Flag Day Announcement… V

On July 5, handshake day dawned as I was having a somewhat frantic morning. Between juggling the end of my 24-hour Overseas Citizen Services duty officer shift and the requisite duty report, acting for my boss, dealing with the lack of wifi connectivity in our house, and fretting over my damaged car out in the driveway with a fallen tree limb laying next to it, I was distracted. I was aware a bidder handshake could hit my phone anytime, and that at least one post had short-listed me. However, I was slightly more focused on trying to get out the door to work in DC and be responsive to emails about a duty issue that had caught the attention of our front office.

And then, somewhere between trying to curl my hair and looking too hard at my eyebrows in the mirror, I glanced down at my iPhone balanced on the edge of the pedestal sink and saw the offer pop up.

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Congratulations! It read. On behalf of the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Consular Affairs, we are very pleased to offer you a handshake on…

The Deputy Consular Chief position at U.S. Embassy Rangoon, Burma!

Collecting Postcards is going to southeast Asia in summer 2025!

I stood there calmly (like a sociopath?) for another 20 minutes finishing my morning routine, trying to absorb the news. What do I know about Burma?! I needed to go downstairs and tell my husband, but first I needed to process it myself. I felt excited, nervous, trying to figure out how I felt about receiving this post vs. the other two, going through a mental checklist of each post’s pros and cons as I related them to our situation.

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This is why I traditionally haven’t liked people observing me as I receive important news. My immediate reaction is usually something I conceal automatically as my wheels start spinning, because for better or worse, it may not be the true feeling I have once I understand what I’ve just learned. I usually need a few minutes alone to digest and be analytical before I know what to feel, let alone respond, lest my reaction feel “performative.” I also somehow knew if I didn’t finish everything I needed to do to walk out the door before I broached this conversation, than I would be even more distracted and late than I already was.

Of course, I had bid on only a very short list of jobs, and hadn’t bid on anything I would not be thrilled to take. It was more just like… OK, so this is it. This is what’s happening. Even the door you want to walk through still means other doors necessarily have to close. I dismissed all the things that could have happened but didn’t from my mind, bit by bit. I shifted focus to recall everything I knew about the embassy in Rangoon – type of housing, pet import requirements, length of tour, number of R&Rs, rate of pay, shipping allowances, number of employees, and everything I’d learned about the post’s consular work in my interview.

As I finished my morning routine and packed my purse, I grabbed a suit jacket and a pair of flats from the master closet and headed down the stairs to the kitchen. My husband came up from his den office to the main floor to feed our cat at about the same time.

I reminded him it was handshake day and asked him how he would feel if an offer came for this post, or that post. I could barely control my face and tried to avoid eye contact. He started thinking out loud, repeating the most important things we would have to deal with and figure out in each scenario.

“Well,” I said casually, filling up my water bottle from the Brita pitcher. “The offer came.” I paused for dramatic effect as he stared at me and braced himself. “And it’s Burma!”

I saw him look shocked and then quickly break into a big smile. “You!” he yelled, giving me a hug.

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Burma is located in southeast Asia, and shares land borders with Bangladesh, India, China, Laos, and Thailand. Vietnam, Bhutan, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Nepal are also in the neighborhood!

With an estimated population of over 57 million, Burma’s modern-day roots go back at least to the ninth century. Nearly 90 percent of the population is Buddhist. The country renamed itself Myanmar in 1989, but the United States continues to officially refer to the country as Burma.

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The State Department has issued a Level 4, Do Not Travel to Burma advisory for U.S. citizens due to civil unrest and armed conflict following the February 2021 coup d’état, in which the Burmese military overthrew the elected government. The Department has also cited inadequate healthcare infrastructure, the risk of wrongful or arbitrary detentions, and areas with land mines and unexplored ordnance as reasons to exercise caution and reconsider travel. I can certainly understand the fascination with this beautiful country, and share the desire to eat its street food, learn from its people, and visit its famed golden temples. In my experience, as long as there are commercial flights available and/or land borders are open, Americans will travel to any place on earth, however ill-advised.

The particulars of our lives in Burma as diplomats, such as travel restrictions and the ability to have guests, are too far in the future for us to be able to grasp at present. I know that officers now cannot bring their children to this post on orders, unless the children are 21 and up (which might make them eligible family members or dependents, but not “children” per se.)

I won’t pretend to be an expert on Burma. I think I’m only aware of knowing three people who have been there before? But I can say I enthusiastically accepted the offer at hour 21 of my allotted 48-hour window, after having the chance to let my parents and V’s daughters know of the handshake first. I am looking forward so very much to spending some time learning Burmese in order to live there.

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And I am looking forward to writing much more about our upcoming service there in the future. In the meantime, I have around 10 months remaining in my current position and will be focused on keeping it all together… I mean, accomplishing great things my second year in the portfolio!