The Foreign Service Journal, November 2008

52 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 8 R ECONCILING WITH M Y U NCLE he early 1970s were turbulent times on American campuses: protests and demonstrations, the killings at Kent State, and a nationwide strike in re- sponse to widening the war into Cam- bodia. As a graduate of Princeton in 1971, these developments left me with a dilemma: a low draft lottery number and severe alienation from my Uncle Sam. Peace Corps Tunisia was my escape. Sure, technically I was working for my uncle, but in fact, the lunatics ran the asy- lum! Slightly older and way cooler volunteers ran the train- ing alongside savvy, young Tunisians fluent in English, Arabic and French. The director was a foul-mouthed, non-con- formist Lebanese-American whose rebellious attitude exceeded anything from our ranks. Teaching English in Mahida’s Lycee Mixte was largely an exercise in futility, but the Arabic I learned there was my non-refundable deposit for a lifetime of language study under the rubric of the Foreign Service. I would later use those language skills to gauge Palestinian reaction to Anwar Sadat’s trip to Jerusalem and the Camp David Accords, U.S. military cooperation in Egypt, the U.S.-PLO dialogue in Tunis and counterterrorism cooperation in Yemen. But all that Foreign Service stuff was far in the future. I was still having problems with my Uncle Sam; on one occa- sion I was dismissed from the embassy health unit for asking if they could supply condoms to Peace Corps Volunteers. “We don’t do that here” was the indignant response. Nevertheless, the embassy snack bar on Avenue de la Liberte did provide hamburgers and, over time, my anger about U.S. foreign policy in Southeast Asia cooled. So when the embassy announced that it would be administering the Foreign Service Exam during my second year, I signed up. My uncle had put up with me. I could put up with him. I could also use my Arabic and my skills in crossing cultures to build a career. Would I do it again? Yes, vicariously. My daughter Lena worked with her Uncle Sam as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ouled Taima, Morocco, from 2005 to 2007. With Dad’s blessing. Edmund J. Hull FSO, retired Washington, D.C. A P EACE C ORPS V OLUNTEER IN FS C LOTHING My job as a Peace Corps Volunteer was to teach English in the only secondary school for boys in Kamphaengphet, Thailand. A small town of 6,000 (and that may have includ- ed water buffalo) when I arrived in 1963, Kamphaengphet was one of the country’s most backward provincial capitals. Water for most residents came from a nearby well and elec- tricity (when the town generator was working) was available only after the sun went down. I was the first volunteer ever assigned there and the only foreigner in the province throughout my two-year tour. It was just what I had hoped for. F ROM THE P EACE C ORPS TO THE D IPLOMATIC C ORPS , P ART II Dozens of Foreign Service employees who are also Returned Peace Corps Volunteers responded to the AFSAnet the Journal sent out soliciting insights as to how the Peace Corps and Foreign Service experiences compare and contrast. Part I ran in our October issue. Our thanks to all who responded, including those whose contributions we were unable to use. — Steven Alan Honley, Editor T