The Foreign Service Journal, May 2015

44 MAY 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Throughout our time abroad, it was our privilege to know many women who, in one way or another, were in the forefront of the hardships and drama of this period. health and education that required them to balance domestic life with travels, near and far. One successful project, introduced under American auspices during the ‘Year of the Child,’ was a program whereby pre-school Botswanan children were given a kind of “Sesame Street” glimpse of school life by their first- and second-grade brothers and sisters. The approach has since been incorporated into the Botswanan school system. Throughout our time abroad, it was our privilege to know many women who, in one way or another, were in the forefront of the hardships and drama of this period. When I think of the overburdened ministers in these emerging countries, the faces of their wives come also to mind: Gladys Masire, wife of Botswana’s vice president; and Lena Mogwe, wife of its peripatetic foreign minister; as well as Mamie Kotsokwane and others in Lesotho and Swaziland. The memorable times we shared were only a part of the duties they had long been performing: attending graduations and award ceremonies, and participating in activities of the Red Cross, YWCA, Professional Women’s Association and other charitable organizations. There were also the fairs, benefits and bazaars, the military parades of the small defense forces, the official trips and receptions, the celebrations and funerals. Then, as now, in recalling the remarkable individuals we have known in these young countries, there glimmered throughmy mind a familiar phrase from the past: Nonministrari sedminis- trare (Not to be ministered unto but tominister), Wellesley Col- lege’s motto. Over the years, the women we met and worked with have been fully engaged in encouraging their countrymen to join in moving, for better or worse, into the modern world. Beneath their modesty lie strength and a great willingness to serve. The same, I dare say, is true of Foreign Service spouses, as well. n