POTUS Visit

The recent visit by GW Bush was viewed as an important event here in Mongolia. Invitations to hear his speech on Monday were hotly sought after. Needless to say, I was not on the list. But not to worry: The 49th state was well represented by fellow-Alaskan Amy Crawford, who was summoned to UB to represent Peace Corps workers. Hopefully I will prevail upon Amy to give a full report of the momentus event on this site before she departs again for her post in Tsetserleg.
Anyhow, while Amy was inside the Ick Hural witnessing the action and schmoozing with the muckety-mucks, I was watching from my apartment balcony across the street. If you look closely at this photo, you can see both countries' flags flying side-by-side in front of the Government House.

From my perspective on the balcony, the nicest thing about the POTUS visit was that the police blocked off all the main streets around the government house. So for four brief, joyous hours on Monday morning there was no traffic. It was eerily quiet without the constant cacophony of horns, engines and car alarms going off. Walking was safe and the air was clear. A nice respite.

But from the perspective of local officials, the visit was a gigantic logistical puzzle. Government employees here and those sent specially from the US literally spent the last three weeks preparing. In fact, I heard that the US Embassy staff were so worn out on Tuesday that they cancelled their Thanksgiving party. Such are the demands of diplomacy, I suppose.