The Foreign Service Journal, February 2003

F O C U S O N D A N G E R Z O N E S W HAT STARTED AS A QUIET S UNDAY MORNING FOR AN AMBASSADOR ABOUT TO DEPART POST AFTER THREE YEARS QUICKLY TURNED INTO ANYTHING BUT THAT . B Y P EGGY B LACKFORD n June 1998, I was looking forward to my imminent transfer back to the U.S. after three years as ambassador to Guinea-Bissau, one of the world’s poorest nations. U.S. interests were modest in this former Portuguese colony. The small mission staff had two goals: to strengthen democratic institutions by providing train- ing to the media and funding programs that empowered women, and to help create a more modern and stable eco- nomic development climate. One of our most successful programs was training Guineans in the simple technolo- gy required to process the cashew nuts that grew abundantly on trees all over 30 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 3 I Russell Charpentier A C OUP IN G UINEA -B ISSAU B ISSAU , 1998 Continued on page 32