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People Like You
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Fat Daddy in Yaounde, Cameroon. Top to bottom: Guthrie Gullion (drums/flute), Ati Simon (bass), Moumi Andre Jules (saxophone), Dolyris "Doh" (keyboards) and Ondoua Pie Guillaume (lead vocals/lead guitar). |
They've Got Rhythm!
Managing computer systems is what Guthrie Gullion does during office hours at the U.S. Embassy in Yaounde, but what he enjoys doing most is organizing bands and performing for the community. He formed his most recent group, Fat Daddy, with five talented musicians from Cameroon and is learning all about African rhythms for a number of original compositions. Already the group has performed at the Marine Corps Ball, the ambassador's residence, the Marine House and the residence of the British High Commissioner. Fat Daddy is one of many musical groups the drummer-flutist has formed over the years. In Moscow, it was the EOB Band. Later, in Niamey, it was the Desert Band followed by the Glass Onion in New Zealand. The music runs the gamut from country and rock to jazz and classical. Wherever he serves, the information systems officer, who received his first drum set at age nine, is joining or forming groups with local musicians and using the universal language of music to bring people of different cultures together.
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 Poet-diplomat Indran Amirthanayagam shares his original poems both locally and abroad. |
Poetry in Motion
Poetry and diplomacy are professions and passions for Foreign Service officer Indran Amirthanayagam, who works in the visa section of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico. Since 1993, when he joined the former U.S. Information Agency, he has wanted to represent the America of dance, music and writing, of scholarship and philosophy, of debate about the future U.S. role in world affairs. More recently, as a State Department employee, he has sought to infuse political reporting and general services with his poetry. He has shared his original Spanish poems with fellow writers, farmers and ordinary citizens in several towns in the heart of Oaxaca State during local events marked by political speeches, fireworks and brass bands. While on R&R to his birthplace in Colombo, Sri Lanka, he read his poems at the residence of the public affairs officer to an audience that included the U.S. Ambassador as well as academics, political figures and intellectuals. Later, he shared his immigrant poems with a similar audience in New Delhi at the India International Center. The poet-diplomat is representing the U.S. mission with images of love and loss, faith and hope in the language of the host country.
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