Suva, Fiji

Well, I found out a couple weeks ago that my next post will be Suva, Fiji! I'm pretty happy about it; it was the number 3 post on my list. I like it for obvious reasons, like the tropical location. I also liked the opportunity to take on a bigger responsibility job-wise at a smaller post. The weird thing is knowing where I'll be going 22 months from now! I have a year to finish up in Caracas, before heading back to the US for a month of home leave, and about 9 months of training in Washington (I have to learn Hindi!).

In other news, I received my HHE supplemental shipment this week, which included an electric piano I bought when I was home in May. It wasn't too hard to set up (it's slightly smaller than a regular upright piano, though it has a full keyboard). It's been so nice to be able to play again! I brought a lot of my and mom's music back with me.

Finally, I learned I was selected to do a TDY (which means a short tour of duty) in Curacao in a couple weeks. There is a small consulate there, and both the consular officer and her back-up will be out of the country, so I'll get to put my newly acquired experience to use covering the office while they're gone, while enjoying the island for a few days :)

We recently had a very hectic week, when my two bosses and my top locally employed prison-portfolio coworker were out of town for a week when we had two new citizens arrested and a change in local laws that left us unable to carry out our prison visits as usual. On top of that, we had 2 delusional citizens walk in to our waiting room unannounced with interesting stories and requests. So my coworkers and I had to figure out how to do a lot of things we're used to turning to others to tell us how to do. It was a challenging but rewarding week.