The Foreign Service Journal, March 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2022 61 Working remotely in the United States offers opportunities to help U.S. communities and raise public awareness about diplomacy and the Foreign Service. BY SARAH WARDWE L L Consular Skills Put toUse in Rural America Sarah Wardwell is a Foreign Service officer currently serving on a remote work assignment with the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ Office of 1CA. She has previously served in Jakarta and Santo Domingo. L ast summer I lay awake at night with the windows open, my cell phone next to my bed, go-bags packed next to the front door and our car ready with emergency supplies. We came to rural southern Oregon to the town of Ashland, where my husband grew up, while on authorized departure in March 2020 because of COVID-19. I had switched into a remote work agreement after a few months, staying in the idyllic mountains and seemingly safe from the pandemic, and working on communicating about leadership and management for the Bureau of Consular Affairs. What we weren’t safe from in Ashland was natural disasters. At one point we were surrounded by three wildfires, and a fire ripped through our town after jumping across the freeway. My nerves were already a little fried after leaving the Dominican Republic in 72 hours, having friends oversee the packout while sending little text updates or short video chats—just trying to remember what we’d left in each room and hoping not too much would be lost in the packout was really stressful. On top of that, starting a new job virtually and being several months into the pandemic, I felt like we were stuck in fight-or-flight mode. Thankfully, the fall brought rain and the fire danger seemed to subside. Then one day neighbors plastered our mailboxes with FEATURE