Armenia vs. The Gambia: Furniture

Normally, the Embassy provides basic furnishings for all diplomatic residences. At some posts, the US government employees are responsible for furnishing their homes by themselves. We were lucky enough, that Armenia, like The Gambia and Slovakia, is a post that furnishes our homes for us. That is what we thought until we arrived in our apartment for the first time. The Bible of the General Services Section entitled, “The Housing Handbook,” states: “The Government provides and maintains quarters with basic furnishings and equipment in serviceable condition. A sample of furnishings is listed in the Furniture and Appliances list section on pages 24-31.”

The Embassy pays a higher than usual rent for our apartment, because it is furnished by the Italian company that manages this building. The company also owns a nearby hotel and the furniture pieces provided by them are clearly surplus from the hotel. Oversized closets even feature a sticker welcoming us to the Congress Hotel and suggesting security precautions for our valuable personal items. Why, thank you. The “Italian furniture” (which, by the looks of it, was in reality made in Poland twenty years ago) is made of light colored “wood” with white pressboard. The Embassy furnished the rest of the apartment with dark, cherry wood Drexel Heritage furniture. It’s a lovely match. When we requested changing the furniture to all cherry wood – much more practical then the modern Italian – the Embassy sent their housing coordinator to go over our list of requests.

My Italian/Polish furnished workplace


By the time she left, I was ready to kill this woman. During her whole visit, she was patronizing and talked me as if this was my first post and I didn’t know squat about how the system works. While in The Gambia, I had done her job as a part of my extensive portfolio. When I asked about matched furniture, all of her sentences started with a whiny, “But you know, Adela, this is not suitable and appropriate…” She informed me that I should not expect to change any of the furniture because we already have the pieces; therefore, why should the Embassy replace them? She reminded me that the Embassy pays an exuberant rent for the Italian/Polish furniture, and it is not their responsibility to make our residence comfortable or neat. In the end, I was told that we’d have to wait until all the newly arrived families chose what furniture they wanted to add or exchange in their residences and then they’d see what’s left for us. I just can’t wait.

Why don’t we complain? It is a known fact that if you complain about anything in the US Department of State, you don’t achieve anything and you’ll gain a reputation of a “complainer.” Therefore, we have to smile and hope that our patience and positive attitude will get us what we want.

In The Gambia, our house, painted pink on the outside, was furnished with light Drexel furniture inside. We were the only house in the housing pool with furniture of this color and therefore had the monopoly of this type of furniture from the warehouse.