The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2013

56 JULY-AUGUST 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS A handful of nails in my mouth, I repeated to myself: “Don’t swallow.” The last thing that the rickshaw pull- ers needed was an American kid with a punctured stom- ach. Carefully, I spat one nail out into my fingers, aligning it in the upper left corner of the tape with one hand while gripping the hammer firmly in the other. Whack! The nail sunk halfway into the aluminum casing of the rickshaw with a satisfying thud; I gave it another clean 2013 AFSA Merit Awards: Best Essay Winner Some Nails, Some Tape BY BRETT FOUSS stroke to pound it home. I worked the way the mechan- ics at the rickshaw garage had taught me: keep your ammunition in your mouth for maximum efficiency, use two fingers to secure the nail and two hammer strokes to drive it in. My fascination with rick- shaws began the moment I stepped out of the Dhaka airport to meet the dizzying armada of traffic, people and dust. Oh, how the colorful painted skeletons of the rickshaws stood out: blurs of pink, blue and yellow weaving past potholes and honking horns! I see rickshaw pullers as the bloodstream of Ban- gladeshi culture, transport- ing millions around the busy city, allowing it to function. With straining backs and determined rhythm, rickshaw pullers shuttle me home from school, their kind eyes and white smiles concealing their hard work. Without rick- shaws, my home would lose the perfect chaos that infects me every time I step into the streets. Riding home one night, I felt extremely unsafe and vulnerable to the speeding cars that swerved around me. At night, rickshaws become completely invisible. That night, I recognized an instant, yet pivotal improvement to the safety of rickshaw pullers and their patrons. A week later, three friends and I set out into our com- munity armed with ham- mers, nails and reflective tape. The rickshaw pullers were extremely eager for us to attach reflectors to their rickshaws. As word spread, a line of twenty soon formed. Working over the course of five trips, we attacked more than 200 rickshaws, my ham- mer skills becoming more adept with every one. For me, the Rickshaw Project is service in its truest form. The best service is done in small, specific, yet innovative ways. Like a bird escaping from a cage, the final rickshaw pedaled away, carrying the last piece of evidence of our hard work. The next morning, the rickshaw-pullers awoke to find no perfect world. I’ll never know how many lives our reflectors saved. But every time I see a rickshaw pass by, bearing a reflector that I hammered in, I am reminded why service is so important to me. Maybe in ten years, it will become stan- dard practice to install reflec- tors on rickshaws. Maybe I did make the rickshaw pull- ers’ jobs a little easier. Maybe I did save a life or two. The possibility, not measurability, of positive change is what drives me. In the end, some nails and some tape can make a huge difference. n Ambassador Lange Schermerhorn, AFSA Scholarship Committee chairperson, accepts a $2,500 check from Public Members Association of the Foreign Service President Dr. Granville Sawyer Jr. AFSA will award the scholarship for the 2013-2014 year to an AFSA member’s child enrolled in an undergraduate course of study leading to a career in the Foreign Service. PHOTOBYLORIDEC PMA Funds AFSA Scholarship Brett Fouss is the son of Jamie Fouss (State) and Esmeeh Fouss. He gradu- ated from the American International School in Dhaka, Bangledesh and will be attending Tufts University, majoring in international relations. He is the Joanna and Robert Martin Scholar and AFSA’s Best Essay Award winner.