Day Two: Work Begins

Thurs June 15th

Jet lag is a mother. I had a wake-up-tired day. Another Pickering Fellow - Luis - working on his first Foreign Service post scooped me and my housemate up for work. I was shaking my head in respect for Ghana's "Star Beer" - I only had one of them, but add exhaustion to a beer and you wake up tired. After some much needed water, cold Clusters cereal (which we keep in the fridge by the way. Got to keep the dry goods away from ants...so we don't use pantry storage) it was tme to get to business.

I met my co-worker in the Political Section, the Embassy's #2 boss (Deputy Chief of Mission or DCM) and then met some departing Econ Section staff. It seems that I will be double-hatted to help write the Embassy reporting on both Political and Economic issues. Welcome Victor to political nerd heaven. So I get to learn about everything from trade deals, on the Econ side as well as my favorite security issues like police reforms/training. I hope some peacekeeping issues will need my attention too, but I am waiting on word on that stuff from my boss the Political Section Chief.

Oh there will be un-sexy jobs too. I am studying up on cocoa marketing issues for some agriculture reporting that promises to make me yawn. Also, some muckety-muck is visiting from Washington soon, so there will be plenty of schlepping to do to prepare for his meetings, and keep him and his entourage happy and well-staffed. C'est la vie en diplomacie (i do not know french).

The day without internet, and with stacks of files (the size of brittanica encyclopedias) plopped on my desk...was a bit tough. But, I met some iteresting folk.