As the wheels touched down in Asuncion late on on 3 January 2013, my mind rehearsed the lines I had prepared about the UK re-opening its Embassy after an 8 year gap. No press on this occasion so we make our way to the first new “Embassy”, room 109 of Hotel La Mision, which was to be our home and my office for the next few months.
In any project, the critical dependencies chart is a good place to focus early attention. Top of the list was the need to find an office, without which, we could not open a bank account; hire staff or formally register with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Part of the rationale for re-opening was the booming economy in Paraguay. That’s good news on one front, but as a result everyone wants an office. We get gazumped twice on good options for office space and on arrival, I begin the search again. Finally, we manage to hook up a private deal that assures us of an office. That also means hiring our first member of local staff. With the addition of a talented B3 from London, we have a team on the ground at last. There is everything to do and for a while we adopted Seasick Steve’s (a homeless blues man found on the streets of the US) anthem, “I started out with nothing, and I’ve still got most of it left. In the meantime, we forge ahead.
We need good people – everyone joining the team is going to have to learn from scratch, with the early hires passing on the knowledge they have picked up already. During the next year, staff are travelling all the time on training courses, mentoring and regional workshops to build up their knowledge and support network. In a VSEP that often means staff covering for absences on subjects they are yet to learn. Everyone mucks in and cracks on – there is no other option, as we still have the re-fit project of the Embassy going on throughout this first year. In July, the Ambassador, Jeremy Hobbs arrives, just in time for the new President of Paraguay’s inauguration. In October 2013, we get a further boost from Minister Swire’s visit. It’s a perfect way to cap off the first phase of the project and transition into the next phase. The Minister offers to host a major investment event, “Invest in Paraguay”, in November 2014 thus opening the door on boosting the bi-lateral commercial relationship. I also attempt to enhance my ailing bid to be the next Bond with a cameo part in a video about re-opening the office.
It’s been an amazing, sometimes tough, but always exciting three years here. I feel both proud of all that “Team Asuncion” has done and a little sad to be leaving when there is so much more to come. It’s not often in life that you get to help re-open an Embassy or work on a winning team. That team stretches wider than the staff working here. In ESD, FCOS and on the Paraguay Desk in London the support and dedication has been awesome and “Project Paraguay” would not have been possible without it.
I will follow with much interest the highs and lows of making it happen in Paraguay. Oh and by the way Steve, “ We ain’t got none of it left”.