all who already knew, good on you. For anyone like me who has lived their life in ignorance…

“Kremlin” means walled fortress. The Moscow Kremlin, containing several cathedrals and palaces used by the Tsars, is only the most famous of many Russian Kremlins.

Troitskaya Tower entrance into the Kremlin

After Lenin moved the capital back to Moscow he decided to live in the complex, as did Stalin. Today the Grand Kremlin Palace is the official state residence of the president. With all those Tsars and Soviet heads of state within the walls, “the Kremlin” became a synonym for the seat of the government à la “the White House”

Sadly, you can’t visit the Grand Kremlin Palace without special permission but the cathedrals and Armoury Museum, which houses loads of Russian treasure, are open for visitors.

One can, and I did, buy advance tickets for Armoury and cathedrals. Only on site can you buy an add-on ticket to see the Diamond Fund, aka the Russian crown jewels. If they are not sold out. They were. Sigh. You may also want a ticket to go up into the Ivan the Great bell tower; those tickets are only available 45 minutes before a timed tour and require leaving the main complex, purchasing a ticket, and then re-entering. They clearly don’t want anyone to get that ticket. I didn’t.

NO PICTURES ALLOWED inside the heavily frescoed cathedrals and the Armoury so you’ll have to imagine my bewildered delight at seeing the Fabergé egg with a miniature trans-Siberian express inside where the train is made of gold and platinum and has diamonds for headlights. Rich people find some seriously weird ways to spend their money.

Right outside the Kremlin walls is Red Square with the iconic St. Basil’s cathedral and Lenin’s mausoleum where, against his wishes, the founder of the Soviet state remains embalmed and on display. My friend Ana, who grew up under Tito’s communism, was game for queuing up to see the morbid comrade. While I made fun of myself for wanting to see this, and I do think it’s creepy, I can honestly report that it’s very well done and feels quite respectful.

It’s free to go in, although lines are long. No photos are allowed inside the mausoleum but in the area immediately outside you can take pictures. They let maybe 20 people in at a time and while that does slow the line it also means you never feel like you are in a throng of other tourists jockeying for selfie space. Instead, from the approach, you get amazing views of Red Square while removed from the crowds.

Inside is very basic. Lenin lies in a dark and cold room and he looks like a mannequin. He’s dressed in a suit and is shorter than I pictured but that may be an illusion as a blanket covers his legs. I stood in some wonder: this is the Vladimir Lenin. Security guards make sure you stay respectful and don’t take pictures. On the way out you pass the outer wall of the Kremlin, lined with the graves of other Soviet leaders.

Resurrection Gate Entrance to Red Square

Comrade Lenin

State Historical Museum

Tombs of other Soviet leaders

GUM, the former Soviet State Department Store

Best view, just slightly removed from the crowds

Main take away: this is the set up I want after I die.

St. Basil’s does allow pictures, as does the nearby Chambers of the Romanov Boyars museum, a house where the Romanovs lived and they think the first Romanov Tsar was born in 1596.

The actual St. Basil/Vasily the Blessed liked to walk around nekkid

Iconostasis inside St. Basil’s

Inside St. Basil’s

Inside St. Basil’s

Chambers of the Romanov Boyars

Women’s Quarters, Chambers of the Romanov Boyars

Dining Room, Chambers of the Romanov Boyars

For whatever reason, when I think of Baroque architecture I don’t think of Moscow. Yet I walked through the streets around Red Square and if I’d been beamed directly into them without knowing where I was, I would have guessed Vienna.

Baroque (Rococo?) Moscow

It wasn’t all dead communists and churches. Moscow has some lovely leisure spaces. The most famous is Gorky park but I also stopped by Izmailovsky, a lunatic flea market/theme park, and ВДНХ (VDNKh), a Soviet-era fairground that mixes green space and fountains and cosmonaut statues and ornate pavilions dedicated to all the different SSRs. Kazakhstan’s was quite nice.

Gorky Park Main Entrance

Izmailovsky

Izmailovsky

ВДНХ entrance

House of Russian People

Ukraine Pavilion

The Peoples Friendship Fountain: golden women represent the SSRs. Kazakhstan is the middle, flanked by Belarus and Azerbaijan.

Worker and Kolkhoz Woman

Kazakhstan Pavilion

Azerbaijan pavilion

Kazakhstan Pavilion

My boyfriend, Yuri Gagarin

Valentina Tereshkova, first woman in space

Monument to the Conquerors of Space

All the scene changes meant I extensively rode the rails of Moscow’s wildly convenient and efficient metro. Never run for a train. Another one is coming in three minutes max. It’s the most impressive public transportation system I’ve ever encountered, and the most aesthetically pleasing.

Svetlana Ames, Soviet Student Nurse?

Belorusskaya Station

Mayakovskaya

Prospekt Mira

Komsomolskaya Metro Station

Ploschad Revolutzii

Ploschad Revolutzii

Kiyevskaya

Ploschad Revolutzii

Novoslobodskaya Station

Belorusskaya Station

Lenin on the ceiling of Komsomolskaya Metro

Mayakovskaya Station

Komsomolskaya Metro Station

Kiyevskaya

My quick trip left me interested in, and not scared of, coming back. Courtesy of the invitation from the U.S. Embassy, my visa is good for 3-years. OR…I could move there? On that Friday our second tour bid list came out. Ana and I spent the rest of the weekend obsessing over the options presented. More later about bidding but for a bunch of reasons, Moscow is high on my list.