The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2003

I NDIGO AND P EPPER S OUP 16 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 3 just love pepper soup!” Ellen did relish the innocuous- looking soup with its light cargo of meat bits and onions and other veg- gies bobbing about in a broth for which “tangy” was a hazardous understatement. Nigerians and other guests at embassy parties laughed hysterically at her ice-breaking mime of the new- comer meeting her first spoonful. She’d saucer her eyes and wave off the imaginary flames: Whoo-ee! It’s explosive! It’s corrosive! It’s napalm wall-to-wall! And forget about the water! Nothing helps! Remembering her last perfor- mance, Ellen smiled, but she decided not to inflict the routine on the reporter who was interviewing her. This very self-assured young woman might be in a prickly post- colonial phase. She might take humor for ridicule. Keep it simple, Ellen told herself. Whatever the reporter asks, make sure all roads lead to the boutique. Give Patti lots of credit. Not every Lagos widow who takes in sewing devel- ops into a top tailor and goes on to become a designer and entrepre- neur. “It isn’t too hot for you?” asked the reporter, whose stretch jeans clung no more than the black and amber tie-dye wrapped around her torso. Rings of copper thread- ed with flame-red coral ran through the reporter’s ears. Exactly the kind of client we want for the boutique, thought Ellen. Patti would love to dress her. “You can really take a whole bowl of it?” the reporter was saying. Ellen nodded. “I love the tingle. It’s just like Nigeria. Such a vibrant place. So alive it almost hurts.” “That’s terrific! Quotes make the story, you know.” Ellen watched the reporter scribbling on a little pad with coils at the top. A wristful of bracelets jangled when she crossed a T or looped an L. Her scrawl was so extroverted she had to keep flipping pages, and with every flip the bracelets jangled some more. Ellen wanted to relax. She liked the reporter, liked her looks and her noisy bangles, liked her spontaneity, liked the way she paused to get quotes right. But Jim’s shadow kept her on guard. Although the ambas- sador had raised no objections to the interview, her husband had taken issue, strongly. Even that morning at breakfast Jim had still been hammering away, rehashing all the reasons for avoid- ing reporters like the plague. “Better safe than sorry,” he’d concluded. “I speak from experi- ence, as you well know.” Ellen nodded. She couldn’t count the times Jim had gone red in the face and thrown down a sec- tion of the paper in disgust. “They’ve fouled it up again,” he’d mutter through his teeth. “Why do I bother?” “Because you’re the economic F O C U S “ I A N ENTERPRISING FS WIFE CHALLENGES THE PRESUMPTION OF HARDSHIP IN L AGOS AND HER HUSBAND ’ S CYNICISM . B Y P ATRICIA L. S HARPE Janet Cleland