The Hill and the Tree

It’s been an exciting week at the Embassy. Thursday evening, the Embassy hosted a VIP. The Embassy staff has really been putting in the hours – including, of course, Douglas. Doug’s boss left town for a two week vacation about two weeks ago. This meant that not only Motor Pool and Customs and Shipping fell into his lap but also Housing and Procurement. The first thing to happen was the diesel was got too cold and was stalling the vehicles. The diesel was ordered when the temperature was in the 90’s. Now it was dropping close to freezing at night. The problem grew as upcoming road trips loomed and the logistics of either mixing an additive into the existing fuel or siphoning that fuel for the proper fuel were complicated. A few days later the Embassy ran out of gasoline before the ordered delivery arrived. Actually, just about everyone in Tashkent is running out of fuel. From what I understand, the fuel companies are required to provide so much fuel per year. Apparently when they hit their quota, they basically take the rest of the year off leaving their customers dry until January or so. Remember the lines at our gas pumps in the 70’s? From what I’ve seen, that’s pretty normal here. These problems were, fortunately, short lived because Douglas was in charge. He’s not even home and I can hear him say “Don’t write that!” Okay, he also has a great staff not only of Americans but of Uzbeks who work quite independently and well. But it is Doug they called with these problems.

Amidst his difficult work, our lives go on as we adjust to living in Tashkent.

We live about a five minute walk from the Embassy. It takes Doug about 10 minutes to get to work (and me as long to get to the gym there) because there are three security check points through which we must pass. Usually I am at the Embassy in the morning to exercise and have my language lesson. I often stay for lunch. Usually I return in the evening just before sunset to exercise once more with Doug when he isn’t too swamped with work. We walk home together for dinner. Every other Friday night the marines host a happy hour in the Marine’s House. We are usually there until 9:00 or 10:00 which means that the gate to our housing complex which is nearest the Embassy is closed. One night when we were walking home I heard voices. This was not a schizophrenic experience as Doug heard them too. We could see no one. It was dark so we didn’t think too much of it. A week or so later we were walking the same route in daylight. Again, we heard voices. We looked around and saw no one. Eventually we figured out that the voices were coming from a tree. It was a large, full, leafy tree and, apparently, some kids were in the top of it, unseen. This got more entertaining as the days passed. Once I was walking by it alone and not only could I hear the kids, but the tree was shaking animatedly with their movements and voices. This became a regular check point for me – what’s going on in the tree? As the leaves dropped, in the uppermost branches, a tree house was revealed.

There has been an entirely different energy at the Embassy in preparation for the VIP. As I mentioned, staff worked longer hours. Lunch chat turned to The Event. No one was allowed to talk about it outside the Embassy. The facility was looked at with a more critical eye. Hotel reservations were made. An advance team for the VIP came into town to basically take over. It was like a theater production. Doug went to the airport to walk through the landing of the plane, line up the motorcade, decide who rode where, exactly which route would be driven, how long it would take, etc. The reception room was decorated and redecorated for the VIP to meet with local civic groups. Every high-ranking visitor was personally assigned an Embassy staff member. And, of course, when it came time for everything to happen on Thursday, ‘final’ plans changed continuously.

In the meantime, the tree house was bustling, too. I’m not sure if these kids are legitimately out of school (it looks like a large age range up there), ditching, homeschooled (I’m not sure how popular that is in Uzbekistan) or otherwise class-free. Sometimes there seems to be some serious discussion going on up there; most of the time I hear laughter and talk. I realized that I can see the tree from our back windows. It’s not very clear but I can hear them. One Friday I heard pounding all day long. Usually that would bother me – noisy. But I knew who it was and it sounded delightful. The next day, Doug was home and we heard a loud bang. He got up and looked out the window and saw kids scattering to the four winds. We aren’t sure what happened but at least the kids were okay. Later that week, as more leaves had fallen and they had very little privacy up there I could see that they had built a platform. At just the right angle it looked like the boys (all boys) were standing on the tips of the highest branches like birds. After another day or two passed – fewer leaves – I swear I saw a fainting couch up there. Are these boys homeless?

When Thursday arrived, it was like field trip day in school. Everyone was dressed in their best. After lunch, the cafeteria tables and chairs were removed, tape was laid out on the floor and areas were roped off. I was to return to the Embassy around 7:00. I expected lots of people but the place was quite empty except for the marines and sparse Embassy staff. The rest of the staff was either in their office, with the motorcade or at the airport. Doug had been at the airport for her arrival. Unfortunately, the Uzbek officials changed their minds and wouldn’t let the motorcade onto the tarmac as rehearsed. They then split up the motorcade into two sections – it was quite a large motorcade. Meanwhile, at the Embassy, all the tables had to be cleared from the reception room for security purposes. I saw a trained dog wandering around probably to sniff out bombs – which, thank God, did not exist. But the VIP arrived safely and, really, without any snafus. She met with President Karimov at the Presidential palace then came to our Embassy. At about 8:15 Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton walked into the main lobby/cafeteria and addressed us. She told us that “. . . today’s a four country day.” She had already been in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and, after leaving us, was flying to Bahrain. I was told later that after spending Friday in Bahrain, she was flying back to D.C. to host a black tie dinner. She looked tired but I must take this chance to say how much prettier and young-looking she is in person. She didn’t sound tired. She had quite an energy about her as she praised the Embassy staff and reminded them of the importance of the location of Uzbekistan and our post’s mission these days. She was specific in her gratitude to the staff. Apparently when Kyrgyzstan had its uprising a couple or three months ago and refugees were flooding over the border into Uzbekistan, our staff played a large role in giving aid to them. Many local employees have spent time in Iraq to help out the Embassy there. After she spoke she said she wanted to shake as many hands as she could. She started from the extreme right and reached three or four deep and slowly made her way out the door. Yes, I got to shake her hand. I also wanted to thank her for being our Secretary of State. I spoke fast, but I noticed that as she started to move but realized I was talking, she paused to hear me. She is a smart, gracious, courageous woman who cares and demonstrates her care through her hard work. I had a question in mind just in case we got a chance to ask her a question. I would have asked her if she had any hopes or expectations of Foreign Service spouses, like me, who do not work in any official capacity. My personal mission, many of you already know, is to learn Russian so I can gather Central Asian folktales and songs and share American folklore.

Sadly, Doug didn’t get to see or hear her speak. He was busy overseeing the motorcade. He knew he wouldn’t be able to be there so he asked me to listen to what she said. One of the advance team’s jobs is to gather ideas for her to say in her address to us. Doug had two suggestions. One was to mention a long-time, indispensable local employee named Pavel. He is an expeditor. Pavel met Doug and I at the airport when we arrived and got us to the front of all the lines and past customs in about 10 minutes. There were two other sizeable groups that arrived this week so the expeditors and motor pool were busy. Pavel probably hadn’t slept in three days, Doug said. But, he was efficiently assisting at the airport when Secretary Clinton and her entourage arrived. Secondly, he thought it important to mention all the employees from our Embassy who have served in Iraq. I got to tell him that she used one of his ideas.

As Doug and I walked home past the tree house, it was quiet. I thought of all that was going on in the world at the same time and how closely they occur sometimes. While Secretary Clinton was talking to an audience in rapt attention, those boys were probably carrying on to the curiosity of those passing below.