The Foreign Service Journal, April 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2021 41 In late July, we finally arrived in Bogotá. Walking through the mostly empty El Dorado International Airport, where workers in full-body hazmat suits sprayed us and other passengers with disinfectant, was decidedly eerie. Our apartment wasn’t ready, because the pandemic had delayed the departure of the family living in it before us. We were required to quarantine for two weeks in a hotel apartment. It was a sharp contrast to previous postings, when we could get out and see the country—and meet people—immediately. The embassy couldn’t work on our assigned apartment because of neighborhood lockdowns and evolving COVID-19 protocols. We stayed in the small hotel apartment for nearly three months, trying to do our Zoommeetings without getting in each other’s way. Monica struggled to complete the embassy check-in virtually. One problem was that embassy officials expected the check-in process to be completed on State Depart- ment computer systems, an obstacle for people from other agen- cies without access to those systems. More than seven months after we arrived, Monica, like most U.S. Embassy Bogotá employees, is still working from home as the pandemic continues to rage here. While not having to commute into the office has its advantages, it is harder to build camaraderie, friendships and teams while working virtually. As this edition of the Journal goes to press, it seems that PCSing will continue to be complicated for a while longer. As of Feb. 10, 38 percent of posts worldwide were still in Diplomacy Strong’s Phase I, which limits onsite embassy workers to 40 percent of the full staff. Only 8 percent were in Phase III, which allows 80 percent or more of workers to be onsite. The State Department had also announced that interna- tional trips should be avoided unless they were mission critical, given current high rates of transmission in the United States. Be Prepared for Anything Our experience has by no means been unique, as my email exchanges with other members of the Foreign Service make clear. Take U.S. Ambassador to Uganda Natalie Brown, for instance, who had a bumpy ride PCSing from the United States to Uganda last fall. She found the changing COVID-19 testing requirements and practices of airlines and transit countries frustrating. Uganda required a negative test for entry, but Amsterdam, through which she transited, had additional requirements, telling passengers to complete forms they had not been made aware of prior to departure. “We were late leaving Amster- dam for Uganda,” Amb. Brown says, “because Rwanda, the first stop on the journey, wanted all travelers to register online for contact tracing. At the airport, not everyone had a smartphone to do this, so passengers helped out each other, and KLM delayed departure to accommodate all travelers. There is nothing the department could have done to prepare travelers for this, but the lesson for me was to be prepared for everything.” It is always good to be proactive with post, evenmore so during the confusion of a pandemic. The first leg of the trip to post was on a mostly empty plane. CAMERONWOODWORTH