The Foreign Service Journal, December 2011

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 51 been at post a few weeks met me at the entrance to the embassy. The building could best be described as a one-room schoolhouse. She al- most gleefully handed me a key ring with what seemed like a hun- dred keys on it and said, “Here, these are now yours.” There were keys for the front and back door of the embassy, every office, some sheds, a few storage lock- ers and the warehouses (which were inside the Kyrgyz president’s compound). I had just a few minutes to drop my bags at the hotel before we headed off to Manas Airport to meet the U.S. government “support flight” out of Germany that was de- livering supplies, vehicles and equipment for the embassy. The support flights were our lifeline in the early days. They brought everything from Post-it notes to Mosler safes. At the time, there wasn’t a forklift to be had anywhere in the country, so our laborers unloaded dozens of pallets of supplies and equipment by hand, including a couple of safes. We also drove a bright-blue, used Dodge pickup truck that the NPSU had procured for us down the ramp of the C-140 transport plane. Driving that truck some 20 miles to the warehouse, I drew a lot of stares. Not too many young women drove cars in Bishkek at that time, let alone an oversized pickup truck. FromOctober until May the fol- lowing year, I stayed at the Hotel Pishpek. I recall that we paid $5 per day, and I think we were over- charged. The room was so drafty the curtains would billow in the breeze all night long. On several occasions, snow accumulated inside as well as outside the windows. Suitable housing was not easy to find, let alone make ready. Convincing landlords to sign a standard U.S. gov- ernment housing contract requir- ed a lot of patience and copious amounts of dark chai tea. Every time I thought back on the days spent in GSO training studying the Paris housing market guidelines, I shook my head. I’ll never forget my first days in Bishkek. My assignment there truly was the beginning of an ad- venture of a lifetime. Julie A. Ruterbories began her For- eign Service career with a consular/ general services officer tour in Bish- kek from 1992 to 1994. She is now a senior Foreign Service officer who has also served in Baku, London, Skopje, Pristina and Washington, D.C. In Washington, Ms. Ruter- bories served in the State Department Operations Center and as a congressional liaison officer, where she received the Secretary’s Award for Public Outreach. She is currently serving as consul general in Amsterdam. Going to Work for the Americans Embassy Bishkek By Tamara Burkovskaia T he experience of the collapse of the Soviet Union and “the parade of sovereignties” of the 15 new in- dependent states was like a hurricane that lasted several months. Even though by then people were long- ing for change, like many others I had no idea what was going to happen to us. Reading an evening newspaper on Feb. 1, 1992, I came F OCUS Once we finally received official cars, a problem arose: high-octane gasoline was lacking in Bishkek. Visit of then-Vice President Al Gore to Bishkek, 1993. From right: Gore, Admin Of- ficer Tim Harley, Julie Ruterbories and GSO/Vice Consul Shawn Dorman. White House Photographer