I was asked to be the site officer for the embassy meet & greet event and Kirk worked the control office in the hotel. It was a great experience but we are both exhausted!! We had to reschedule our Barcelona trip and our hotel was non refundable but all the overtime should make up for that.
It is incredible the amount of planning and preparation that go into a visit like this. We were short staffed at the embassy because this holiday weekend is like our Christmas in the states. To the Muslims, this is their biggest religious holiday of the year so it was difficult finding local staff willing to work.
This visit was a bit of a surprise and we got less than the normal amount of time to plan for it. Things were very hectic! Secretary Clinton was supposed to arrive late Monday and visit the embassy Tuesday morning but because of hurricane Sandy, they moved up the departure time to make sure she got out of DC before the storm hit. So she arrived a full day early, which caused quite a bit of extra work!
She has been to Algeria twice this year, which is rare. She rarely visits the same country more than once a year. It was quite an honor for the country.
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