The Foreign Service Journal, January 2008

to check the operation, they were promptly arrested by the suspicious Equatorial Guineans. Complicating matters further, there was no official American presence in the country at the time. Armed with the great seal of the United States (which later served, upside down, as a drinks tray) and a footlocker containing cash and one- time pads, the instant embassy and chargé arrived at this difficult time. I followed several months later and for several months was the only non- African female in the country. After two years working at this amazing post, during which time we saw the estab- lishment of a chancery, the arrival of a Mobil Oil exploration team, the ex- pulsion of the Nigerian cocoa plan- tation workers, public executions and the descent of Macias Nguema into paranoid insanity, we were due to be transferred out. My husband actually asked for an extension, but the State Department decided otherwise. In due course, a replacement arrived for me — Don Leahy — and for my husband — Al Erdos. We had requested two families to replace us, because it had been difficult for both me and my husband to be away from post at the same time. We knew right from the outset that trouble was brewing. Don Leahy had only one previous Foreign Service posting, in charge of a motor pool in Latin America (where he met his wife). He did not type, had no training in the administrative functions he was supposed to perform, and was the very opposite of a bon vivant. Al Erdos, who arrived a month or so later, was, to put it charitably, pompous. He was the type who could not bring himself to fetch something across the room from where he was sitting, and had to ring for a servant to do it for him. This at a post where my husband and I painted the chancery floor on our hands and knees, and I J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 9 L E T T E R S 4800 Wisconsin Ave. N.W. 202-537-3000 www.MartensVolvo.com Call for program details and additional specials. Contact Dana Martens at 202-885-5312 or email DMartens@MartensCars.com for more information. The New 2008 C-30 Now Available at Diplomatic Pricing! STARTING AT $ 19,995