The presentation that I attended was about life in Afghanistan. Roy Glover was the key note speaker who spoke about his time as a public diplomacy officer in Afghanistan. He began his presentation talking about his life and how different events affected his career path. He also explained the detailed process of how he became a public diplomat. His duties as a public diplomacy officer were to work with the people of Afghanistan and to inform them of certain U.S. policies. Mr. Glover also worked with the news media to try and promote U.S. interests with the people of Afghanistan. Another part of his job was informing Washington about what people thought about different U.S. policies. Roy Glover worked in a couple different countries before being sent to Afghanistan. He talked about the extensive bidding process that people go through to apply to work in different countries. He was granted access to work in the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. While he was in Afghanistan he spoke about how life there was very secluded and protected. In his PowerPoint, he showed many pictures of where he lived. His living corridors were very small, similar to that of a freshman dorm room. Mr. Glover was there during the war and spoke about how that influenced his work and lifestyle. He talked about how much security was there and the many different precautions they took. He lived inside a community surrounded by large cement walls with guard posts protecting 24 hours, 7 days a week. Mr. Glover didn’t have many opportunities to go out and experience the culture of Afghanistan because of the many limitations due to security. Even though he was limited in his ability to really explore Afghanistan he was still able to share with us what life was like to live in Afghanistan during the war. It was also interesting to hear about how his duties as a public diplomacy officer shifted day-to-day depending on what was going on in the world. It seemed like a very interesting job because every day he woke up not knowing what was going to happen next. It was interesting to hear personal stories from someone who was exposed to the war and how it affected his life and job.
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