From Barbados to America

Animals - around the house, on the streets

2008-08-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in New York anymore!

Gecko chilling on the leg of my couch.

Another lizard, looks more like a crocodile type. It's one of those lizards that can ditch it's tail, and it's around a foot long.

This gigantic whistling frog was chilling on my steps. A cat ate him later. Yum. If I was in France it would be haute cuisine. Instead, it's a dead frog on my steps.

My archnemesis, the sea turtle. They come ashore to lay eggs. The beach near the Hilton is the best place to spot them. You use a red flashlight (so that you don't scare 'em) and look for turtle tracks in the sand. They look like tire tracks. Once they start laying, they enter a trance and you can walk right up to them and take pictures.

There are pigeons. They're brown and they fly up to my window at work all the time.

But no squirrels. Monkeys instead.

And baby sea turtles. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures but I rescued 150 on one occasion (I was playing tennis, they start crawling across the court, confused by the lights, I put them in a big box and dump them in the sea). Since 1 in 1000 survive to adulthood, I actually saved 0.15 adult turtles. Go Go Biodiversity!

T minus nine days

2008-08-21T15:54:00.000-07:00

My days in Barbados are numbered - nine, to be exact. Five more days of work.

I've done everything that I've wanted to do here (including rescuing baby sea turtles) and some things I didn't (like getting bit by a big scary adult sea turtle), so only one thing remains. That, of course, is to get my drink onnnn.

Well, I guess that's not the only thing. It would be nice to say goodbye to everyone, make use of the sun, put myself further in debt, and post stuff on the blog that I haven't had a chance to yet.

Q: What do you do on a four day weekend in Barbados when a dear friend is visiting?

2008-08-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

Do: Go on a catamaran cruise. These sailboats find great spots to snorkel with sea turtles, dive into shipwrecks, and relax on the beach.

Hard to Do: Look good snorkeling

Do: Bring your hermanas Kimberly and Ladan.

Don't: Get your fingers bit by a sea turtle, fall down on your face and bust your lip, or get sunburned.

Perhaps Do: Visit Harrison's cave.

Do: Go to the beach and take lots of cliff pictures. Suck in your stomach.

Do: Explore the east coast and the sugar cane plantations.

Don't: Get lost. This is virtually impossible when all maps are inaccurate and not to scale, there are no road signs, and when the guy you invited just so he can drive you around doesn't know a single road on the island. Take taxis.

Do: Show off the beautiful embassy where you work!

Today was a Good Day :)

2008-07-24T16:30:00.000-07:00

LIZ IS COMING! I booked her ticket for her today. The dates correspond to a four-day weekend. Bajans have a lot of national holidays.

Slept until 7:30, after having had to wake up at 6:00 in order to catch a ride with a consular officer for the past two weeks. Kimberly and I slept over at Rick's because the alarm in our house was beeping uncontrollably, making peaceful sleep impossible. It felt good to sleep in my old bed again with high-thread count sheets and an AC that could cool the room to a chilly 18 C.

Finally getting in on the political work! I had my second meeting of the week as I followed Rick to meet Patent and Trade officials for lunch.

Also, I biked all the way up the hill that my house is on without having to get off and walk! These minor things are the personal accomplishments one takes pride in when nothing of real significance happens at work, because after all, this is the Caribbean, and I am not held to any expectations or standards of excellence at work. The mere impression of busyness is sufficient to please my boss.

Life in Barbados is progressing nicely.

My Life in Barbados: Phase 1 - St. Lawrence Gap

2008-07-16T20:02:00.000-07:00

While the word 'awesome' is an apt characterization of my experience in Barbados thus far, I think it fails to express the multitude of emotions involved in an 'awesome' experience. To date, my blog has expressed snippets of particularly fun and memorable experiences, but the big picture is lacking. The first thirty days have been a whirlwind of traveling, learning, working, meeting people, and having fun. I think my experience can best be described in phases, and the first phase I'm going to call the "St. Lawrence Gap Phase."

The St. Lawrence Gap is a one mile stretch of road along the southern coast of Barbados that is the main tourist destination on the island, with plentiful hotels, restaurants, bars, and clubs. I decided that it would be nice to arrive a week before work started and live. I made arrangements to arrive in "the Gap," as it's called.

The 'awesome' part of this week was the feeling of discovery involved in exploring a new country and experiencing the carefree and whimsical nature of travel. Traveling alone can be fun. You meet many interesting people, and you have the alone time necessary to process all the information you're picking up in the foreign place.

But being alone quickly gets lonesome. Luckily, I stayed in a cool guesthouse on the main road of the Gap. It's a small cottage with four rooms and a common living and dining area. It had no air conditioning, the fan didn't work and I had to use a mosquito net at night (which I learned the hard way), but I had a great experience hanging out with the people there. There were Manon and Yunel, a French speaking couple from the island Martinique, Ali and Nellie, a young Austrailian couple who had traveled the world all over, Karan and Andrea, Germans who spoke no English, and Rod, an awkward Scottish guy who'd come to Barbados all by himself to watch Cricket matches. It was like being in a nice hostel. I only paid $30 a night.

The cottage. Just 100m from the beach.

One stretch of the Gap right in front of my house.

Rod.

Me and Yunel. We would always go across the street to my favorite bar - the Southern Palms Beach Club. It is right on the beach, always empty because it's the off-peak tourism season, and has a killer two-for-one happy hour for cocktails. Hence we each have two fruity drinks.

Yunel and Manon offered to take me on a taxi-tour of the island, and Nellie and Ali asked me to join them on a catamaran cruise. However, I elected to explore the capital city, Bridgetown and the nearly town of Oistins

Bridgetown is beautiful in its pictures in Wikipedia. Wikipedia also makes Bridgetown sound like a sprawling metropolis. It is neither beautiful nor sprawling. There wasn't much shopping either, besides jewelry. The best shopping is to be found in strip malls, which I learned later after befriending people with cars.

The harbor in Bridgetown is pretty. All the Wikipedia pictures are of the harbor, of course.

The rest of Bridgetown looks more derelict.

The town of Oistins, meanwhile, isn't really a town, but merely a continuation of the highway that runs along the south coast, with buildings on either side. The highway isn't actually a highway but a narrow two-lane road with aggressive bus drivers. I tried jogging along this road every morning from the Gap to Oistins but stopped after a couple of tries because I feared for my life.

The main attraction in Oistins is the fish fry, where each Friday dozens of vendors gather in a picnic area and fry lots and lots of local fish and serve it with local side dishes, beer, and rum. The local fish would be snapper, kingfish, mahi mahi, marlin, and flying fish. The local beer is Banks, and the local rum Mount Gay Rum. These are served with such staples of Bajan cuisine such as yam pie and macaroni pie.

I had a plate of each fish besides flying fish and several Banks, and it only cost about $30 USD. When you go to these things by yourself, there isn't much to do besides to keep eating until you can eat no more.

And that is my first week in Barbados in a nutshell. I took it frugal - no long trips, taxis, or expensive watersports. I spent a lot of time watching Euro 2008 and walking around the Gap with my laptop trying to discover a mysterious source of wifi. These are good things because I dropped some serious coin on food, drinks, and activities in the following weeks. By the next Monday when I reported to the Embassy for my first day of work, my face and shoulders were fried, my liver needed a break, and I was almost sick of the beach. I was ready to sit at a desk from 9 to 5.

Grenada! Part II - The Election

2008-07-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

The two days of vacation described in the previous post sandwiched two days of grueling election work. Here's what happened in a nutshell. Actually, it's pretty long so if you're not a nerd like me and you don't like politics you can just look at the pretty pictures.

The Politics of Grenada

I would describe the Grenadian election as the meeting of high school politics, British politics, and soccer. Because the population of the country is around 100,000 every vote counts. Virtually every voting-age citizen registered to vote and many ex-pats had returned just to vote. Grenada has what is known as a Westminster Parliamentary System (the British model) where the country is drawn up into different constinuencies and each constituency votes one person into Parliament. The leader of the majority party is then made Prime Minister, and he then appoints a Cabinet that constitutes another House in Parliament equal in power to the elected one. The country has 15 constituencies, and in the last election in 2003 the ruling party won a narrow 8-7 majority in Parliament. The vote in one of the constituencies, the distant islands of Carriacou and Petit Martinique, came down to a six votes. This extremely narrow margin of victory of course caused much bitterness and allegations of corruption (though none was noted by international observers). Thus, the buildup of tensions between the two parties, the winner take all system, and the uncertainty about who would win led the current election to be called'The Mother of All Elections.'

Grenada has a very tumultuous recent history and its politics are very polarized. Did you know that the US invaded Grenada in 1983? Some call it an act of hegemonism, but the US overthrew the Marxist military government and restored democracy, which is vibrant to this day. Grenadians are greatful to this day.

The two major parties, the conservative New National Party, which has been the ruling party for the last 15 years, and the opposition, the National Democratic Congress, have policies that are informed by the socialist policies of the pre-war government. I still haven't figured out how the two parties differ in terms of policy in any significant way. The young people generally support the NDC, and the older people the NNP. The NNP color is green, and the NDC color is yellow. The logo of the NNP is a house, the NDC a heart.

In fact, the colors and the logos are of pretty immense importance (think soccer). Before we arrived in Grenada, the Election Observation Mission supervisor stressed the necessity of wearing only white for our own safety. We observed many trucks and buses filled with NNP supporters in their colors waving their flags and NDC supporters in their garb zooming down the streets yelling and campaigning (or intimidating). Some 30% of voters said they were still undecided in a poll conducted a week before the election, probably out of concern for their safety.

NDC partisans

Quite literally everywhere one went in the country, even in roads in the heart of the rain forest, one could see election advertisements. I shouldn't say advertisements, but rather signs. Billboards, posters, flyers, and even chalk messages on the faces of cliffs and on roads met my eye at every turn. People plastered images and signs over the cars and houses too. It reminded me of high school elections, but on the national scale. For Penn students, imagine Locust Walk during UA elections week but on a national scale. And people actually caring.

A common NDC billboard. Note the shameless use of the heart logo.

A typical NNP poster

Election Monitoring

My four colleagues from the embassy and I were invited by OAS, who was invited by the Grenadian government. OAS is the Organization of American States, and every democracy in the western hemisphere (of which Grenada is the smallest) is an active member. It's a pretty small organization and the best way to describe it would be as an embassy representing the entire western hemisphere. In addition to election monitoring, OAS represents American states in WTO negotiations.

For this mission, however, it felt like OAS pulled people off the street to be observers. Our embassy sent two consular officers, two interns, and an administrative assistant (pretty much a receptionist). Others included professors from Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, diplomats from Canada and the British High Comission, a journalist, and a graduate student.

Monday was training day. We sat through hours of speakers and panels discussing the political situation, the checks and balances of the voting process, and dealing with all kinds of different circumstances that might arise. I have pretty good conference stamina, so I was okay for this part.

Then in the afternoon I was paired up with my partner, an IR and Latin American politics professor named Mark. We were assigned to the constituency of St. Andrew Northwest, which is a huge, landlocked chunk of land in the heart of the country where the mountains and the rainforest are. We hopped in a car with our Grenadian driver and set out to visit each polling station in our constituency so that we scout out their locations and plan our schedule for election day. The drive was grueling, fast, treacherous and nausea-inducing. The mountain roads are extremely narrow and winding and go along cliffs with no guard rail. Grenadian drivers drive extremely fast and recklessly, as I realized when my driver hit 95 mph on a curvy cliffside road.

My partner Dr. Mark Kirton, professor of IR and Latin American politics at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad & Tobago. I would have been quite lost without his experience.

The next day I woke at before 4am to make it our first polling station before the polls opened at 6am. We barely made it in time, but we did, thanks to our very fast driver. I was impressed with the voting system and the professionalism of the presiding officers and the police. The voting is done entirely on paper ballots. Even accomodations for the mentally and physically handicapped were impressive. The ballots showed the party logos prominently, which was probably for the 30% of the population that are illiterate.

One physically and mentally handicapped woman was carried in by another woman, who helped her vote, and then carried her out. I love democracy in action. Most of our polling stations recorded over 95% voter turnout before 3pm.

The physical condition of the polling stations were less than ideal, to say the least. And the complicated instructions for maintaining the secrecy of the ballot meant that voting progressed extremely slowly. Still, people waited in line for hours in the extreme heat to vote.

I suffered more than anyone. The temperature was in the upper 90s, and I had to wear jeans and sneakers, by OAS regulations. I unbuttoned my entire fly and rolled up my pant legs at one point. Ever the professional. Also, mosquitos love my flesh and in some polling stations I was literally devoured. Ever have dozens of mosquito bites while working in the extreme heat starting at 4am?

Aside from an hour for lunch, Mark and I monitored the polling stations, took notes, and interviewed people from the opening to the closing of the polls at 5pm. Then the real fun began. The presiding officer at the polling station opened up the ballot box and counted the votes in front of the police and representatives of the NNP and the NDC. This painstaking count took two hours. There were frequent delays when the officials debated whether certain ballots were spoiled because of the undecipherability of where the mark was made.

Mark and I then drove behind the police as they moved the ballot box to the elections office. Back at the hotel conference room an hour later, we wrote our report and recommendations. Ambassador Ramdin spoke, and each of the 18 teams debriefed the entire group. After closing remarks, around midnight we went to dinner at the hotel restaurant, where I promptly inhaled several scotches.

The election passed relatively uneventfully (by Grenadian standards) with no major electoral discrepancies observed by OAS. I did see some crowds of people down the road from polling stations, who Mark told me were "exit pollsters" intimidating voters. Nearing the closing of the polls, supporters of both parties began pouring into the streets expecting a celebration. They burned tires, began barbequeing, and waved torches and machetes (which many Grenadians carry around).

The NDC won in a landslide, taking 11 of the 15 seats.

Grenada! Part I - Relaxation

2008-07-10T05:38:00.000-07:00

I was in Grenada from Sunday to Wednesday with four of my embassy colleagues on an election observation mission. The electoral situation in Grenada was becoming extremely tense and contentious so the Organization of American States (OAS) invited us as well as the British, Canadians, and Trinidadians to monitor the election. Sunday and Wednesday were fulls days of exploring and hanging out while Monday and Tuesday were two of the most grueling days of work I've ever had. This post will be about the exploring and relaxing I did in Grenada. I'll write a separate post about the politics.

Grenada has to be on the short list of the most beautiful countries in the world. It has everything - mountains, rain forests, waterfalls, rivers, white beaches, and clear water. Architecturally, the towns have a very colonial feel, particularly with the many 17th century churches and forts around the capital, St. George's.

On Sunday, we all hung out together, renting a car and driving up into the mountains to visit the famous waterfalls.

Swinging off the vines of the cliff was amazing. The front of the pool is only a couple of feet deep but its several hundred feet deep by the falls

Afterwards, we explored the rainforest for a few hours.

We couldn't do much more than go to the beach afterwards because Sunday happened to be a national holiday. The best part of this beach was the view of St. George's.

After working exhaustingly on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday was a free day until our flight back to Barbados at 10pm. Unfortunately, Wednesday was also a national holiday because it's the day after elections. Despite the fact that virtually all restaurants, shops, and attractions were closed, Kimberly and I enjoyed the capital city St. George's. The view is from the base of Fort George, a 17th century fort overlooking the town and bay. Note the awesome rainbow.

All around the country were ruins like this church from Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Ivan tore through Grenada and destroyed 90% of all the buildings in the country. They still haven't recovered fully.

Watching the sun set over the ocean from the fort was definitely a great ending to the trip. However, having to pay a $50 departure tax at the airport wasn't nearly as great.

Fourth of July

2008-07-04T21:05:00.000-07:00

The life of a Foreign Service Officer ain't bad. You get local holidays off, US holidays, and in the case of holidays like the Fourth of July, you get paid to go party. This year, we have three parties, and the biggest was at the Ambassador's house yesterday.

Since Ambassador Mary Ourisman is from Texas, she thought it'd be nice to have a country western themed party. That meant loads and loads of beef brisket, beef burgers, and hot dogs. We washed that down with Budweiser, Sam Adams, and rum punch. We even had a flag of Texas.

I wasn't invited just for the free food. No, I had the great responsibility of handing out glo-necklaces and baseball caps. For this, I dragooned Graham (pictured) and his brothers Craig and Simon. They're the kids of the DCM (deputy ambassador) and they work at consular section of the embassy.

I've already spilled rum on my shirt.

A picture of the receiving line at the beginning of the festivities. The people standing by the doors are the most junior Foreign Service Officers, who are on "push/pull" duty. Basically, they pull people away from the Ambassador if they're talking for too long. Apparently, FSOs receive several days of push/pull training in A100 class, including a full-scale mock party. Such is the importance of protocol in the State Department.

Ambassador Ourisman is pushing sixty but still looks gorgeous. She's posing with the five Marine security guards who protect our embassy. There are just enough of them to guard the place 24/7. These guys are basically kids my age (or younger, even), but tough as hell. One FSO tells of the time he was in Jeddah when the consulate there was invaded by dozens of terrorists armed with machine guns. Six marine security guards killed all but two of them without suffering a single scratch. One of my jobs next week is to play the bad guy during their training exercises. Apparently it's tons of fun but I do it at my own risk.

After all the guests had left, the Ambassador and three of us from the embassy sat by her pool and drank awesome rosé. Mmm mmm. I also got to chat for about twenty minutes with the Ambassador.

She asked if there was any one thing I wanted to get out this internship and I replied that I would love to travel in her private jet when she goes to Antigua or Dominica. She's going to think about it.

Ok...Finally got some pictures up!

2008-07-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

Yes! I finally managed to get some pictures uploaded to a "safe" State Department computer. I won't go crazy though - you'll enjoy a steady, digestable flow of information.

Today's topic - a little-known British traditional known as a Hash. Hashes began in the 1970s when British RAF airmen stationed in Bangkok organized weekly runs from the Bangkok Hash House. Today, Hashers are known as "Hash House Harriers." Apparently, it's common among Brit ex-pat populations throughout the world.

The Barbadian Hash tradition is very robust. People meet every week at the host's house and then stay afterwards to get hammered. The host is responsible for marking the course, which they do by drawing arrows or placing small turd-like mounds of flour on the side of the road. These markers are few and far between, and every time the running group reaches an open meadow, beach, intersection, etc, one person runs ahead 200m in every potential direction looking for the little marker. Once it's found, the checker yells "On! On!" and the rest follow. This happened about two dozen times during our roughly six mile run.

Somehow, cross-dressing became an important part of the tradition, probably because it's the British national pastime.

This week's run was hosted by a German couple in their very nice villa located in Barbados's "Platinum Coast," the ultra-rich west coast of the country. Our run took us through Sandy Lane, one of the nicest golf courses in the world, where Tiger Woods got married. The course was great because it took us through every type of terrain in Barbados - forests, hills, beaches, roads, and hiking trails.

A very beautiful thicket

The patio had a breathtaking view. Jake's (political officer) wife is on the right. She says that we are the only two Korean people on the entire island.

As new hashers, Kimberly, Rick and I were hazed by the "Religious Advisor" and his assistants.

As mentioned above, in the interest of getting hammered, we were forced to chug several beers.

The hazing continued, with offenders being cited for getting lost, being slow, Rick for his bandana, and this man for an unnamed offense.

Further Updates to Come July 5th

2008-06-30T05:49:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since the last update because the State Department's strict IT policy prohibits me from checking personal email, chatting, writing blogs, etc. And I currently don't have internet at home.

My first week of work is in the books - that's 10% of my internship! But the best is yet to come - this week, there are three Fourth of July parties. One on July 3rd in the Ambassador's residence with embassy staff and foriegn dignitaries. Another on July 4th in the country of St. Lucia (which is one of the countries covered by the Barbados embassy) aboard an aircraft carrier the USS Simpson. Unfortunately, I won't get to go but the other intern Kimberly will. And on July 5th, there's the embassy-wide party at the exclusive Barbados Boatyard. And the following day, I get on a plane and fly to Grenada as part of an election observation mission!

Currently, I'm living with Kimberly and a political officer named Rick in his very nice plantation house. Rick is a terrific cook who likes to make us dinner every night and usually a few glasses of rum punch too. This arrangement is only temporary and on July 5th Kimberly and I are moving into another political officer's house. It's even bigger, closer to the embassy, on the beach, and it has INTERNET! Pictures and further updates will come then.

Barbados I thought I knew ye

2008-06-19T17:23:00.000-07:00

I did so much research on Barbados before I arrived that I thought I knew everything. Turns out, I couldn't even find my hotel and I got lost trying to get to the embassy as well.

The country is surprisingly underdeveloped and much of the population poor. One reason I picked Barbados as my post was because, compared to surrounding islands, it's relatively wealthy with a GDP per capita around $25,000. The wealth is apparently very unevenly distributed, since much of the landscape remind me of Haiti. Another shocking thing is the dearth of tourists. I'm staying in the St. Lawrence Gap, a mile-long stretch of resorts and beaches that is one of the most popular tourist destinations. Every hotel, restaurant, and bar is nearly empty these days, during the off-peak summer season.

Yesterday - my first day - I went to a cocktail party at the embassy hosted by the marines, whose job it is to protect the embassy. I had the chance to meet many of the FSOs (Foreign Service Officers) who I'll be working with, as well as my fellow intern. The US mission in Barbados is quite big, as it covers some eight countries. I've been assigned to work with the GSO (for those of you who don't know how the foriegn service is split up, it's the least prestigious department), while the other intern gets to work in the Political section...GRRR. However, we both might get to go to the island country of Grenada in two weeks as election observers!

Today, after waking up at 5am cuz of bug bites, I jogged to the next town over (Oistins), came back to St. Lawrence and chilled at the beach, went to the capital Bridgetown for the first time, and then celebrated my birthday at happy hour with the Australian and French couples that I'm sharing my cottage with.

My first assignment with the State Department - wake up tomorrow at 5am and help the FSOs beat the Marines in their weekly football game.

Why Barbados?

2008-06-16T21:57:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I leave for Barbados, a tiny pear-shaped island country in the southeast Caribbean. I'm going to work for the Political/Economic Dept. in the Bureau of Western Hemispheric Affairs in the US embassy.

How did I end up in Barbados?

It began last November, when I applied for the State Department overseas internship program. Applicants can only choose two posts - a primary and an alternate - from the over 180 countries the US has diplomatic relations with. My choices were Dubai, UAE and Bridgetown, Barbados. It came down to a combination of which regions I was interested in and which capital city was more awesome.

Once I got my offer in January, I waited six excruciating months and over a month after they missed my security check completion deadline until I was finally granted security clearance on June 5th and given my final offer. To my dismay, I then learned I wouldn't be provided housing (internship is unpaid too), and embarked on a furious apartment search. Just found out today I am secure in having a beautiful (and relatively cheap) beachfront apartment in Bridgetown! It has internet, which is definitely not standard in all places there.

The objective of this blog is not only to entertain, enthrall, and keep in touch with you all but also to convince you that it's worth using that three days of ibanking pay to buy a ticket to visit me (only about $500, and I will be there until August 31st).

We will wear flowery shirts and linen chinos that blow in the wind as we walk on the pink sand in our beautiful tanned bodies.