Turned out that this time it wasn’t us. It was the Canadians discussing her sex change operation. She ‘heard it all‘. When they said they didn’t know she spoke French, she replied they were talking in English about her! She went into the kitchens and ranted at our cook (she’d told the poor guy the day before all about her sex change) because they were laughing at her. She was clearly delusional and getting increasingly agitated and upset. It was possibly the most bizarre situation we’ve ever been in. Still, we were just happy that someone else had been accused this time and now everyone believed us that she had made the whole thing up.

In the end, the company got her out at what was probably a high cost to themselves. In a country where you cannot be gay, and transgender issues are unheard of, let alone discussed, they dealt with it in the best way they could. Although when we were back at the office, and everyone was asking what had happened, they kept referring to her as ‘him’ and one guy said ‘ how could we know? we respected her like a mother’.