Getting the Job Done

Brandon and I have been in the Foreign Service since 2009, and Uzbekistan is the fourth country we've lived in.  Thankfully experience comes with each move and the learning curve eventually flattens out quite a bit.  I feel like this post is the first one where I feel a sense of confidence that I know what I'm doing and don't feel completely lost when it comes to getting things done. 

A lot of this is due to the fact that Uzbekistan and Tajikistan are very similar countries.  Tajiks are more Persian and Uzbeks are more Turkish, but the cultures are very close.  It helps that both are former Soviet countries and so the systems are based on the same thing.  My bad Russian helps me out equally well and I recognize the fruits and vegetables and know when they come into season.  

But even with the similarities, a lot of my ease with this transition just comes with hard-won experience.  I was able to get my own account for work orders, so within the first week here I had gotten rid of the furniture I didn't need, received furniture I did need, and had everything moved around the places that I wanted to.  When we were in Cairo, this took at least three months to get done, and I'm pretty sure I didn't even know that I could get more furniture.  

I had a housekeeper arranged before I got here, along with a pool guy.  I knew that the housekeeper would do pretty much whatever she wanted to, despite all my directions, so it didn't cause too much distress (only a few days) when I realized that my entire house was going to get cleaned three times a week.  I said a silent goodbye to my carefully cleaned house and said hello to my constantly cleaned house.  I also knew that the pool guy would show up on random days at random times without any prior notice.  I shrugged my shoulders and appreciated our clean pool.

In Dushanbe, after a year and a half of having insufficient towel storage in the children's bathroom, I finally ordered hooks and had them installed two months later.  I knew that we would leave them there, but didn't care anymore.  I've already ordered over a  dozen sets of hooks, one for each bathroom, several for a coat hanging area, a couple for pool towels outside, and a bunch for hanging up everything possible in our garage.  I also have shelves for the pool house and a pegboard for the kitchen since there's insufficient store for all my pots.  I know that all of these things will be my gift to the next tenant, and I just don't care anymore.  Money is an equal exchange for my sanity.

I've had an increasing list of things that I need to buy in Tashkent.  We don't have a car and I don't know where to get anything.  So I hired a driver and ran him all over Tashkent.  I got a picture framed, bought houseplants (that we will just abandon when we leave), bought weightlifting equipment, and found under counter lights for the kitchen.  By the end of the week, I had installed the lights.  At our last post this would have taken at least six months to get done, and eight if you included installing the lights.

I've taken the children to three summertime activities, hosted a pool day, gone to two birthday parties, attended a spouse coffee morning, gone to a friend's house for dinner, gone shopping at Tashkent's biggest bazaar with friends, and hosted church.  Usually I'm just beginning to talk to people at this point and thinking in vague terms about attending social events.

I'm happy for the experience that has come with our time spent overseas.  I'm happy that I will never be a complete newbie at the foreign service.  And also, I'm glad that I can just get things done.