In this, our 12th annual holiday letter, we report on our journeys abroad and hope to reconnect with family and friends with whom we have far too little chance to talk. As always there is too much to tell in a short letter, but feel free to check out www.conorandryan.blogspot.com for photos and updates on the boys.
This year we met President Obama (my fourth President met!), traveled to Indonesia and around China, and generally enjoyed a country of great contrasts. Shanghai is a beautiful city, awash with cash, yet still showing vestiges of Old China. A repressive government censors the Internet and maintains thousands of video cameras in its Big Brother attempt to see and control all. Yet it encourages new enterprise and a flexible environment for business and shopping and continues steps towards greater openness. The city has world-class restaurants across the alley from festering meat on the street. There are Harvard PhDs reading professional journals on the subway next to illiterate migrants looking for work. On pristine, trash-free streets, you will see public spitting and urination. Is China 1st world or 3rd? Vulgar or refined? Poor or wealthy? Communist or capitalist? The answer is yes.
I have been serving as a Consul, working 6 months in American Citizen Services, helping the sick and destitute, liaising with the Chinese government on behalf of crime victims (and criminals) and scrambling to respond to strict Chinese H1N1 measures that left many Americans confined to quarantine and separated from their children. The highlight of my work year was time spent in Guangzhou working on immigration issues. Most Chinese immigrants come from South China, and always have, making work there fascinating. I felt a part of history, and was particularly pleased to facilitate adoptions of Chinese orphans, including many abandoned special needs children. I helped a few hundred American families adopt, and will likely not have the same job satisfaction, or the same pride in the generosity and caring of Americans, again.
Ryan is 18 months old now and thriving. He is as bilingual as one can be at that age, using a baffling variety of Chinese, English and complete babble. He responds to certain commands in Chinese (sit, walk), others in English (eat, play) and most (get down, don’t eat that) not at all. He has no concern for his own body, a confident bravery born of a life protected by the superhuman reflexes of Kate and Xiao Wu, our beloved nanny. He is smart as a whip, especially while ingeniously foiling attempts to keep him safe. On the bright side, it is nice to have someone in the house that can open childproof latches and lids. His defining characteristic, though, is an inexplicable infatuation with cars. More than an object of desire, “car “is also his favorite word, used 84 times so far today and we are not yet into evening. Dogs are nearly as good. Put a dog in a car, and the kid screams like he won the lottery. If we could find a way to integrate a bath, dog and car, he would implode in a fit of ecstasy.
Conor is now in 2nd grade but continues to love math, which makes me suspicious. He’s quickly approaching the “crap, daddy forget how to do that” phase of his Stanford math program, and has sent me scrambling to review the FOIL method, geometric proofs and other pieces of information my efficient brain long ago put into archival storage so I can have ready access to useful tidbits about Paris Hilton and Twilight. He enjoys swimming, and we’ve now done the pretentious expat thing and gotten a hotel club membership to encourage his hobby. Sadly, as he gets fit swimming, all I get is 15% off of Marriott’s excellent chocolate croissants, adding a growing girth to my receding hairline. Conor remains a kind and caring young man. He donated some of his allowance this year to help fund a village newspaper in French West Africa, and the rest to purchase goats and chickens for some families there. Yes, he’s 7 and buying goats for families in Africa – only in the Foreign Service. If he were not at this moment flailing on the floor by my feet chanting “com-pu-ter, com-pu-ter” in an attempt to wrest control from me, I could more convincingly argue he was an incredibly mature young man.
Kate did some teaching last year at Conor’s elementary school, but recently has focused on keeping things running smoothly in what remains a 3rd world country in many respects. Just getting routine errands done means braving cross-town traffic in this city of 26 million people who have little respect for traffic lanes or signs, and doing so with a fearless and vocal 18 month old in tow is no easy task. She has become a master of State Department regulations and, more impressive, the subtle rules that govern Chinese chaos. She also gets most of the credit for how well the boys have adapted to life overseas. That said, she more than any of us is eager to move on to our next post, somewhere a bit less hectic and with clean air.
So she is especially thrilled that our next stop will be Barbados. Next summer, I’ll be again doing political analysis and solidifying a very convenient expertise in Caribbean affairs. I’ll be working on the US relationship with 7 Eastern Caribbean nations (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts/Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines) making me very popular, not just with Kate, but with folks in the UN looking for votes. It couldn’t have turned out better, as I’ll be serving in a promoted position working with great people on an absolutely stunningly beautiful island. Conor’s school looks great (http://providenceelementary.ifp3.com/root/providenceelementary/iphoto/main2.cfm), and we are looking forward to living close to the beach. We are taking reservations now for Chateau Floyd, with priority booking available to frequent visitors.
As I reflect on the year and China’s dichotomies, I am reminded that things are rarely black and white, and that life and diplomacy require patience and a broad view. While it is too often easy to focus on annoyances, maturity is the ability to look past short-term issues towards larger trends placed into context. It is something that may have been lacking in parts of US foreign policy recently, though this perspective has been a staple of our dealings with China for decades. Engagement and patience pay off. It has been wonderful to be part of changes that continue to happen here, despite continued need for reform, and it has also been wonderful to have such a good reminder to remain focused on the big picture, not the small annoyances, in all things in life.
We leave 2009 hoping to continue to make new friends while maintaining with old as we move across the globe. Until then, we hope our letter brings us a bit closer and helps us overcome the distance our Foreign Service lifestyle creates between us.
With Love, From Greg, Kate, Conor and Ryan
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