Swearing In

Taking the oath

Joey was officially sworn-in to the State Dept yesterday. His brother, Ricky, and I watched as he took his formal oath.  The ceremony was nice - short and sweet - and it was really neat to hear them read the names of each newly sworn-in officer and where they are all going.

The 156th A-100 class (and a few ambassadors in front)

I thought I'd share a could-be-worse story.  One of Joey's classmates, Jeff, was assigned to Libreville, Gabon, on Flag Day.  I was envious; Libreville was our favorite African post since its not very dangerous and you live right on the beach.  Since Libreville is French-speaking, Jeff, who doesn't speak French, anticipated arriving sometime next summer, once he had completed his French courses here.  Thursday morning Jeff received an email from his CDO (career development officer), which said something like "Give me a call ASAP, hope you're flexible :) "

Jeff called his CDO, who said that it turned out the Libreville posting had actually already been filled and so they were going to need to send Jeff to Niger.  Before Christmas.  Double-whammy.

Niger, Nigeria's neighbor to the northwest, is 98% Muslim, which doesn't work out so well for Jeff, who is gay.  When we talked to him yesterday after the swearing-in, he was still pretty shell shocked.  He said that the post reports recommended buying a horse.  His partner, Michael, also seemed exceptionally overwhelmed and told me he wasn't so sure if he was going to accompany Jeff or not.  Whatever they choose, I wish them nothing but the best.

And now I am very, very, very happy we are got posted to Nigeria and not Gabon.