The Foreign Service, Journal Entry Morocco

If you're still wondering what foreign service people do for a living, here are some snapshots from my Morocco journal. As mentioned in the previous article, overseas assignments come in various colors: black for hellholes, pink for paradise, off-white for dull.

® Each week embassy staffers take alternate turns at duty officer. That means you're on call 24/7 to respond to emergencies—kind of like firemen. Usually nothing happens and it's an off-white night or weekend. When something hits the fan, the colors get more interesting. A phone call at two in the morning from the Marine Security Guard sends me scrambling down to the local jail, jeans and sweater hastily yanked on over nightclothes, hair a mess. The Moroccan police are holding an eighteen-year-old American for having tried to sneak hashish onto an airplane. To make matters worse he's lost his passport. Since the average traveler does not have diplomatic immunity, the unfortunate guy languishes in the slimy place for months before we can get him released. Many people would love (kill) to have an American passport, so it's wise to keep it safe when traveling.

® Jaren Stone is a newly arrived Junior Officer on duty when he's summoned, again after hours, to the Hilton Hotel. Inexperienced but creative, he calls in an embassy health officer and the two are able to convince the panic-stricken hotel manager that the American man lying on the floor in room 808 of the Rabat Hilton has died of a stroke, not the Black Death. Jaren's French and Arabic help quell the hysteria, but not before the manager quarantines the entire hotel including the dead man's distraught wife. The following day Jaren admits to me: "Back in Washington I hated my language instructor. Right now I'd kiss his feet."

During normal work hours a consular officer handles American citizen affairs, the disposition of dead bodies as well as issuance of visas and passports. So what's the difference between an embassy and a consulate?

® For starters, embassies are in capital cities with ambassadors at the helm. Instead of CEOs, they're called Chiefs of Mission. They report to the Secretary of State and serve at the discretion of the President. Consulates General are in other major cities, headed by a Consul General. Ever notice the classy French Consulate General on New York City's Fifth Avenue, while their embassy sits in Washington, D.C? At this writing Patrick Duddy is the American Consul General in Sao Paolo, Brazil, one of the largest consulates in the world. The President politically appoints some principal officers; Duddy is a career officer of the Senior Foreign Service. Depending on the circumstances, some American embassies like Baghdad, Paris or London have hundreds to thousands of personnel, whereas smaller embassies the likes of Lithuania or Luxembourg have fewer staff. Once upon a time there existed an entity called a legation. Confused? Fahgetaboutit.

® Think: Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabs; the likes of Paul Bowles and Henri Matisse. Tangier, Morocco was probably one of the last of the legations before the American diplomatic presence in that Bohemian city was moved out of the old walled quarter to the new town where it was eventually closed.

® The relationship between Morocco and the United States is an enduring one. The old legation in the heart of Tangier's medina was a gift to the United States from the Sultan of Morocco in 1821 and we still own it. From its rooftop, the Strait of Gibraltar and the RIF Mountains, from the medieval cobblestone streets below, the aromatic scent of cuisine to die for. The original structure (restored) is an American museum and cultural center (http://www.maroc.net/legation/) amidst the clamor of merchants, donkeys, artists, writers and expatriates. With stunning Moorish architecture surrounding the characteristic inner courtyard, which is open to the sky, the museum displays an impressive collection of 17th to 20th century art—an American jewel in the crown of this North African Kingdom. And skiing one hour from the oasis of Marrakesh is no hardship either. One of the benefits of an assignment in paradise.

Susan Scharfman is a freelance writer and former Foreign Service Officer.