Iguanas on My Roof

Did you ever wonder what was foreign about the Foreign Service? Neither did Iuntil I began to live it. This is my story as a Foreign Service wife and mother of five. My husband's job with USAID was to improve conditions in underdeveloped countries where there was war or disaster during the Vietnam War Era. My job was to follow him to the Philippines, Vietnam, Nigeria, Washington DC, and Nicaragua. We touched another thirteen countries. There is humor in the cultural challenges and danger where guerillas terrorized the highways. It is also a peek into the world of diplomacy and embassy life.


My Spanish caused the cook to serve sandwiches of lettuce, tomatoes, and roast beef nestled in gooey peanut butter and jelly at my spur-of-the-moment lunch for the government Ministers.

Our school bus was an Embassy station wagon with a driver, a guard, and a loaded M2 carbine rifle.

The kitchen stove on our vacation was a circle of rocks on the beach.

Managua was over six-hundred square blocks of rubble, ashes, and barbed wire when we arrived.