The Foreign Service Journal, November 2021

110 NOVEMBER 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL LOCAL LENS Please submit your favorite, recent photograph to be considered for Local Lens. Images must be high resolution (at least 300 dpi at 8” x 10”, or 1 MB or larger) and must not be in print elsewhere. Include a short description of the scene/ event, as well as your name, brief biodata and the type of camera used. Send to locallens@afsa.org . BY MARLENE WURDEMAN n ASHGABAT, TURKMENISTAN Marlene Wurdeman retired from the Foreign Service in 2014 and has since been working in the Bureau of Information Resource Management’s Office of Foreign Operations. In September, she returned from temporary duty (TDY) in Reykjavík. This image was captured with an iPhone 8+. T he Kopet Dag mountains, shown here at sunrise, separate Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, from Iran by only 15 kilometers at its nearest point. I was posted in Ashgabat for a two-month assignment, starting in January 2021. The new embassy compound in the foreground is among other buildings currently under construction. A week after getting out of quarantine, I discovered at the center of a large traffic circle, one of many throughout the city, an extremely elaborate statue. It depicts the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road, transecting the Karakum Desert of Merv in what is now Turkmenistan. The writing translates to “Turkmenistan—Home of Neutrality.” n