embassy’s residential compound in Kigali, broken only by a sudden shrill screech from a troop of silver-gray monkeys, three of them swinging down through the iroko trees and dropping into an open-walled, thatched lapa where Cass Rousseau, West Africa staff correspondent for CBN International, was setting up to interview Susan Swift, U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission. Since it was a Sunday, most State Department staff and their families were in the residential compound, which lay in the foothills of jungle-encrusted mountains that reached up into hot, wet mist—and most were lying low in their bungalows, avoiding the energy-sapping heat. The only reminder that it was just three days before Christmas in this tiny country wedged between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire was the fake white tree in front of which Swift had positioned her seat for the interview. Decorated with tiny ornaments crafted from African beads, the tree looked incongruous against the verdant backdrop. But even that plastic symbol of the season was too much for Cass.
