A stressful test

I took the foreign service exam (to work for the State Department at a U.S. embassy overseas) for the second time yesterday. The test went well; it was all on a computer this time, unlike last time, when I took it in Bern, and when it was done on paper but scored by computer.

It was getting to the test at the U.S. embassy that was more stressful than the test itself. Sarah had arranged the day before to have a driver from her office pick me up at 8:00 (the man she is replacing said this was okay and for us to do this because the embassy is clear on the other side of town and I would never get there by myself). The test was to begin at 9:00, and Sarah told the driver I needed to be there at 8:45. At 8:00, there was no driver at our place, and I waited until 8:15, at which point I marched down to the corner where there’s a taxi stand. There was no taxi there, but when I mentioned it to a few men who were loitering there, one man said he had his “taxi” in a nearby compound. I didn’t care at that point what got me there. He drove a van for a safari company – he’s probably an in-town driver who does airport transfers for tourists.

Indeed, it was a long way across town, but he got me there just before 9:00 – what a relief. I went to the closest entrance. There were two lines of people – one short and one long – and they all looked like Kenyans. Being an American going to my own embassy (my experience had been similar before – that citizens can usually go ahead of other people in line) and having an important test to get to, I walked to the front ahead of all of them (and got some stares) and talked to the guard. After telling me to wait a few moments to the side, I was taken inside the building. The guard inside was a little confused about why I was there, but I asked him to just call someone to find out where I needed to go if it wasn’t that place. He told me it was the other – the main – entrance.

So I went back out and back to the main entrance. Like at the first entrance I went to, there’s a guard at the head of the walkway who looks in your bag and wands you for any guns you’re carrying. Once I got inside the building at this entrance, there was a little explaining again about why I was there and then more inspections of the contents of my bag. They kept my passport there as well as my cell phone, snacks I had brought for during the test (two donuts and a banana) and breath mints (no food allowed inside by visitors). Then they sent my bag through the X-ray machine. From there I had to walk up to the embassy building. In the entrance to that one, there was another guard who looked inside my bag and wanded me too! Then he told me to have a seat in a lobby area. At this point it was probably 9:12. A woman from human resources came out after a few minutes and got me.

I had to sign a paper in a conference room, which took a few more minutes before I was whisked into a computer training room where there was a computer on, waiting for me. I sat down and immediately started the test. It didn’t appear to be a problem to any of the test administrators that I was late. There were three other people there taking the test, and at no point did I even see their faces – we all did the test on our own and privately on the computer.

The test was in four parts, all of it on the computer, so I got tired of staring at a screen all morning. The final part was an essay question, and we had 30 minutes to write it. Last time we had a choice of topics, but this time there was only one – basically what are the most important criteria voters should use in judging which candidates are fit to be president. That’s fairly easy to form any opinion on. What they test you on is how well you can present an argument in writing.

I left the room shortly after 12:30. I had wanted to take care of some other business while I was there – renewing my passport – and one of the human resources ladies took me to her desk so I could print out the form (must be on 8 ½ x 11 paper, which they don’t use outside the U.S.). So I got to see slightly more of the building, which is a very nice place. I felt like I was in any office building in the U.S., as opposed to an office like Sarah’s, which definitely feels African and a bit pieced together and not well-laid out, which is typical. This was the compound, you recall, that was one of the African embassies bombed by al Qaeda in 1992, killing 212 people. Across from the embassy is the U.N. compound. But this is why there are so many levels of security. And throughout the building are big plaques saying what you should do when you hear different types of alarms.

When I was finished there, I called the man who had brought me there to take me home. He said I could pay when he brought me back. He knew I was an American – a rich white man – so I know he charged me way more than the standard. So I got taken for a ride – in more than one way. But I wasn’t in any mood to argue with him after the stress of getting to the test and from the weariness of taking the test.