He's got high apple pie in the sky-y-y-y hopes

We are in the middle of the changing of the guard at the embassy. Not literally the guards. They are Lao guys with good jobs and aren't going anywhere.

But we've lost the DCM, Public Affairs officer and one of our Info Management guys, the Pol Officer departs Thursday, and my boss Greg leaves on the 27th. Finally, the Econ Officer leaves in early August. All will be replaced eventually, but only Greg's replacement, my new boss Mike, has actually arrived already. It is transfer season in the State Department.

Mike's first day was today, so we all headed out to the Sunset Bar after work to introduce him to the Embassy annex on the river. We ordered some beer and peanuts, and got down to discussing important things, like what the relatively new Canadian Prime Minister's name is.

At some point, someone noticed that a wayward peanut on the table was being systematically attacked by a bunch of ants. They were swarming around the peanut, and we all started watching to see if they would be able to move it.

Now, this might not seem like the height of excitement to many of you. In fact, a colleague noted that if we were in Paris or Brussels, it was highly unlikely that we would ever, in fact, find ourselves quietly cheering on a bunch of ants trying to move a peanut (technically, 1/2 a peanut).

From the tone of his voice, I'm not certain whether he thought we were the lucky ones or not.

We lost interest after a bit and got back to more important things, like discussing the North Korean restaurant that recently opened in Vientiane.

Then, wait...did the peanut just move? Indeed it did. The ants (all female, I learned. Only a very few male ants are in each colony, and they have a very specific job...if you know what I mean.) had gotten a good grip on the nut, sorry, legume, and were making steady progress toward the edge of the table.

One very smart ant who obviously has experience with snackfoods even thought to bring along some salt.



We watched it go all the way to the edge of the table, where it hovered for about a minute before plunging to the ground. But, unfortunately for the ants, the peanut fell straight through a crack in the floor and down to the ground 20 feet below. All that work for no payoff.

Here's the peanut just before the fall. They had moved it from the middle of the table. Industrious little bastards.


We felt so sorry for the ants that we put another peanut on the table for them, although I don't know why we thought the result would be any different.

In fact, it was, as we offered up a whole peanut for them the second time. They put in a good effort, but to no avail.

Greg Chapman, the departing Political Officer, relying on his years of experience in the State Department distilling complex political issues into coherent and concise descriptions, concluded "well, I guess that's the difference between a peanut and a half a peanut."

We will sorely miss Greg's insight when he leaves.