The Foreign Service Journal, December 2011

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 53 history and the very first Embassy Bishkek team of Ed McWilliams, Boyd Doty, Jennifer Scotti, Dan Bolsinger and Dennis Buck for opening a new world to me. Tamara Burkovskaia worked as a For- eign Service National at Embassy Bishkek from 1992 to 2008. She started as a personnel/administrative assistant, was promoted to political assistant, and later, to senior po- litical specialist. She received numerous awards, including the State Department’s Foreign Service National of the Year award in 1995 and FSN of the Year for the embassy in 2005. In 2008, she immigrated to the United States on a special immigrant visa and settled in Portland, Ore., where she works for the Oregon Public Health Division. The Big Family House Embassy Bishkek By Isken Sydykov I n late January 1992, I saw a newspaper announcement that an American embassy would be opening in Bishkek on Feb. 1. On Jan. 31, my family took a ride to check out the one-story, six-room building where the future U.S. embassy would be. Late that summer, a friend who worked at the embassy asked me to drive embassy staff member George Witt to Lake Issyk Kul for the week- end. He liked my car and my driving skills, and I liked the smell of his non-filter Camels, so I became his driver for Issyk Kul journeys. On Aug. 27, 1992, I received a phone call from the embassy. The woman on the phone told me the embassy had a va- cancy in the procurement section, and I should come in for an interview. I ar- rived at the chancery and was met by the woman who had called me, Tynara Shail- dayeva, a Foreign Service National accountant for the embassy, and Frankie Saddlemyer, the head of the gen- eral services office. After introductions and an explanation of procure- ment duties, Mrs. Saddlemyer, looking at me over the top of her glasses, spoke strictly about the importance of working diligently and asked if I agreed to work that way. I did, and my stint at the U.S. embassy began. The embassy was only supposed to be in this tiny house at 66 Erkindik for about six months, so we kept boxes, bags and other items in the main chancery. How- ever, we ended up staying there a little longer — six years! At the beginning, the embassy was like a big fam- ily house: there were only two phones in the building. If there was a support flight to be unloaded, half of the em- bassy staff went to the airport. Staff from all sections, be it political/economic or general services, helped unload. There weren’t any official cars yet, so we drove our own vehicles. The first U.S. ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Ed- ward Hurwitz, often walked to work and lived in a drab Soviet-style apartment. Toward the end of 1992, the number of staff grew and there was a sudden shortage of space. Three of us shared F OCUS For about a year, the embassy didn’t have any guards. Embassy Bishkek laborer Yuri Andreyev (left) with Isken Sydykov. Embassy Bishkek staff show off the renovation work in the courtyard of the temporary chancery. Photos: Shawn Dorman