Monthly Archives: April 2014

Spring has sprung in Algiers! We’ve had lovely sunny weather in the 70s recently, and a few friends and I have decided to take advantage of this by getting out on the weekends. There’s not tons to do, but even just getting out of the house and going for a drive is better than nothing.

I also decided I needed to take my car out for more adventurous trips than to the market or the grocery store. Driving in Algiers is not my favorite thing ever (rules of the road and rightaways are either not really existent or not really followed), but it’s definitely doable, especially on Friday mornings when locals are less likely to be out driving around. So this Friday I picked up 3 friends and drove out to Bouchaoui Forest, which is about 30 minutes away from downtown Algiers and has some good running paths. Of course it took us more than 30 minutes to get there, since we weren’t really sure which exit to take off the highway, missed the exit, had to turn around, and got stuck in traffic. [Side story: the traffic was due to construction on the highway. The construction was not blocked off, there were just a couple trucks working on a ripped up piece of road. Because there was no blocked off area, cars were trying to escape the traffic by driving through the construction area (ie on part of the road that was missing blacktop). That particular section was right by our exit, and in the interest of not missing it AGAIN, I made the choice to also drive on the road under construction. When in Algiers…]

But back to the point. After one more wrong turn and hopping out of the car to ask for directions, we finally made it to the forest. Whew! The driving adventure was worth it, the weather was perfect for running, and though the playground on the edge of the forest was jammed with small children, the running trail was relatively free of people.

After about an hour of exercise (and avoiding a gentleman who I had recently refused a visa who really wanted to know how to reverse that decision – one of the especially awkward parts of consular work), we returned to the car and had a much less eventful trip back into town, where we found one of the only restaurants open for lunch on a Friday in Algiers. Fortunately it was a good one, with some really tasty fish and Camembert croquettes (think fancy mozzerella sticks made with Camembert).

Lunch turned out to be an adventure in and of itself – as we waited for our food, the cafe down the street had some kind of fire – we saw billowing smoke and eventually a fire truck showed up. No flames, though, and it seemed to be under control. No one was really panicking. Then all of a sudden we saw a camel walking down the road! Which was weird, because we aren’t exactly near the desert in Algiers, plus were in one of the nicer parts of town called Sidi Yahia, eating at an outdoor cafe across from the United Colors of Benneton store. The camel’s handler was walking it around and accepting money to take pictures with it, a la the creepy Elmo outside 30 Rock in NY. Here’s a photo of one of my friends with the camel. The Mango store in the background gives you an idea of the area. Not so much the natural habitat of a camel.

It’s been a while since I posted anything, but I figured a visit from the big boss was a good reason to get back in the game. That’s right folks, Secretary Kerry made it to Algiers. We had a false start in November, when he was all set to come until urgent matters in other parts of the world caused him to postpone. This time, though, he touched down – for about 24 hours. He was in town for something called the “strategic dialogue” which is basically a fancier way of saying “high level bilateral talks”.

As you might imagine, a considerable amount of preparation precedes a visit from the Secretary of State. A whole team of people travels ahead of him and works with Embassy staff to arrange a detailed schedule of meetings, events, and working meals with various important people. Down time does not seem to be a thing when the Secretary is traveling. So much planning is required that just about everyone in the Embassy has to jump in and help. My job was to organize the Embassy Meet & Greet, where S comes to the Embassy and gives a speech to Embassy staff. (“S” is the State Department acronym for the Secretary. We love our acronyms. S is pretty much the easiest one).

Anyway. In the grand scheme of things, the Meet & Greet is a relatively straightforward job. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a billion details to worry about and questions that need answers. Podium or no podium? Risers or no risers? How many flags should we have? Where should they be? How should they be positioned? How far away should the event attendees stand from the podium/risers? How early do they have to be in place? What are the security requirements? Where is S coming from directly before the event? Where is he going afterwards? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

As for the rest of the visit, each event has it’s own individual set of those questions and variables. The whole thing is pretty complex. To try and help keep everyone on the same page, we had daily countdown meetings to go over the trip.

At the end of the day, though, you really only have time to focus on your event. I’m not sure how the rest of the visit went, though I hear it went well, but S’s brief appearance at the Embassy was a success. He came in, gave a good speech, kissed some babies, shook some hands, took some photos, and moved on to the next thing. During the event my job was basically to stand in the background, be on microphone duty, and try to stay out of the camera shots. I was mostly successful, but didn’t quite escape the lens of one of my colleagues. So here it is, me and S: