The Foreign Service Journal, July/August 2018

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2018 45 the nearest hospital. At St. James Hospital, I regained awareness. I asked one of the nurses where I was and what had happened. The nurses protested, but I insisted on going back to the embassy. I limped to the main road and took a matatu (bus). I did not know I had no money on me. Seeing how heavily bandaged I was, the bus conductor did not bother to ask for the fare. That was the first time I got a free ride on a matatu! I alighted and started limping back to the embassy. The same Marine spotted me and ordered that I be taken home. I was driven home in one of the cabs and escorted to bed. Still in shock, I began recollecting the moments before the blast and the aftermath. I was shivering and crying uncontrollably throughout the night. The first person I asked for when I woke up was the late consul general, Julian Bartley. I was with Julian the night before the blast until past 10 p.m. in his office. Because it was the eve of my depar- ture for Accra, I was trying to get pending work done. Julian used to call me every evening about email problems or just to chat. That night he had told me how he grew up, how he went to school and the challenges he faced in his career. He kept encouraging me to work hard. When he heard I was going to Accra the next day, he asked me to bring him an African mask. He told me to let him know before I left so he could give me $50 for the mask. The next (fateful) morning, I had called him as he had asked. He requested I wait for him in my office, that he was bringing the money. I told him he didn’t have to, that I would use my per diem, and he could refund when I got back. He did not want to hear any of that. “Chief, man, I have to come and see you off,” he said. But I didn’t see Julian later. I never saw his body. I will never see him again. In the following days I helped identify bodies, helped fam- ily members piece together what was left of the bodies and attended funeral services and burials in the countryside, repre- senting the ambassador and reading her condolence message to the deceased families. The embassy resumed operations at the USAID towers. The information systems center crew began counting the tech losses. A new computer system we had just installed eight months ago had been destroyed. My next worry, as the information systems manager, was whether the valuable information was intact. We started rebuilding the Department of State email system. Using salvaged computers and servers, we put together a network until we moved to the interim office building. Users could not believe they could read emails they had received and documents they had worked on seconds before the blast. The information was there. Our recovery plan had worked. There is a saying that “time is the best healer,” but I don’t know if I will ever get over my Aug. 7 experience. To those who were taken, may your souls rest in eternal peace. This mission will never be the same without you. To those who survived: Do not give up on yourself. Do not hate yourself as I do. God had a reason for saving your life. It is time you ask God what He has in store for you. I came out of the bombing discouraged, a completely dif- ferent person. I gave up on life, and did not want to hear about long-term plans or saving for the future. I do not park in base- ment parking spaces. Any loud sound makes me want to go under a table. Anytime I leave for work, I get the feeling that I won’t come back to see my family. I concluded that there is no safe place on this planet, that one can die at any time. It made me more spiritual than before, always prepared for anything. Talking about it with those who have gone through similar experiences also helpedme start a new life. I always ask myself what I can do for others as long as I am still alive. Information Systems Manager George Mimba, left, and Management Officer Steve Nolan, at right, evacuate an injured staff member from Embassy Nairobi. COURTESYOFPAULPETERSON