The Foreign Service Journal, November 2019

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2019 73 age of millions of ordinary Ukrainians who stood in freezing temperatures until the peaceful transfer of power was com- pleted. I recall the tears of joy as I stood at the Maidan in 2005, welcoming the New Year and thinking that, for the second time in my life, I was a part of history. I was proud of my tiny role in the huge collective effort of the international community in support of pro-reform Ukrainian forces. Sadly, governance turned out to be harder than the revolution. My subsequent assignments were equally amazing; I was thrown into the midst of exciting transitions. I was in Serbia in 2008 when the U.S. embassy was attacked after Kosovo declared independence, and I stayed in Belgrade as “essential personnel,” working with a team literally from my kitchen, until the pre-term election brought to power a new coalition government. Later, I joined the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and was sent to Bishkek in 2010 to facilitate constitutional reforms and election observation after their “revolution.” Sadly, this quickly turned into reporting on the inter-ethnic conflict in the south of the country. Over the last seven years as a senior adviser for elections and political transitions at USAID, I have been fortunate to be involved in important transitions and elections in Burma, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Zimbabwe. Political transitions have marked my entire life. The fact that I—a former student from Sofia—have represented the U.S. government overseas, was hardly something anyone could have predicted. The fall of the Berlin Wall not only opened up the world for my family and me, it made my profes- sional life more fulfilling than I could ever have imagined. After the Berlin Wall fell, Assia Ivantcheva left Sofia to study in the United States and later became a U.S. citizen and member of the U.S. Foreign Service. She works in the Elections and Political Transi- tions Division at USAID’s Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights and Governance. Heading into East Berlin near Checkpoint Charlie is a portrait of an East German soldier; GI Joe is on the other side. Berlin, 2015. JAMESTALALAY