"Only Hotels"

During this visit I was assigned to be in charge of Hotels.  It's very important, and one that needs a good group of people to ensure that the myriad of changes (and there will always be changes) gets made.  You also have to be able to go with the flow and make sure that when someone whose name you've never seen rocks up that you can plug them into a room.

I'm very lucky in that I have a local staff member, whom I'll refer to as D, who is very good at this.  He's definitely unflappable, and gets things done.  So we've got the unenviable task of making sure the traveling party is taken care of, and that the hotels are happy with us when we leave so that if we need them again (and we might, very soon) then they'll help us out on short notice.

The only issue is that the trip had a lot of moving parts, and most of them were here in Johannesburg.  (The Embassy is in Pretoria, and that's where the majority of the people work, but everyone comes to Johannesburg.  It'd be like if New York City was 45 miles from Washington, DC.  No one would come to DC, and no one comes to Pretoria.  Digression over.)  Anyways, there was a lot going on here in Jozi, and I knew a decent amount of what was going on.  It is my city.  So during one of the meetings, when the person in charge of something wasn't there, I threw out the answer because I knew it.

Afterwards, I was reminded that I was only hotels, and that I needed to stay in my lane.  Good point, as hotels are very important, and need a focus.

This phrase, "only hotels" has become something of an in-joke here since then.  I accidentally answered that I was "only hotels" during a countdown meeting, which isn't something you want to do if you want to have a long career in the foreign service.  (Luckily people thought it was funny.)  Sadly I missed the meet and greet, but Lovely English Lass apparently did a fantastic job on it, and everyone was very happy.  Also, the VVIP left with family in tow, no one got hurt, and no one got arrested, so a successful visit!