Post Themes

Every post in the Foreign Service seems to have a theme. Tashkent was my social post. Though I worked hard studying Russian and wrote quite a bit, I attended balls (a first for me), regular luncheons and bazaars with an International Women’s group, many dinners and parties, participated in a book discussion group, and hiked with an international hike group on many Sundays.

Munich was my writing post. I was the sole non-visual artist in a creative group. Some of us wound up forming a writer’s group. I loved these groups. We’d share our progress and set goals for ourselves at each bi-monthly meeting. When we didn’t achieve our goal, there was never any shame; everyone rallied to help figure out how the goal could be met in the coming weeks. We even had an exhibition—one I figured I’d not be a part of since I wrote. But as they began planning—within a few minutes—someone said that I should tell an original story. Our theme was being homesick for somewhere we’d never been. I challenged myself to compose this story strictly orally. I made a few notes, but, otherwise, didn’t write it down. I practiced it aloud as I walked through the beautiful English Gardens. It wound up being a good, if unusual, fit in our successful exhibition.

Our United States post was my music post. I kept up with writing, even took a couple of classes, but my time was mostly devoted to music. I sang in a church choir. While in Munich, I sang in the Munich English Language Choir. When I told the director I was leaving for DC, he told me to contact Christopher Betts at Episcopal Church of the Redeemer. Chris had been his organ teacher. I did and wound up in the perfect church. I met Lisa, a cellist, who encouraged me to practice some piano accompaniments so we could play together. She and Joy, a flautist, encouraged me to practice my recorders and join the Taize ensemble. There, I met Donnette, a harpist, who passed on some simple harp music to me which got me to pull out my folk harp, dust it off, tune it and practice. We played a duet for a service. I was even gifted a harp from the daughter of one of my fellow choir members. Douglas and I sat in with a few local choruses for various performances. That led to our auditioning and singing with a professional choir, Carmina. I also sang in Illuminare, the director’s women’s choir.

That brings me to Vladivostok. Although we're settled, it's too early to give this post a name. I have, however, dubbed it the post of waste. There are no recycling programs here, so everything goes into the trash. This is confusing to me, in this day and age. Russia beat us into space. This is not a technologically unevolved country, but when it comes to waste, it’s acting like it. Moscow is shipping its trash (which, apparently is apx. one fifth of Russia’s trash) to other cities because its landfills are full. You can probably imagine how this makes the residents of those areas feel. I don’t want to make Russia sound dirty. From my perspective, it’s not. You may remember my writing that I don’t see a lot of trash on the streets of Vladivostok. It’s regularly cleaned up (except on the unpaved, washed out road where we live). But it bothers me to throw away recyclable materials. I’ve asked two residents about the lack of recycling. Both seemed disgusted that there isn’t yet a recycling program in place. It reminds me a bit of being in Tashkent and seeing the water waste along side the disappearing Aral Sea. (The North Aral Sea, by the way, is apparently on a rebound with the return of some freshwater fish.) But I must be careful to not throw stones when I still drive a car and am from a country with an administration that is still trying to promote coal power.  

While it’s too early to assign a theme to Vladivostok, I envision it as being a post of firsts, some of which I’ve already written, one of which occurred on February 22^nd. Douglas and I ran in the annual Ice Run.

From the left: Our neighbor and Community Liaison Officer Yancy, Consul General Michael, Me, Consular Officer Noah, Douglas and our Public Affairs Officer Darren.

You know how they say that the camera adds 10 pounds? Well, posting pictures on a blog adds about 50% more frump than is actually there.

I also see it as being a post of completion. (That’s another blog entirely.)

I will leave you with this beautiful picture of a sunset. This is what we see every day from our little lighthouse that overlooks the bay. This will perhaps factor (at least poetically) into the theme of our life here in Russia.