The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project
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The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project ELEANOR LOPES “PENNY” AKAHLOUN Interviewed by: Daniel F. Whitman Initial interview date: July 19, 2008 Copyright 2015 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS MY FORMATIVE YEARS, 1943–1965 Born and raised in Onset, Massachusetts Cape Verdean History and Whaling Ships The Schooner Ernestina and the Packet Trade Small, Round, and Copper Tone Harsh Life for Cape Verdeans on the Cranberry Bogs Vera Cruz VII Shipwreck at Ocracoke, North Carolina Rescue of the Passengers Grandfather’s Marriage and the Curse Oak Grove School Prejudice and “Jungletown” My Big Dream at Age 8 Moving from Cape Cod to Boston, Massachusetts No Vacancy at Bethany Union If First You Don’t Succeed, Try and Try Again Massachusetts Attorney General Edward W. Brooke and a Second Chance Joining the Foreign Service THE PHILIPPINES, 1965–1967 1 The Right Place at the Right Time Shooting the Rapids at Pagsanjan Falls, Laguna Electric Typewriters, Carbons and Pencil Erasers Vice President Hubert Humphrey Attends President Ferdinand Marcos’ 1965 Inauguration Bike Rides on the Island of Mindanao Holy Week in Bongabong, Oriental Mindoro The Eclipse of Sukarno and the Rise of Suharto Bombs Rain Down on Saigon Skies President Lyndon Johnson and the Seven-Nation Manila Summit U.S. -Philippine Relations Around the World and Home in One Piece WASHINGTON, DC, AND HOME LEAVE, LATE 1967 Reverse Cultural Shock Vietnam War Demonstrations MOROCCO, 1968–1970 The Moroccan Treaty of Friendship, the Longest Unbroken Accord in U.S. History Disappearance of Mehdi Ben Barka U.S.-Moroccan Relations Marrakech’s Djema El Fna Square and Snake Charmers A Sense of Being Home A Muslim and a Christian Fall in Love The State Department’s Historical 1972 Directive Permission Granted to Marry a U.S. Foreign Service National Employee 2 Takes Five Priests and One Imam to Tie the Knot RETURN TO WASHINGTON, DC The State Department, Office of East African Affairs (AF/E), 1970–1973 The Nation’s Capital Greets the Newly Weds Overcoming Obstacles Tumultuous Change for the African Continent Ugandan Coup d’état - Idi Amin Overthrows President Milton Obote Fallout over Killing of Nicholas Stroh and Robert Siedle First Female Ambassador to Africa, Jean M. Wilkowski, Appointed U.S. - Zambian Relations Attempted Coup at King Hassan II’s Skirat Palace in Morocco Second Try to Assassinate King Hassan as Fighter Jets Take to the Sky The Demise of General Mohamed Oufkir and the Imprisonment of his Family President Nixon Opens Relations with China The Watergate Scandal The State Department Changes Dress Code for Women Ahmed Gains U.S. Citizenship The Fate of South African Anti-Apartheid Activists Nelson Mandela, Stephen Biko, and Dr. Mamphela Ramphele Dan Mitrione, U.S. Embassy AID Officer in Montevideo, Kidnapped and Killed URUGUAY, 1973–1975 Uruguayan Military Dictatorship Crushes Tupamaro Movement A Crumbling Economy Yet Plenty of “Chivitos” and “Ferias” An Escape to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for Carnival 3 Ahmed’s Art Career Flourishes “Yemanja” and New Year’s Eve Celebration on Copacabana Beach Macumba Rituals Brazilian Iguaçu National Park and the Bus Ride to Asuncion, Paraguay Lobbying for a Kenyan Assignment An Interview with “Ti-Frank” Leads to the Discovery of Jose Lopes, a Relative in Dakar, Senegal Excursion to the Notorious Slave-Trading Island of Gorée KENYA, 1975–1977 U.S.-Kenyan Relations President Jomo Kenyatta’s Bio and the Mau Mau uprising in 1952 Political Unrest and Turmoil in Neighboring East African Countries Washington Concerned about the Country’s Post-Kenyatta Stability Foreign Intrigue at the New Stanley Hotel Surrounded by Wildlife and Baobab Trees while Riding on the East African Railway Bound for Mombasa Ahmed’s Canvasses Reflect Vivid East African Colors and are Successfully Exhibited at Various Cultural Centers The Radiant Clinic that Failed to Measure Up to Its Name Masai Mara Game Reserve Safari and the Migration of Wildebeests A Surprise Meeting in Ethiopia with a Cape Verdean Born at the Same Hospital in Wareham, Massachusetts The Proud Future Parents WASHINGTON, DC The State Department, Foreign Service Institute (FSI), 1977 4 FSI French Language Training A Prominent Obstetrician Delivers Leila Overcome by Gratitude, Wonder, and Joy Momma Habiba Travels from Morocco to America TUNISIA, 1977–1979 Sidi-Bou Siad and the Ancient City of Carthage President Habib Bourguiba and Islamic Fundamentalism Labor and Political Demonstrations U.S. Embassy Provides Military Security Assistance Under Pressure Juggling an Infant, Marriage, and a Career Tour Curtailed after 18 Months Home Leave and Transfer to Ottawa CANADA, 1979–1982 A Gratifying Assignment to the Great White North Changing of the Guards on Parliament Hill History of the U.S. Chancery in Ottawa Our Home in Gloucester was Surrounded by Red Barns and Corn Fields The Troubled Red Fiat Responsibilities of the Office of Science and Technology (S&T) The “Canadarm” and the U.S. Space Program “Managing Up” Report on the Canadian Women’s Movement Canada’s Revised Constitution and the Charter of Rights 5 Francophone-Anglophone Relations The Canadian Women’s Movement Designated Escort Officer for Nancy Clark Reynolds, the U.S. Representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women My Parents’ Health Issues and Leila’s Antics The Canadarm Helps Repair the Hubble Space Telescope Discriminated Against by a Fellow American Pilgrimage to St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal WASHINGTON, DC The State Department, Office of Civil Rights, and Equal Employment Opportunity (M/EEOC), and Career Development and Assignments, Office of East Asian Pacific Affairs (PER/CDA/EAP), 1982–1989 Birth to Omar at Age 40 The Long Journey to the Functional Specialization Program Passed the Foreign Service Oral Assessment Examination A Bump in the Road after a Year of Training; Rescued by Ambassador William L. Swing Fighting “Fire with Fire” in the Office of Foreign Service Personnel (PER/FSN) Medically Cleared for Overseas Assignment RETURN TO URUGUAY, 1989–1993 Became a Regional Personnel Officer Rampant Inflation President George H. W. Bush Sr.’s Visit in December 1990 The English-Speaking Catholic Church at the Christian Brothers’ Stella Maris School The Children Blossom at the Uruguayan-American School Diplomatic Life Isn’t Entirely a “Bed of Roses” Assigned to the Middle Kingdom, but First We Cope with a Medical Evacuation A Painful Goodbye CHINA, 1993–1998 Greeted by an Army of Critters Moroccan Embassy across the Street At the International School of Beijing an “Invisible Red Thread” Stitches Together the Lives of the Hirds and the Akahlouns 6 A Sense of Uneasiness at Tiananmen Square Aiyi and the Diplomatic Service Bureau’s Gate Guards China’s Phenomenal Growth Trans-Siberian Railway Trip from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia We Reconnect with Our Moroccan Family U.S.-China Relations Congressional Delegations (CODELS) Challenges of Hiring Chinese Nationals through the Diplomatic Service Bureau (DSB) Leila Prepares for College Travel to Chengdu, Kunming, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenyang The 1996-1997 Chinese Labor Service Contract Negotiations North Korean Defectors in our Backyard Omar Becomes the Youngest Volunteer Working with the Embassy’s Camp Adventure Program Laying the Ground Work for Converting the DSB Chinese Staff to U.S. Embassy Foreign Service Nationals President Bill Clinton’s 1998 Visit to China Reflecting on China Today WASHINGTON, DC, AND HOME LEAVE, 1998 Picking Up Where We Left Off is Challenging Familiar Patterns Missing VENEZUELA, 1998–2001 A Beautiful Crime-Ridden Capital Spider Man” Pays Us a Visit President Hugo Chavez and the 1998 Elections 7 U.S.-Venezuelan Relations The Devastating 1999 Floods and Mudslides The Terrifying Ride to the Airport Swimming with Barracudas in the Caribbean Island of Bonaire “Mom Don’t Worry; We Will Get Through This!” WASHINGTON, DC The State Department, Board of Examiners of the Office of Recruitment, Examination, and Employment (HR/REE/BEX), 2001–2008 Re-entry Shock A Monstrous “To Do” List A Friendly and Diverse Group of People at BEX Terror Strikes U.S. Soil on September 11, 2001 Diplomatic Readiness Initiative (DRI) Designed to Attract a Wider Pool of Foreign Service Officers and Specialists The Foreign Service Oral Assessment Examination Process Minorities Underrepresented in the Foreign Service More Educational Opportunities plus Pools and Networks for Identifying Ethnic Groups Necessary A Visit to Italy for Father Pio’s Canonization Thumb Incident and Dr. Ben Carson’s book, Think Big Back at the Office on My Birthday WASHINGTON, DC, 2008 Retirement: The Alarm Clock Goes Out the Window Giving Back The Foreign Service Institute’s March/April 2008 Retirement Planning Seminar and the Job Search Program Provides Retirees with a Roadmap for the Future Volunteering at President Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 Campaign Headquarters Youth is Not a Time of Life; It is a State of Mind MOROCCO October 2–23, 2010 8 Uncovering Family History The “Best of Morocco” Circle Tour Camel Riding on the Sahara Desert Sunset over the Golden Dunes of the Sahara Desert NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA, AND GEORGIA May 19–30, 2011 Retracing the Vera Cruz VII Shipwreck and My Cape Verdean Grandfather’s Footprints Guest Speaker at the Meeting of the Friends of Portsmouth Island in Ocracoke, North Carolina Historic Portsmouth Village, the U.S. Life Saving Station, and the Surf Boat Monomoy Used to Rescue Vera Cruz Passengers Sweet Grass Baskets and