What a globe-trotter misses about Arlington

Published 11:36 pm Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The former United States Ambassador to Guinea-Bissau recently visited Arlington, his hometown.

There was no saluting, curtsying or bowing.

John Blacken, 77, was visiting his sister, Violet Kemp, and her husband, Douglas, like a nice brother would.

I had never heard of where he lives, but I learned that Guinea-Bissau is on the Atlantic coast of Africa, by Senegal, and is about half the size of South Carolina, with swamps, rain forests, and wetlands.

Blacken is no longer with the foreign service, but he stayed on in Africa.

Silly me, I pictured being a foreign ambassador as days filled with decorum, ball gowns and fancy receptions.

They had dinners and entertained visiting dignitaries, sure, Blacken said, but he often didn’t even wear a tie.

“It’s hot there,” Blacken said. “The land looks like Louisiana — flat, with several large rivers.”

Blacken spent 30 years, after going to college on a boxing scholarship, living around the world in the foreign service. President Ronald Reagan appointed him to his post in Guinea-Bissau. He met Reagan twice, but the president never made it to the embassy.

Besides the occasional semiformal parties with other dignitaries, Blacken kept busy making nice with Russia, trying to save the environment and avoiding civil wars — that sort of thing.

Now he works removing live land mines.

He owns a house and is married to a woman from Guinea-Bissau. They also own a mango grove. He said there aren’t any big-game animals, but they see gazelles, wild pigs, ducks and monkeys.

The country is the fifth largest exporter of cashews.

Violet Kemp has never been able to visit her brother, but if she makes a trip to Guinea-Bissau, she can visit some of the country’s 60 outer islands. Blacken said they’re perfect for vacations, with good fishing, nice hotels and beautiful beaches.

His television antennae picks up European and African soccer. Lots of soccer. No Super Bowl. No American Idol.

And there are no McDonald’s. Sheesh.

In Guinea-Bissau, you can still get fast food, if you like barbecued chicken. Other than that, Blacken said, they have top-notch restaurants where you can order steak and rice for around $6 or $7, including a bottle of wine.

What he misses back at home in Arlington?

“Good, rich, ice cream,” Blacken said.

Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.