Thursday, September 23, 2010

My first Hurricane

In my first four months at Post, I will have 4 different bosses.  There was a staffing gap of about 3 months between Consular Chiefs, so they filled the gap with a WAE (the acronym stands for While Actually Employed, because they are retirees who only get paid while actually employed - a stupid acronym but a good program).  The first WAE was not going to be able to stay until the permanent replacement got here - there would be a gap of about 3 weeks.  During this gap, there would only be me (3 months experience) and one other consular officer (8 months experience).  Moreover, the other consular officer had vacation scheduled for this week, which would have left only me.  Needless to say, I was not excited about this prospect.  Fortunately, they decided to send another WAE to fill that gap.

With our appointment schedule, I can limit how busy we are and arrange so that one officer can handle all the routine business.  But, the problem is that it is September in Belize, so we are in hurricane season.  If some sort of disaster occurred, I would be the only Consular officer here.  It may surprise you to know, but I don't really know what to do in a disaster.  Lo and behold, this week arrives and what is coming our way this weekend but Tropical Storm (soon to be hurricane) Matthew.  Thank God they sent the second WAE.
My weekend plans

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