U.S. Foreign Service Officer headed to Wuhan, China

The mission of a U.S. diplomat in the Foreign Service is to promote peace, support prosperity, and protect American citizens while advancing the interests of the U.S. abroad. The work that diplomats do has an impact on the world as they serve at one of any of the more than 270 embassies, consulates and other diplomatic missions in The Americas, Africa, Europe and Eurasia, East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.

The duties of a Consular Officer include to provide emergency and non-emergency services to American citizens and protect our borders through the proper adjudication of visas to foreign nationals and passports to American citizens. We adjudicate immigrant and non-immigrant visas, facilitate adoptions, help evacuate Americans, combat fraud, and fight human trafficking. Consular Officers touch people’s lives in important ways, often reassuring families in crisis. They face many situations which require quick thinking under stress and develop and use a wide range of skills, from managing resources and conducting public outreach to assisting Americans in distress.

Ilhéus, Bahia

On Friday morning, Loni and I flew to our placement site for the next nine months - Ilhéus, Bahia. One of the most annoying challenges since arriving in Brazil was how to pronounce my city's name. Every time someone would ask me where I would be working I would try and say the name and they would invariably reply, "Where?" I wasn't the only one with this problem, however, nobody could seem to say the name correctly. After landing in Bahia today, we quickly learned that the people here pronounce it "eel-yows."

From left to right: Tatiany, Shalon, Gabriel (Tatiany's son), Loni, me

We had planned to stay in a hostel until we could find an apartment but a very friendly and helpful student (Shalon) offered to look for us before we came. He found out that the previous Fulbrighter's apartment was still vacant and set up a time for us to meet with the landlord right when our flight landed. Shalon and some other English professors met us at the airport and took us to the apartment. After looking it over and talking about the rent/utilities/internet etc., we settled on a deal and started moving our bags in.

Eggplant antipasto on bread with peanuts

No sooner had we put our bags down when it was time to quickly shower and drive to the house of our director, Tatiany, for dinner. She and her husband had made us a big dinner and were eager to get to know us. We had a fun night of good food and the start of some new friendships, but I was more than ready to crash after a long day of travel, trying to communicate in Portuguese and getting adjusted to the extreme heat and humidity.

View of my neighborhood from the balcony

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Wanderlust

In Mandarin: 旅遊癮 (lǚyóu yǐn)

According to my Mandarin teacher, the term 'wanderlust' can best be translated as 'a travel addiction or craving'. In the above translation, 'yǐn' has several meanings such as 'a strong impulse', 'a longing', or 'a desire'.

U.S. Foreign Service Officer headed to Wuhan, China

Ilhéus, Bahia

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