The Foreign Service Journal, January 2005

26 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 5 F O C U S O N R E F L E C T I O N S L IFE AND D EATH IN THE F OREIGN S ERVICE f, like me, you enjoy the descriptions of exotic places, strange spices and unusual encounters often found on these pages, then I wish you better luck next month. Oh, I do have memories of mist on the Rio Bravo, cactus in bloom in the desert, and roadrunners, owls and javelinas brightening up a walk through the Mexican brush. But this isn’t about those memories. This is about life and death on the U.S.-Mexican border. I once was talking to a U.N. colleague and said, “sometimes we saved people, sometimes we ...” He finished the sentence I was finding hard to finish myself. “Sometimes you lose people.” As a refugee coordinator in several war I W HEN YOU LIVE WHERE DEATH COMES EASILY , SOMETIMES YOU LOSE NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO . B Y T HOMAS H. A RMBRUSTER Jim Nuttle