9/11

On Sept 11th, 2001, Joe and I were living in Rio de Janeiro. Joe was at school that morning and I was at work at the consulate. To make a phone call in the consulate, you have to have your own phone code. It took forever to get one so I had been using the code of the guy who was Joe's sponsor for about 6 months. It quit working that morning (having been shut off by the comms guys finally). I headed up to the communications office to see what was up and while I was waiting, one of the operators asked me if I had heard anything about a plane hitting the "Gemini Towers" in New York. She had received a couple of calls but we hadn't heard yet. I told her I'd never heard of the Gemini Towers (Gemini is the Portuguese word for twins). We looked on CNN but it was down. About then, we figured out she meant the Twin Towers, but still couldn't get anything other than a one line snippet. It sounded like a small commuter plane was stuck in the building and I have to admit it sounded comical at first. I still feel guilty about thinking it was funny.

I got on the elevator and headed back downstairs to tell the consular people what was going on. As I stepped out of the elevator, Brad, one of the FSOs went running past, telling me "it's terrorists" as he ran towards the Marine guards to let them know.

After that, it all gets a bit hazy. Joe called and I told him what happened. He rounded up the other American students. We had over 500 Brazilian passports in our office that day and the owners of those passports were all waiting inside the auditorium for their visa interviews. They were as stunned as we were, but they felt like a security risk, so we sent them all home and told them to come back later. There was a report on CNN that the State Dept. had been car bombed. SInce the communications system had crashed and we couldn't get through on the phones, it seemed like it was true. Everyone in that building had close friends at State (obviously) and we were all very worried. We organized a convoy of vehicles to go get the kids from the American School and take them home. The school was closing and many parents couldn't get there in time to get their kids so people just took as many as would fit in their car. Finally the security guy gave the order to close the consulate. Joe stayed back with the Marines to help secure everything and I went home with my friend in a taxi. I spent the rest of the day in front of the TV.

We had an American friend doing an exchange program with the Chilean Navy. The Chilean school he was with just happened to be visiting that week. The night before, we had all gone out to dinner - about 5 US officers and wives/girlfriends, plus the Argentine and Chilean guys who happened to be at Joe's school or with the Chilean group. We ate dinner at what I think was the best restaurant in Rio. Dinner was wonderful, but not expensive. There were maybe twenty of us at this impromptu meal and the conversation was amazing - people talking in English, Spanish and Portuguese, switching back and forth as needed. The next day, our friend came over to our house in the afternoon. The Chileans were being very supportive, but he just wanted to be with Americans at that point. Actually, he wanted to be with his wife and daughters, but they were back in Chile. So, he hung out with us as we went from house to house, just talking with each other and trying to understand.

The only other thing I really remember from that time was how supportive everyone was. Waitresses, people on the street, and every Brazilian we knew made a point of telling us how much they supported us. It felt really good and it makes me so angry when I think about how all those positive feelings have been squandered by our president.

Thanks to casperflea for inspiring me to write this.