At age thirty-four my life, including my sex life, was over-due for a major overhaul. I had been successful in my career as an accountant and I had a new exciting job with the Department of State. Henceforth, I would work in American embassies in foreign countries and I looked forward to travel and adventure in my new life.
Romantically speaking I was nowhere -- and that included my sex life. I toted up my love life: one failed marriage, two failed long-term relationships, and four one-night stands. That was it. The one-night stands had been wonderful, perhaps showing the direction my sex life should go -- although I was too dumb to realize that.
I'm no beauty queen; I'm tall, big-boned, long-nosed, near-sighted, and my personality is typical of my profession, by which I mean I'm more comfortable with my head buried in a book than in a party dress. But I stay in shape; I'm friendly and honest, and I have lovely black hair and eyes and big boobs.
My pathetic sex life receded into the background as I moved to Washington, D.C. for training and then was assigned as a budget and fiscal officer in a small Embassy in a remote African country. The country was exotic and poor and the foreign or "Western" community (as we called it) was small in numbers. Twenty Americans worked at the Embassy, including six marine guards who were responsible for security. I was one of three single women employees; the rest were men, mostly married, except for the marines who were all in their early twenties.
I was so wrapped up in my job that I hardly noticed that my romantic scorecard after six months in Africa showed no hits, no runs, and nobody left on base. One of the problems was lack of eligible men. My employer strongly discouraged relationships with local African men for security and safety reasons.