From Timbuktu to Duck and Cover: Improbable Tales from a Career in Foreign Service

America has spawned many great leaders, and among them, many fine storytellers. Lewis Lucke excels in both categories. Picking up where he left off in "Waiting for Rain", his outstanding first stab at autobiography which covered his early days of foreign service in Mali, West Africa, Lew provides another treat in "From Timbuktu to Duck and Cover". This new book packs in a wider sweep of geography, history, and ever-increasing responsibility in service to America beyond its borders, something few Americans know much about. Lucke masterfully immerses the reader in the colors, sounds, tastes, smells, personalities, challenges, and seemingly endless action that attend life in places like the Middle East, Southern Africa, and the Caribbean. Americans owe much to the men and women who live and work beyond its borders to fly the flag of peace, cooperation, and progress, often at great personal risk, and sometimes losing their lives in the process. For those unable to live abroad or unwilling to take the risks of doing so, Lucke provides a vicarious, entertaining experience. However improbable his tales may seem, they reflect the daily lives of many in foreign service to America, service we should strive to better understand and appreciate, and be very thankful for.

If you’re interested in significant recent historical events, customs, cultures, politics, governments and religions then this book is for you. Ambassador Lucke describes in colorful detail his and his family’s experiences, trials and joys that only someone with decades of experience working deep in the trenches could provide. Driven by a true love for adventure, improving people’s lives, stabilizing countries and building meaningful relationships at every level of society, Ambassador Lucke shares successes and “horror stories” throughout this enjoyable memoir. The book is full of stories describing the enormous projects in which he and his teams were tasked in countries that even I as a well-traveled Special Forces veteran had to look up. Frequently knowing his family’s next home country on only a moment’s notice created a life of adventure where he worked alongside host-nation officials in underdeveloped nations to develop exports, national parks, economies and infrastructure. From near-death plane flights to dangerous border crossings in the pre-cell phone era spearheading important international programs on behalf of the Unites States, From Timbuktu to Duck and Cover will keep you turning the page chapter after chapter.

An enjoyable, at times funny,177-page read, this is the one book you should buy if you're starting off on a career of working overseas. This is especially true if you're going to be involved in Third-World development and humanitarian assistance work overseas for the government through its foreign assistance program (e.g. USAID) or an NGO like CARE or just curious about such. It is penned by a development professional, Lew Lucke, whose work took him overseas and far beyond that of a typical USAID "program" officer. His varied assignments covered in the book started with planning and overseeing the resettlement in Mali of 12,000 villagers displaced by a new dam, then developing alternatives to Bolivia's top cash crop - coca, illegal in the US,, overseeing the humanitarian assistance program to Haiti and the massive reconstruction in close coordination with the US military of Iraq's war-torn economy.. To cap it all, he was rewarded with an ambassadorship to Swaziland, now Eswatini. As comes through in every chapter, the author, Lew Lucke, took on all these challenges and others with the most positive spirit. In short, this is an inspirational book on many different levels, especially for those considering oversees development, And it lays out the type of the positive experiences one may have if you accept the varied challenges coming your way.

Ambassador Lucke has published an important book, rare in that it communicates real insight with effortless prose. Reading this book feels like you're having a conversation with Lewis and hearing about some of the extraordinary things he has done and experiences. It is also rare in the sense that at a time when there is so much noise about the role the United States plays in the world -- whether in the Middle East/Afghanistan, or in Eastern Europe with Ukraine, or in the South China Sea and rising geopolitical tensions with China -- Lewis is shining a spotlight on the best parts of the US that no one talks about. About his success in places like Mali, Costa Rica, Haiti, and Iraq, where USAID and other Americans were simply making the lives of people better, not for any grandiose strategic reasons, but because it's the right thing to do. I can't recommend this short and engaging book highly enough for those interested in the role of the US in the world at large.

I'm an incoming USAID Foreign Service Officer and I bought this book for more insights and I enjoyed every bit of it! I hope to half half the career that Ambassador Lucke did. After I finished this book, I had a connection who knew the Ambassador and put me in touch with him, he humbly agreed to discuss his journey with me over the phone. The discussion I had with was awe inspiring and I'm excited for my journey USAID Journey ahead. For other incoming USAID FSOs this is a must read. Really no other book out here like it!

Recommend this book as primer for anyone interested in working in the developing nations. The book blends a seriousness of purpose with the humbling realities of life in different cultures.

This is an excellent, informative read for a first hand understanding of the purposes, challenges, and accomplishments of US diplomacy and international development assistance over a span of 40 years. Ambassador Lucke offers engaging insights and anecdotes into his experiences in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. It is all of educational, entertaining, informative, and, at times, eye opening to those with interest in geopolitics, history, geography, public service and international economics/development.

I was introduced to Lewis Lucke at a hotel restaurant in Jordan in 2014. I was told that he was from Texas and was a former US Ambassador which, if I am truthful, sounded like I was in for a boring evening of how wonderful our yank cousins were and how they achieved World Peace single-handedly. During the 2-3 hours I was in his company I found him to be a very interesting, humble and pleasant guy.I looked at his profile on the Internet afterwards and discovered that he had been involved in some serious projects worldwide, many of which I had read about or followed in the World News programmes.Having found out about his book and downloaded it on my Kindle I couldn’t put it down. I read it completely within a 24 hour period.It is clear that he has had a thoroughly interesting and rewarding life, much of it spent in difficult countries or conflict regions where failure was more likely than success and where scrutiny, accountability and sometimes, interference added to the stresses.Lucke was posted to countries where most of us would decline to visit and was delivered some very difficult tasks that he dealt with successfully (in most cases). He is clearly a very humble man and he always attributed the successes to those who worked for him or with him.He met some very interesting and influential people, including at least four US Presidents, several world leaders, royalty and a few celebrities.We have all read or heard about the ‘disastrous meddling’ of the US in Iraq but Lucke’s detailed and corroborated account of the collaborative allied achievements and contributions that were made in Iraq, despite the actions of some US politicians, show what a difficult juggling act that he and others had to deal with and how fragile the process was.I would thoroughly recommend this book, especially to those who have an interest in World News. I wish I had engaged with him in more detail whilst I was sitting alongside him in the same room in 2014.