DIKE - The morning phone call proved an eye opener for Ed Berry.

The experience that prompted it was even more so for his daugther, Tracey Newell.

Newell, a 1992 graduate of Dike High School, has been serving as an economics consultant in the United States Embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, since May 2003.

She had been in a satellite office Friday when a suicide bombing outside the embassy destroyed a 20-foot-high protective wall and injured several people. A policeman on guard at the building died this week.

Berry, who works second shift at the Waterloo Post Office, was sound asleep when Newell called to say she was OK. He had heard nothing of the bombing before the call.

"She pretty well took it in stride. Her desk was covered in glass and debris, but no other damage," Berry said.

Newell had been working at another office in downtown Tashkent at the time of the bombing. She got a call from the embassy telling her to stay where she was at and they would get the mess cleaned up.

The embassy building is located about 30 feet behind the tall wall surrounding it. The bombing knocked a hole in the wall and rained debris down on the embassy building.

Two other suicide bombings took place at the same time at the Israeli Embassy and the chief prosecutor's office. Seven people were injured in the attacks.

It comes at a time when 15 suspects were about to stand trial for an earlier wave of violence in Uzbekistan that killed at least 47 people.

The Tashkent assignment is the first embassy job for Newell. She and her husband, Michael, both work there on a two-year assignment.

She graduated from Central College in Pella in 1996. She had worked on a Jim Nussle campaign and worked for the Corporate Council on Africa before this job.

Berry said his 29-year-old daughter likes the excitement of traveling and living abroad. It's been in her blood for a long time.

"For some reason she wanted to be a foreign officer since she was in fourth grade," he said.

Berry went to Tashkent to visit her nearly a year ago. Before her assignment, Berry had never heard of Uzbekistan.

What he found was an arid country full of history, but also with many older, bleak buildings and a struggling economy. Tashkent is a city of a little more than 2 million people near the Kazakhstan border. Uzbekistan also borders Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Tajikstan and Turmenistan.

"It's not exactly a tourist area," Berry said.

Newell's job involves getting new businesses to open up.

"She was excited that they just had their first Baskin Robbins open up over there," Berry said.

The country is run by a dictator, President Islam Karmov, who actively quelled rebellions and Islamic extremism. Berry said Newell has felt fairly safe there in part because the government keeps such close tabs.

Newell plans to finish out her Uzbekistan assignment and move on to wherever she would next be assigned.