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HOT OFF THE PRESS

Evacuation: a/k/a
"Something That Will Never Happen To Me"
by Mary Culham, wife of HOM, Caracas

"You're being evacuated" Those words have the effect of a plunge into icy waters. The instantaneous effect is one of shock and disbelief... denial... followed in the seeming blink of an eye by your getting out of there, quickly! The difference is that evacuation from a post can happen too quickly. Leaving with the children while your husband stays behind? It's unthinkable! This, though, is a "non-negotiable" of Department life. However ardently you protest, the fact is: you pack. What do most people know being told that they are leaving within 24 hours, respond with "oh, wait; let me check the FSD's first"?

Speaking as one who did not read the FSD's before packing, let me tell you that you don't have to squeeze all your belongings into a single bag; you are allowed "excess baggage". And, as you pack for "days or at most just a couple of weeks", realize that it may well be a longer stay than you ever dreamed it could be. Pack for that!

The Department will be waiting. They reach out with kindness and professionalism and a real desire to help. You will be housed in a hotel suite, be given a food allowance and --if it's winter--a basic "transitional" clothing allowance... This is a good start! In the first few days, transportation costs are manageable under the FSD's when you're taxi-ing back and forth between the hotel and Foreign Affairs, trying to figure things out. A hotel suite with a kitchen is great for a few days or even a week... but it doesn't have measuring spoons or good-sized pots and pans or condiments that you need to make a real dinner for your family when the days stretch into weeks and then go on.... without a definite end in sight! The Ottawa area is a lovely place to be, and you take the kids out to Camp Fortune or to visit the many museums or the malls to take advantage of sales on clothes that they need for school... but your car is at home in the garage; not here! You're lonely; you need to be in touch with loved ones. The cost of long-distance phone calls from hotels, however, is astronomical. E-mail is the obvious answer but your computer is at home in the country you've left, and an internet café is not an option when you wake up at 2:00 a.m., particularly not when you have children sleeping beside you. Frustrations mount; people get claustrophobic and irritable. They want to go home! Is this when they call on the professional counseling services that are provided by SERV? It's doubtful.

They've reached that point where "denial" that this will last much longer begins to sink under the burden (both emotional and financial) that they (you) bear in these continuing circumstances. You need a computer but you're not an employee, so the Department can't lend you one. So you rent one, at your own cost. In order to get around, you rent a car, again at your own cost. You need more than just the coat and boots and mittens you're provided enough for - you need winter clothes. Again, that's at your cost. And then you find out that your husband is still paying the full cost of housing for the family in Caracas, while bereft of the benefits. This is getting VERY EXPENSIVE. And the pressure mounts. Again and again, you give yourself a pep-talk, "starting over" mentally/attitudinally, week after week, to keep spirits up but... The reality - is - hard. Much harder and more complex than one is prepared for. There are issues of loneliness, of trying to create "normalcy" for children who are having their own reactions to the situation, the frustration of not having items one has already bought and has at own's fingertips "at home" but cannot function well without "here", the lack of friends "next door", the sense not belonging, concern for more than your loved one but also those friends, colleagues and house-staff that you've left behind! And the list goes on...

What more can the Department do to help than it already does? On behalf of all evacuees, here are a few suggestions:

  • Be prepared with packages of things that people need when "displaced" --things as simple as pots and pans and measuring spoons, a backgammon board, playing cards (like a pack-up kit);
  • Provide necessities like computers, access to cars, immediate scheduling of mantoux tests for school age children (as required prior to enrollment), and access to doctors and dentists that will see them!
  • On a more personal note: reach out! Have someone call on each and every evacuee, rather than waiting for them to come in to SERV. Ask them how they are and follow up on them (if they answer "oh, we're fine", that is probably prior to the reality setting in on them).
  • Inform them of their options. (How can they know the answers when they don't even know what questions they're entitled to ask?)

In short, truly consider the needs of each individual or family. Allow for some flexibility when and where appropriate. Give them the tools they need to operate independently, but stay near. Evacuation is a hardship... real, personal, and utterly outside of their control. They are counting on you.