Embarkation and Disembarkation

Interview Transcript
	   
                       Embarkation and Disembarkation



      In his talk at the 40th reunion of the people who went to West Africa
in 1966 to eradicate smallpox, Don Millar said, "The embarkation was not
orderly."  (Don knows that his use of military terminology is charmingly
inappropriate for an audience whose behavior at that time, if not now, was
as undisciplined as this one.) As he spoke I thought back to the fall of
1966 when my family along with others waited to start the adventure for
which we had so innocently volunteered.
      We had terminated the lease on our house at the end of October on the
understanding that we would be leaving for Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire in a few
days. Agreement among USAID, the US State Department and the government of
Cote d'Ivoire was thought to be imminent. It was, however, delayed; so on
November 2 my wife Melissa, our three sons David, Kevin and Christopher,
aged 7, 5 and 3, and I moved into the Cherokee Rose motel on Howell Mill
Road, which offered two bedroom suites at reasonable prices. We joined
Bernie and Ann Lourie and their two sons.
      The days at the Cherokee Rose dragged on. Bill Griggs arranged
additional French classes, found a little useful work and then after a week
said that he simply had nothing more for me to do.  We were not the only
family waiting. Bob and Mona Helmholz and their kids Melissa and Carl, and
Andy and Judy Agle and their kids Dawn (DeeDee) and David were also
waiting.  The Helmholzs, Agles and Hogans had been friends since the
beginning of our CDC careers in San Francisco in 1961-1962.  We would have
them over to swim in the motel pool; they would invite us over for a meal.
Every few days the word would come that another approval had been received,
and there would be a farewell party.  When we drove the Agles to the
airport around the third week of November we were the last family waiting.
      Every morning I would go to CDC and check with Bill and Don. Chris
d'Amanda, the Medical Officer responsible for both Haute Volta and Cote
d"Ivoire had moved to Ouagadougou some weeks earlier and was now in Abidjan
trying to move the clearance process along.  Some days there would be news
from him, most days not. I complained, bitterly and in retrospect
completely irrationally.  They were tolerant and urged patience.
      Word finally came that the government of Cote d'Ivoire had signed the
agreement and that a house in Abidjan had been leased for us. On December 5
we left Atlanta, changed planes in New York and flow to West Africa. The
plane landed in Dakar just as the sun was coming up and I got off to see
the spectacle of our first morning in Africa.
            We arrived in Abidjan a few hours later, and the US Embassy
staff who met us explained that the house intended for us had been leased
by some other party at the last minute.  Abidjan real estate was a strong
seller's market. They went on to say that all of the first class hotels
were fully booked, and that the only accommodations that could be found
were at the Grand Hotel.
            The Grand Hotel was built in the 40's and had all of the
features of a one or at most two star hotel in the French provinces. A cage
elevator, musty odor, dim lighting, slowly circulating ceiling fans, air
conditioning that was more noisy than effective, and indifferent staff.
Neither Melissa nor I had ever been outside the United States, We were
escorted to our rooms, and when the doors shut the children began crying.
Melissa looked shocked and frightened. I picked up the telephone and tried
to order bottled water and soft drinks. The person on the other end could
not understand what I was saying and hung up. I tried again with the same
result.
            What I should have known earlier now became clear. I could not
speak comprehensible French. I knew that I had lied to Bill Griggs when he
asked me during recruitment if I spoke French. I had two years of high
school French years earlier. Our approval interview was with Leo Morris,
and when Leo asked about French Melissa did all the talking.  I had never
really gotten a grip on the French lessons taught us at CDC that summer.  I
realized that this was not the only basic skill I lacked if I was to
perform my job of "Operations Offer." I had next to no comprehension of how
to maintain or repair vehicles, and had understood nothing that was said
during the time spent at the Dodge plant in Atlanta. The Ped-O-Jet seemed
to me a complex dangerous instrument. I had only a lay person's
appreciation for the medical and epidemiological aspects of smallpox and
measles. I had done only superficial research on working and living in
Africa. Worst of all, in deceiving myself about my lack of qualifications
and the obviously unacceptable conditions of living in Abidjan,  I had
deceived my wife and children, who assumed that I would protect them and
not expose them to danger or suffering.
            After sitting quietly for a short time I decided that the only
course of action was to do as I had done in other circumstances, that is
fake it and muddle through. I went down to the hotel restaurant and pointed
to bottles of coke and water as well as items on the menu, and somehow
communicated the message that these things were to be brought to our rooms.
This was done and the children fell asleep. Melissa and I agreed that it
was encouraging that the embassy people had said our stay at the Grand
would be very short, and that if we found we could not stand things we
could always just go home to Atlanta.
            Things looked brighter by the evening when Chris d'Amanda
escorted us to a dinner he had arranged to have us satisfactorily welcomed.
He had arranged a sitter for the children. (Chris's enthusiasm and ever
present certainty that amusing and worthwhile things could always be found
if one sought them was immensely helpful in those first days. It has
remained so ever since.) At dinner we met people from both the Ivoirian and
expatriate communities, and I remember a particularly encouraging
conversation I had with a young US Embassy counselor officer and his wife,
David and Susan Gelsenlighter. They said we were on the whole fortunate to
be at The Grand since the restaurant there was much better and more
authentic than those at fancier hotels.
            The open air restaurant of the Grand did indeed live up to
their opinion. Over the next ten days we worked our way through the menu,
and much of the wine list, learning a great deal about basic French bistro
food. The children loved the place because of the fountain, which was
filled with small crocodiles, the curious new things to eat, and the fact
that they could run around if they got bored sitting at the table.
            On the second day I went over to the Institut d'Hygiene, where
Colonel Gregoire Binson presided over the national smallpox eradication
program, and the Service National de la Lutte Contre les Grandes Endemies,
the famous mobile health service established by the French in all of their
colonies, where responsibility for measles control was placed. Dr. Jean
Rives was the Director. Both Binson and Rives were congenial and pleased to
show me their organizations.   It quickly became clear than they did not
like each other, and that a large part of my usefulness to them would be to
make sure that they got at least their fair share of the vehicles, vaccines
and other items to be provided by USAID.
            My French turned out to be less bad than I had thought. I was
relieved to find that both organizations had vehicle maintenance and repair
garages, and I needed only to translate occasional parts of manuals. When I
explained to Colonel Binson that my knowledge of smallpox was limited he
assured me that this was not a problem since he had already eradicated the
disease. In the unlikely event of an importation we would work on it
together.
            As Melissa and I traveled around Abidjan in those early days we
were excited to find a cosmopolitan French African city, with open air
markets, fascinating people, and a variety of good, sometimes great food.
The air, the colors, the light, were all new and wonderful.
            I would check with the Embassy nearly every day to learn the
status of the search for a house, and by mid December a brand new three
bedroom house had been leased for us.  After a brief stay at a more upscale
hotel we moved in on December 23. We were home.
            We had brought presents for the children with us, but they said
that we had to also have a Christmas tree. So on Christmas Eve we found a
small plastic tree at a Lebanese store near our new house.   It was well
received. I wish we had kept it.