Rebecca Matlock - Tanzania (1967-70)

Tanzania (1967-70)

The Matlocks spent two years on Zanzibar and one in Dar es Salaam on mainland Tanzania.

Well we liked Africa so we wanted another African post. We were not ready to go back to Washington and we were not ready to go back to the Soviet Union. So we got an absolutely marvelous post. We went to Zanzibar. And Zanzibar of course is a very, very special place.

But at that particular moment it was also very much concerned with not only the Russians, but the Chinese and the East Germans. So we lived between the Chinese and East Germans on Zanzibar. And one of the more touching incidents was - our children spoke German - when they tried to talk with the German children just across the fence. And of course the East German teachers wouldn't let them communicate. It was really very sad to try to explain to very young children why it is you can't talk to children who share your language.