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On the Bangledesh Rocket

February 2002

by Bobbie Bergesen It is the 1970’s and you are stationed in the newly independent nation of Bangladesh. Take a scenic trip with the author and her husband on a paddle wheel ship through the delta region called the Mouths … Read more

Mission to Mozambique

February 2002

by Alfonso Arenales The author was a career U. S. diplomat from 1957 to 1988. In addition to senior assignments in Washington, DC, and on the U. S. delegation to the UN in New York, he held positions abroad in … Read more

The Devil’s Diplomat in Mid-West America

March 2001

by Rick Sherman The author, now retired in Washington, D.C., served as a career U. S. diplomat from 1966 to 1993. Among his six posts abroad, he was consul general at Auckland, New Zealand. See a previous contribution of his … Read more

The Troia Horse

December 2000

A BRAZILIAN DIPLOMAT in Lisbon first mentioned Tróia to my husband and me soon after our arrival in the late 1960s. His enthusiastic description of the place sent us there on the next springlike Sunday. My husband, Alf, had been … Read more

Picturing Cuba: Life and Work on Castro’s Island

December 2000

Lauren Wilcox, a Brown University graduate, now studies creative writing in a Masters program at the University of Florida in Gainesville. In June 2000, she made her second visit to Cuba with a group sponsored by the Church of Reconciliation … Read more

Letters from Niger: Peace Corps Adventures in the Sahara

December 2000

When Jim Bullington, a former U.S. ambassador and regular contributor to these pages, decided he’d had enough of retirement, he applied for a Peace Corps position and soon found himself in West Africa. He promised to keep our readers posted … Read more

Welcome to the Real Foreign Service

August 2000

ENTERED ON ACTIVE DUTY with the Foreign Service in September 1968. Like most first-tour, single officers of that era, my initial assignment was in Vietnam with the joint civilian-military operation CORDS. After a year I was transferred to the embassy … Read more

The Unpleasant and Uncompromising Captain Q

August 2000

As the author, a retired U. S. Foreign Service officer, observes, “For most of us, making history is not in the cards. But,for any of us a close brush with history can happen any time — perhaps without our knowing!” … Read more

Moral Hazards: A Short Story

April 2000

The author lived in Havana as a Foreign Service spouse in the 1990s. Here she presents — in fictional form — an impression of Cuban life at that time. ~ Ed.   THE SEA STRETCHES OUT, LUMINOUS AND BLUE, to … Read more