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Foreign Services travel
globeby
Ivan Moreno Ferrel
The Metropolitan
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Courtesy photo by Jack Doutrich
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| Two Eritean
from the National Service patrol at a posting near the border
with Sudan. 18 months of national service is obligatory for all
Eriteans but since the war with Ethiopia (1998-2000) many have
served for over 6 years, with no end in sight. |
Picture yourself waiting for a helicopter during a sandstorm
with the temperature churning as hot as any place on earth. You think
you’ll be stranded, but the sandstorm lulls for a minute, giving
the helicopter enough time to land, drop off supplies to the U.N.
troops stationed nearby, and pick you up.
You have always felt wanderlust. Yet, like most, you have rarely found
either the time or the resources to experience this passion. Signing
up with the Foreign Services presents the opportunity to fulfill your
lifelong dream of seeing the world.
This is the life of Jack Doutrich, a U.S. Foreign Services officer.
“(I had) many great adventures like that in Eritrea,”
Doutrich said. “One of the best parts of my job is I get paid
to do things I love to do anyway — travel, explore and get to
know new people and cultures. Sometimes my work feels like a vacation.”
Doutrich recently visited the Political Science department at Metro
as part of “The Secretary’s Hometown Diplomats Program.”
The program is the brainchild of Secretary of State Colin Powell and
is designed to bring diplomats to schools during visits home between
their tours.
Doutrich’s first tour of duty was a two-year stay in Asmara,
the capital of Eritrea, in Northeast Africa, on the coast of the Red
Sea. The State Department doesn’t teach Tigrinya, the local
language of Asmara, so Doutrich had to adjust to the language on his
own.
“I also had to get used to the idea (that) one place to get
everything doesn’t exist. So shopping takes a lot more time,
and it’s not (already) prepared,” he said.
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file phot by Jack Douterich - The
Metropoitan
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| Typical houses
in Bolele, a village in the Danakil Depression (one of the "hottest
places on earth"). |
Doutrich pointed to other things we take for granted,
like having a free press and individual rights. He also said that
getting used to a different culture can test anybody. Still, he notes
that Eritreans are a very hospitable people.
Right now, Eritrea, a country about the size of Pennsylvania, with
a population of about 4 million, is trying to erase a bloody history
and create an atmosphere that better matches the personality of its
people.
In its 30-year fight for independence, which ended in 1993, they struggled
against
Ethiopia, a country that outnumbered them by 60 million.
Peace remained until 1998 when a border dispute with Ethiopia resulted
in a two-year war that killed more than 100,000. In late 2000, the
U.N. stepped in, and a peace agreement was reached between the two
nations.
For Doutrich, a typical day in Eritrea consists of half-consular work
and half-political work. In the morning, he usually does consular
work, interviewing 30 to 40 visa applicants who want to come to the
U.S. He also works on American citizen cases, where any number of
things can come up, whether it’s visiting citizens who are put
in jail, or sending bodies of Americans home who have been killed
in accidents.
“(In consular work) all sorts of things can take place, from
the routine to the exceptional,” Doutrich said.
Political work, on the other hand, involves what Doutrich describes
as traditional diplomacy, such as meeting with the ministry officials
or civil affairs organizations from the country.
So how do you get into the Foreign Service?
First, you take the Foreign Service exam. “This is a huge, scary,
awful exam,”
Doutrich said.
The exam is heavily weighted toward international relations, geography,
current affairs, history, arts, education, mathematics, and grammar.
The State Department looks for well-rounded individuals who are interested
not only in international affairs, but in other areas, too; not just
someone who can name all the presidents of Mexico, Doutrich said.
And it’s a very small number who actually get through the exam.
“It’s really set up in a sense that the people that pass
it tend to be those who are overeducated, and study too much, and
have a lot of spare time in school to read lots of books, and read
the newspaper at the same time,” Doutrich said.
“Although you don’t need more than a high school diploma
to work in the Foreign Services,” Doutrich said, “it is
the people with a higher education that have a better chance of getting
in.”
But passing the exam doesn’t automatically get you a job. This
just means you move onto the interview stage, where you pick the area
in which you would like to work: Political, consular, economic, public
affairs, or administrative.
The oral interview process requires tact and personal capability,
Doutrich said. Throughout a day, there are interviews and role-playing,
sometimes one on one, other times with a group of people. Mock negotiations
are set up, or “pressure scenarios” are put in place.
“They want to see how you’ll react,” Doutrich said.
“They’re looking for someone who is good with people.”
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Courtesy photo by Jack Doutrich
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| At a volcanic
lake in the Danakil Depression near the border with Ethiopia.
The man came from a nearby village to collect reeds from the lake
for house building. |
Once you get through the interview stage, you’re
put on the list of eligible hires where, depending on your rank on
a list, you wait for a job opening. The rank is solely based on the
interview score, not the test.
When you’re selected from the list, there’s a security
review.
“They’re going tobe pounding on the doors of everyone
you ever knew,” Doutrich said. Then, after a medical screening
and a four-month orientation program in Washington, you’re sent
to the country where you’ll be working.
“There’s a joke,” says Doutrich, “that you
can speak perfect Spanish but they’ll probably send you to Russia.”
No matter where you’re sent, Doutrich said, “They’re
looking for a certain character of people that are generally interested
in doing this. Not just as a career, not just as a job, but as a lifetime.
Because it is a life decision to go join the Foreign Services; to
live overseas and to be in this kind of an environment.”
Headlines
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Hungry for something new?
by Travis Combs
The Metropolitan
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Your tummy’s growling like a lion with a spike in its paw,
and your mood is growing progressively foul, sullen; dangerous, even.
Hunger does strange things to a person and when the choices to satisfy
this need are hollow, what is one supposed to do?
The choices for answering the age-old question of “what’s
for lunch?” have expanded on the Auraria campus with the opening
of three new restaurants, all of which feature distinct cuisine, currently
unavailable on the campus.
Pete’s Arena, a pizzeria offering pizza by the slice and by
the pie; Wok and Roll, which serves light and healthy Japanese food;
Einstein Bros. Bagels, who serve a variety of bagels and bagel sandwiches;
and Starbucks Coffee shop in the Media Center library have opened
their doors on Auraria this semester. Wok and Roll, which has opened
up in the Tivoli food court in place of the Mandarin, offers a lighter
and healthier cuisine than its counterparts, with food choices such
as chicken teriyaki, rice bowls and a variety of Sushi rolls.
A Colorado based franchise, Wok and Roll has hopes to grow and expand
beyond the confines of Colorado college campuses.
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photo by Joshua Buck - The Metropolitan
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| Pete's Arena
Pizza employee Gloria Vilamarin places pepperoni on a pizza before
place the pie in the oven on Aug. 19. |
“We had an opportunity to come to this campus and we took it,”
said Flavio Sanchez, Manager of the Tivoli branch of Wok and Roll.
“There are a lot of students here who like healthy food, and
that’s our advantage.”
Pete’s Arena, owned and managed by Sodex ho campus services,
made their home at the former residence of the B-movie Café,
also in the Tivoli, and offers pizza-by-the-slice, as well as by-the-pie.
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photo by Chrus Stark - The Metropolitan
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| Yukako Doi, an early childhood education major
at UCD, prepares to eat lunch from Wok & Roll Aug 19. The
restaurant opened just before the fall semester started. |
Sandra Weber, General Manager of Sodex ho, here on campus said that
Sodex ho saw that Auraria had no food vender providing pizza and so
took the opportunity to launch their pizza franchise concept. The
franchise caters exclusively to college campuses.
“We put in a bid for the space with Pete’s Arena, which
is our retail concept,” Weber said. “There are six or
seven other Pete’s on college campuses, mainly on the east coast.”
So skip the bag lunch routine and satisfy your fickle cravings right
here on campus.
Headlines
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This is an unusual story, but youíd be
hard-pressed to find anyone whoíd say that we arenít living in
unusual times. I have a friend with whom Iíve been in sporadic
correspondence since he left the Texas desert for the one in Iraq.
He has agreed to relate his story for the readers of The
Metropolitan as it unfolds in front
of him. He has found himself in the middle of a war that few will
understand and even fewer will admit is still waged. At times I
have known him to be wildly patriotic ó he has been in two branches
of the armed service ó but because of the nature of his predicament,
he wishes for the time to remain nameless.ÝÝ
This is part seven of a series of stories attempting to illustrate
a cross-section of this conflict. He has found himself, like so
many other Americans before him, waiting for a ticket home.
-Ian Neligh
“Several days ago I took what I feel may have been the last,
long leap into the void of insanity. I was oddly at war with
myself, feeling as though some vital part of my life was missing,
or worse yet, that I was missing something crucial to my evolution
as a human being.
Try as I may to find this elusive ‘thing,’ failure was
my only reward. I was upset; my heart was angry. I walked
around asking questions no man could answer for me, and was generally
of foul temper.”
That night he stayed awake, unable to sleep. The next morning he
woke up feeling tired and irritated.
“Anger took me readily and as I went through my daily routine
only physical exercise and the exhaustion that comes with it would
give me rest. I ceased to care for anything; I was numb to my world,
operating on animal instinct alone.”
Then one hot morning, when he was still in a state of sleep-deprived
delirium, one of his teammates asked if he was interested in going
out into the hot streets of Iraq on a mission.
“You see, to get anywhere on the ground in this place requires
three Humvees, two of which are to be loaded with four-man security
teams.
The teams were lacking on this day in particular, and this man was
asking if I would fill in. He didn’t tell me I had to
go; it was an option, and he knew I’d had no sleep the night
before, so he wasn’t doing me any favors. He earnestly
felt like I should go, and that I would be an asset to the team.
This appealed to my ego, which is rather healthy, to say the least.
So readily I agreed, and, sweating with the effort of getting my
gear on that hot, balmy, Iraqi morning, I raced to meet an unknown
fate.
As I sped down the asphalt path to oblivion, the taste of blood
and RedMan Chewing tobacco became indistinguishable from one another,
and I spat great gouts of the mix into the ever-waiting wind.
For each face, I saw a stone thrown through at a Humvees windshield;
for every thumbs-up, I saw an RPG and tracers in the night; for
every smile, I saw a tortured P.O.W return home with trauma-induced
amnesia.”
As they neared a town, he tried to quite his mind, but adrenalin
began pouring through his veins. Their convoy turned down the wrong
street into an unfamiliar area. He raised his M203 (an M16 assault
rifle with a 40 millimeters grenade launcher attached to the bottom)
and tried to see everything at once.
After a tense period, the convoy was back on the right path. No
attack had come.
“We reached our destination, dropped our cargo, grabbed more
Humvees in need of escort, stole some cases of Juicy Juice from
the Air Force, and headed back.
I was so exhausted after the experience I slept like a stone in
the 90-degree heat. I woke up and went to work, the inner
beast appeased for the moment.
No, (the beast had) seen no combat, though he’d put himself
in harm’s way again, and all for some Fu*%ing Juicy Juice.
He’d gone, knowing full well he may die.
The next day, I volunteered to fly back to that same place to escort
some detainees back for interrogation, but after two attempts we
had to scrub the mission due to poor visibility. A sort of sand-fog
hung in the air, obscuring the view for many miles North.
There’s a convoy escort mission going out tomorrow and I’ve
been asked to accompany. And it makes sense, since I’ve got
the shits and things have heated up here considerably. Yeah,
the attacks on the coalition forces have been more frequent and
much more organized for about a week now. It’s been
causing more casualties per attack too. Used to be, they’d
hit a convoy or a patrol and do little-to-no damage, but lately
we’ve been taking actual K.I.A.’s.”
The frequency of the attacks is up too. I think we’ve
been mortared, like, 5 times this week. None of ‘em
got close to me, but still....
Tonight, like many others, I sat helplessly, listening to the command
net.
I heard a soldier die. Another ambush by partisan Iraqis with rocket-propelled
grenades and AK-47’s has claimed the life of yet another poor,
dumb kid who was stupid enough to enlist.”
Later
“Funny (thing) happened (recently), the division Sergeant
Major is having a bazillion (unit) patches put up everywhere.
They painted one on the Heli-pad; he had them paint one on the marble
floor of this palace, and the wall of the CG’s palace.
He also had us put signs on the Port-O-Johns we have here, stating,
“vandalism will not be tolerated”.
So, you can deface a million dollar palace of historical significance,
but you can’t draw a pecker in the john.
The CG also had our guys build an overhead cover for his (Port-O-John)
because they were getting too hot in the sun.
So the guys who have to (use the bathroom) in the blazing heat of
an unprotected Port-O-John, risking serious heatstroke, now have
to toil under that same blistering heat to erect a shade over the
Generals (toilet) ‘cause he’s too hot when he poops.
Best thing is the (unit) patches, though. They’re everywhere.
Like we’re gonna forget what unit we’re in, or something.
But, we already wear them on our left shoulders and our Helmets.
In the room I work in now, there are eight (patches), not counting
the ones on the floor waiting to be put up. And in the Generals
conference room there are 20.
No lie. And most of them are being put up over some sort of Arabic
writing. Strange.”
This is on-going correspondence
and will be continued in the next edition of the Metropolitan.
Headlines
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