So this is what happened to me.
I was going to go to Sambu. It was going to be awesome. Then Peace Corps decided that none of the volunteers could go. That was sad, because I was super excited.
For people in my family who aren't into foreign relations. . .The State Department is the department in the government that handles foreign affairs. The US Embassy houses State Department workers (among others) who are US government employees working abroad. The Ambassador is the highest ranking representative of the US government in the country to which s/he is assigned. (In this case, Panama.)
The Ambassador was going to be visiting my province and staying in my town during a few of the days that I WOULD HAVE been in Sambu. Since I had turned down an invite from the office to meet up with the Ambassador when he came to my town because of my travel plans, I decided to call back and see if I could still slip in on the plans.
Great decision.
Originally a few of the PCVs had been scheduled to spend a little time with the Ambassador when he came through, before his lunch with SENAFRONT (the police). . .but that's not what I did this weekend.
Last Friday, I got a call at 7:20a from a Foreign Service Officer (FSO) in the State Department, asking if I wanted to tag along with the Ambassador and the team from the State Department for the morning. They would be leaving the restaurant RIGHT UP THE STREET from my house at 8a for the event, and they had an extra space in the car. My response was "umm. . .yes." I took a quick cold bucket shower, hurried to Facebook message a friend and let her know that I was flaking on our scheduled chat time, and powerwalked/ran up the street to be at the restaurant on time.
When I arrived, the FSO asked if I had eaten. I said 'No. I ran here.' and the whole table laughed. I sat down for. . .what else? Free food. God Bless America.
Next, we hopped in the car and drove over to an event. The Embassy had funded a wood processing facility for the indigenous population here in Darien, and was presenting it formally to the public.
The Ambassador arrived in a helicopter. Naturally.
After we held down everything at the facility so that all the decor didn't fly away from the wind created by the helicopter propellers, all the important representatives of various organizations approached the vehicle to greet the Ambassador. As I approached to shake his hand, I opened my mouth to introduce myself, but instead I was greeted with "Oh! I remember you! You're a great speaker." My life was complete. The Ambassador remembered my face from a full SIX MONTHS ago when I gave the swear-in speech for my group when we all celebrated becoming official Peace Corps Volunteers at the Ambassador's house. Basically, I have now achieved everything I've ever wanted out of life and I was so excited that small-talk after that was a struggle. Side note, though, the Ambassador is super personable and chill and didn't have any of those negative personality traits that you might be imagining a high-ranking government official might have.
Moving on.
There were a million cameras at said event. Naturally, I was trying to dodge them all. We all know how I feel about taking pictures.
Afterward, the FSO and I switched cars and jumped into the AMBASSADOR'S CAR. Driven by an embassy employee, this car was a huge SUV, all black with tinted windows. (All black everything--I don't know, it just made me think about Jay-Z.) Serious-looking. They bought my lunch and let me tag along to Yaviza and learn about other projects that the US Embassy has going on there. (Can somebody say. . .potential secondary projects? I was in networking frenzy-mode! Emails! Phone numbers! So many possibilities!)
Side note. . .riding in the Ambassador's car, I was sandwiched in the back seat between a Public Affairs FSO and the Ambassador himself. EXCELLENT opportunity to 1) Be a fly on the wall and listen to chatter about work at the Embassy and watch the FSO and Ambassador work together and 2) Pepper the FSO with questions about her career and the application process. As an aspiring diplomat, how often do you get the opportunity to shadow someone in your (hopefully) future profession? Godsend! I also talked about coordinating everything with her from getting books for a reading club at my school to getting college counselors for a girl in my neighboring town who wants to go to the University of Michigan.
The next day, I showed up at the private university to see the English class that the Embassy had funded, and say hi to the State Dept people before they left my province. . .whaddya know, they invited my Peace Corps colleague and I (shout out to my homegirl Rachel!) to tag along to Yaviza AGAIN. Yaaay! Again. So much networking. Those car rides are a great opportunity to have extended conversations about work that you can't necessarily have when too many people are around vying for recognition.
Basically, when I was done with those two days of AWESOMENESS, I kept having word-vomit conversations with Rachel about how AWESOME it was.
WOO-WHOOO! After having about a week of hitting my head on a wall in terms of my Peace Corps work and service, the State Department's visit gave me a renewed excitement about my Peace Corps service and further entrenched my resolve to keep applying to be a Foreign Service Officer. Woop, woop!
Much love to everyone in the States! Happy holiday season!
