Semper Ubi Sub Ubi

Friday, January 1, 2021

2020 Year in Review

Well, 2020 has been quite a year. I'm happy it's now 2021 and let's hope for better times. I want to give my sincere condolences to anyone reading this blog who has lost loved ones to the COVID-19 pandemic. May they rest in peace and may their memories be a blessing.

Here is how my 2020 went.

January started out in Siem Reap, Cambodia and then on to Singapore (ahhh, remember when we could just travel when and where we wanted to?)

Blessings from this monk

Clinton, Jamie, Mark, and I at Phnom Kulen water falls

Mark, Sareth (our guide), and me in the Phnom Kulen water falls

Banteay Srei temple

Mark and I in Singapore

Riding around Singapore

Artsy time-lapse blur of Singapore at night

I also turned 51, which I've been told is the new 31 (well, before the pandemic and all)

Gray Frosting?

In February we went to Koh Rong, and island off the southern coast of Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand. We also did a lot of work helping American citizens from the Holland America Westerdam get back to the USA.

4K Beach on Koh Rong

Out and about on Koh Rong

4K Beach on Koh Rong

Near Sok San Beach on Koh Rong

Mark at Phnom Penh Airport

Mark and I helping Holland America to repatriate American citizens from the Westerdam

The last two American citizens from the Westerdam to leave Phnom Penh (they didn't want to go).

And I bought a used Vespa

Ciao Cambodia!

In March we decided to take authorized departure from Phnom Penh to Charleston, South Carolina. It was eerie going through the airports at the end of March

Incheon Airport

The Korean Airlines lounge at Incheon Airport. On our last stop through here in September, 2019, it was packed.

It was even more eerie (eerier?) to be in Charleston with no people out and about

Mother Emanuel Church

King Street downwtown

King Street downtown. On a "normal" April day it would be packed with people.

Washington Square Park

Colonial Lake - normally very busy.

The Mini Bar

April, May, and June were in Charleston. I teleworked and we did a lot of bike riding (we bought used bikes and then donated them to Second Chance Bikes before leaving)

The pool was closed, but the wine was open!

Riding around Lake Moultrie, South Carolina

Riding on the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston.

That was a long ride.

That was a long ride, too.

Between Sullivan's Island and Isle of Palms, South Carolina.

Some beers at the Blind Tiger in Charleston.

Up on the roof for solo Pride Party!

Riding around Kiawah Island.

Dust from the Sahara was blowing in and made for a gorgeous sunset.

Mark in the golden hour glow.

Oh, and this happened

No comment.

In July we made our way back to Phnom Penh - with an unexpected week in San Francisco due to wrong COVID-19 tests and then misplaced results. We finally got it worked out, though.

Masked up from Charleston to Burbank.

Sunset arriving in Burbank.

San Francisco. I guess there are worse places to get stuck waiting on COVID-19 testing.

That's our flight back to Phnom Penh (well, Seoul and then on to Phnom Penh)

August saw us return to Siem Reap and the Angkor temples. We drove and took our bicycles with us. Totally worth it to see more temples at our own pace. I feel very sorry for the tourism industry and the people who rely on it, but I will say it was quite amazing to contrast seeing Angkor Wat from our visit in December, 2019 with hordes of tourists to this one in August, 2020, with nearly nobody around. It was a Cambodian holiday, so there were some Cambodians touring the sights but next to no other tourists around.

Prasat Kravan temple

Pre Rup temple

Neak Poun temple

Prasat Prei

Ta Phrom (the "Tomb Raider" temple)

Srah Srang (royal bathing pool)

Pre Rup temple

Preah Khan north gate

Angkor Thom East Gate

September and October were pretty much just working. I did get promoted, though.

Yay Me!

In November we had an election in the USA

We have Krispy Kreme in Phnom Penh (more than one, too).

And we had a long weekend in Chhlong, Cambodia. You can read my post on it here.

Le Relais de Chhlong

That really is an Irrawaddy River dolphin in the Mekong River. I swear it is.

Riding around Kratie province.

Mark eating something very spicy I think.

Market street in Chhlong, Cambodia.

I planted a community garden plot and it's coming along nicely

Square-foot gardening laid out.

about 2 1/2 weeks on

about one month

just about six weeks

about six weeks

Almost two months. Things grow fast in the tropics.

It was a low-key Christmas and New Year's Eve in December

Looking forward to 2021 - how can we not?!

Om mani padme hum.

Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha Sharanam Ganesha.

I'll leave you with this pavamana mantra for 2021:

असतो मा सद्गमय ।

तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ।

मृत्योर्माऽमृतं गमय ॥

asato mā sadgamaya,

tamaso mā jyotirgamaya,

mṛtyormā'mṛtaṃ gamaya.

From the unreal lead me to the real!

From the darkness lead me to the light!

From death lead me to immortality!

Thursday, December 31, 2020

Chhlong Weekend

In November, we took a Chhlong Weekend. A little over 200 kilometers, or 4 ½ hours, from Phnom Penh, Chhlong sits on the left bank of the Mekong River in Kratié Province. Formerly a regional transportation hub for timber on its way down river, Chhlong is now a quiet, provincial village and the gateway to Kratié Province. It’s main attraction is Le Relais de Chhlong, a hotel and restaurant in a restored French colonial manor.

The original house was completed in 1916 by the Chinese-descended Koy family, who also founded the Chhlong sawmill and rose to prominence in the area under French administration. The same family also built the “Hundred-Pillar House” (now with only 51 pillars, though). After Cambodian Independence, the house was occupied by customs officers but became vacant around 1968. It was subsequently occupied by the Khmer Rouge, who used it as a field hospital, among other uses.

The first restoration began in 2008 and rebuilt the roof and rooms as well as added another building in the same style of the original. Further renovations recreated the ceiling frescos and restored the balconies overlooking the Mekong, as well as added a swimming pool.

We stayed in a two-bedroom suite with a balcony overlooking the pool and river. The main room was well appointed with both French colonial and Cambodian pieces; we didn’t use the second bedroom; however, it had a courtyard view. The bathroom was large, bright, and clean with both a claw-foot tub and a separate, huge shower. The balcony had two chaise-style, teak loungers, perfect with a glass of wine to watch the Mekong flow by.

We brought our bicycles with us since there are hundreds of kilometers of riverside roads and trails along both banks of the Mekong from Chhlong all the way up to Steung Treng and on to the border with Laos (see Mekong Discovery Trail). Our first ride was out of Kratié town, only about 30 kilometers north of Chhlong. We organized a tour with Cambodian Rural Discovery (CRD) Tours in Kratié, which included a guided bike tour (about 40 km, total), a visit to the brick-making area, a private boat to see the Irrawaddy river dolphins, and lunch in a private home. CRD has several different adventure tours, from one to multi-day trips for different activities and levels. Our second ride was around Chhlong along the river roads and paths, down to the provincial border and back (about 36 km, total). We would have ferried across the Mekong to ride the right bank, but the water was high, and ferries were only sporadically running that day.

Le Relais de Chhlong was a welcomed respite after each day of riding. The pool was clean and inviting and the rosé was chilled and refreshing.

Sunday, September 6, 2020

Back in Cambodia!

We made it back to Cambodia! Actually, we've been back for almost two months now but I'm just getting around to blogging.

While I'm grateful for being able to return to the USA during the COVID-19 pandemic, and certainly thankful to everyone at the Embassy and in the Department who made our departure and return go as smoothly as it did, I'm very happy to be back at Post.

A few days after July 4th, we headed out to California to spend a few days with friends before getting our COVID-19 tests and onward flights to Phnom Penh.

One of the few flights out of Charleston International

Masked up...

Arriving Burbank Airport

It didn't quite go as planned. Due to taking the wrong tests and then delayed results of the correct test, we missed our flight to Seoul and were "stranded" in San Francisco for a week. It wasn't horrible. We were able to find testing at Stanford (big THANK YOU to Stanford Health Care for being able to test us with results returned within 48 hours!); we even rented a Tesla to drive to testing and stopped in some beautiful woods on the way back. Test results, return documents, and passports in hand this time we made it out of the USA, through Seoul, and back to Phnom Penh.

Obligatory Gold Gate Bridge photo.

In Redwood Park near Woodside, CA.

Oyster Point in South San Francisco, our home for a week at the lovely Residence Inn.

Ready to depart SFO for ICN!

Everything went smoothly transiting through Seoul. Once back, we were tested again, quarantined in our apartment for 14 days, and then tested a final time.

My view while in quarantine.

Happily, we passed the tests and didn't kill each other during quarantine and were released into the general population.

Post-quarantine rooftop tapas bar.

Out for a nice glass of wine.

We took a night-market food tour

At the Kandal Market.

At the Kandal Market

Street-side rotisserie chicken (roasted chicks up front)

Who's hungry for some frog and tarantula?

Fried bamboo worm - not as bad as you think it would be.

We found a new sky bar with amazing views of Phnom Penh. If you've wondered what the city looks like, here's a birds-eye view.

Looking North

Looking Northeast

Looking East

Looking South

Looking Southwest

I also returned to my sewing projects, yay! I missed them in Charleston. Before leaving way back at the end of March, I dropped of one of my unquilted tops with Mekong Quilts. They finished while I was gone, so I got to pick up the quilt after coming out of quarantine. I'm thrilled with the job they did. I've already dropped off another UFO (unfinished object) with them.

And I've started another project with this adorable fabric line called State to State by Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman Fabrics.

What to do with this panel?

Laying out the blocks.

Making a quilt sandwich.

So happy to be back, for many reasons. It's a season of holidays (Khmer New Year replacement holiday: 3 days; Labor Day; Pchum Ben: 3 days), so I'll update with some of our in-country travel (Siem Reap/Angkor, Kratie, Stung Treng) later.

Oh, and I just found out I got promoted!

Friday, July 3, 2020

Authorized Departure and Questions Answered

Hello from Charleston, South Carolina. Yes, we're still here on authorized departure. Yes, I'm still teleworking for the US Embassy in Phnom Penh. It's been just over three months, but it feels like much longer. We are definitely ready to get back to Cambodia and get on with our assignment there.

We've been laying low, social distancing, self-isolating while in Charleston. Except for some bike riding we haven't done much, really. It most definitely hasn't been any sort of vacation here.

I'll put a few photos below. Before those, though, I'll answer a couple of questions that I get from time to time about the Foreign Service and my job.

What is the difference between the Foreign Service and other federal employment?

The US Foreign Service is just one part of US federal employment. The most common is Civil Service, but there are also the military (Uniformed Service), personal contractors, and third-party contractors.

The US Foreign Service basically has two flavors: Foreign Service Officers, aka Generalists, and Foreign Service Specialists, aka Specialists. Generalists are commissioned officers, meaning that the US Senate confirms their appointments as foreign service officers; Specialists are not commissioned officers, but rather hired under specific hiring authority for each speciality. I am a Foreign Service Financial Management Specialist. Both generalists and specialists are commonly called foreign service officers (though, some don't like specialists being called officers).

Five agencies of the US Government are designated as foreign affairs agencies: Department of State, US Agency for International Development (USAID), Department of Agriculture (Foreign Agricultural Service), Department of Commerce (Foreign Commercial Service), and the US Agency for Global Media (formerly Broadcasting Board of Governors), which includes the Voice of America. These five agencies have foreign service officers.

The main difference, though, is that foreign service officers (generalists and specialists) typically spend the majority of their careers overseas working in US embassies and consulates. There are lots of other differences, like retirement plans, pay scales, home leave, etc.

How does someone join the Foreign Service?

First of all, check out the State Department's careers website at https://careers.state.gov/.

I can speak to the State Department; other agencies will have their own ways to join. In general, there are two paths to join the Foreign Service: as a generalist or as a specialist.

Generalists take the Foreign Service Officer Test, which is usually given three or four times a year across the USA and at some places overseas, too. Those who pass then go through a qualifications round. Those who pass this round will be invited to participate in an in-person evaluation called the Oral Assessment. Those who make it past this will go through background investigations, security clearance, and suitability review. After all this, candidates are placed on a register for up to 18 months to wait for new positions to open. If an orientation class is called, those on the register will be invited in rank order to join. Candidates can defer once; if they are not called within 18 months of coming on to the register they time out and must start the process from the beginning. Anyone who doesn't pass any part of the process above can try again, but must wait a year from when they took the FSOT to try again.

Specialists respond to specific job announcements, like those here: https://careers.state.gov/work/available-jobs/. Job applicants will be evaluated for minimum qualifications and those that pass will move to a Qualifications Evaluation Panel review. Those who pass this round will be invited to an Oral Assessment for their speciality and then the process proceeds as above: investigations, clearances, suitability, register, etc. Those who don't pass will need to wait until the next job announcement comes out for their speciality to try again.

Both paths are long and competitive and candidates are advised not to quit their current jobs or make life altering plans until actually offered a position. It took me two years from applying to the job announcement to my first day or orientation.

How do you know where you will be assigned?

For generalists and specialists the first two assignments are designated - they are chosen by human resources, based on the needs of the Department, with some input by the new officers. Generalists also have the requirement that one of their first two tours will be in a consular role.

For subsequent tours there is a bidding process. This usually happens in the last year of an assignment. There is a system that shows which positions in which embassies or consulates will be available. Officers identify potential assignments and then start lobbying. After the lobbying period, officers place bids on specific assignments, interviewing starts, and then offers are made, called handshakes. These offers are then confirmed back in Washington, DC and announced at the end of the process.

That's the simple version. In reality is can be more complex. Networks and reputation, called "corridor rep", is important to securing an assignment you really want. Some officers play the game well and others just see what happens. I've been through the process once, so far, and got my first choice. I'll bid in the summer of 2021 for transfer in 2022. We'll see how that goes.

Feel free to ask other questions in the comments box and I'll try to answer if I can.

Now...how I spent my ~~summer~~ authorized departure.