Congressional Meet and Greet

This past thursday some of the American staff along with some volunteers represented Peace Corps at a congressional meet and greet at the home of the ambassador. There were 8 congressmen from sub-committee of foreign relations committee. Also invited to this meet and greet were high ranking embassy employees, high ranking military officers, elite members of Peruvian society and economic specialists that are here working on APEC.

The whole idea of a meet and greet is that all the people who are invited stand around and mingle, have cocktails and eat cheese. Other than that, I didn't really know what to expect. I was definitely looking forward to this event and honored I was given an invitation, but I wasn't really excited of nervous. Some of the embassy workers I've been hanging out with lately have been filling my head with all kinds of ideas. They don't really look at these meet and greets as fun social gatherings, but rather a mandatory evening where they are technically still working after a long week instead of sitting in their jammies at home. It's part of the foreign service job to constantly attend events like this, so the thrill of it kind of gets lost. Also, some people have suggested that the congressmen's visit to Peru, strategically placed right after the election, was more for the trip to Machu Picchu than accomplishing political agenda.

I didn't want to be innocently excited, so I played it cool and acted like it was no big thing to be going to this. When in actuality, it wasa huge deal. I am after all, a Peace Corps volunteer. I don't get the excuse to get dressed up every day. I've never met a member of congress before. I got a reason to be out of site on a random thursday night, and there was free food and alcohol. While to most attendees, the night was just mandatory protocol. To me it was very exciting.

It gave me a window into a world I'd only seen on episodes of the west wing. My first reaction was that I was standing in a room that was mostly white men. Everyone was in small groups chatting and my job was to butt in and introduce myself. Luckily for me, I actually knew a handful of non peace corps people who were used to this type of thing and they introduced me to a few people I didn't know until I got the hang of it (or until the pisco sours kicked in and my shyness melted away). I schmoozed with a lot of people and by the end of the night felt pleased with the effort I had put in.

Something that was new to me, was the conversations one has at these types things. It was very standardized and formal. I felt like there were strict guide lines that you couldn't wander out of when speaking. I didn't know what these guidelines were but it became very apparent to me when I stepped outside the lines and said something that didn't conform to the protocol conversation. But I guess that was to be expected by the Peace Corps volunteer who doesn't know any better.

There was one congress woman from California who I made an effort to talk to. She was the one member of congress that wasn't going strait to Cuzco, but flying up Cajamarca to visit an American woman who has been in jail for 12 years for terrorist activity. This woman is now pregnant in jail and the case is very controversial. I spoke to her a little bit about the case and being from California. Her district is in LA and I'm so used to people from So-Cal not knowing anything about Nor-Cal, so when asked where I'm from, I usually brush the answer aside with a "Sacramento area/you wouldn't know it" kind of response. But being a California congress woman, she had lived and worked out of Sacramento for 14 years. She knew Woodland, silly me.

The meet and greet was an interesting, exciting and intimidating experience. It was a new perspective look at political and foreign service life and has given me a lot to think about.