RUMFORD — A very different and very wide world exists beyond the borders of Western Maine and the United States. Just ask Lucy Kimball Abbott.

Abbott, whose family once operated a dairy farm in Rumford, has been a foreign service officer for the U.S. State Department for 24 years.

In that time, she has served in the embassies of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Japan, Liberia, Ottawa, Niger and Zaire, now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

At 7 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 22, at the Rumford Public Library, she’ll speak on some of the duties, adventures, dangers and advantages of working for the State Department.

“I love it. Being a foreign service officer pulls on everything you’ve always learned or did, especially after 9/11. We try to build relationships with every country,” she said Monday afternoon from the wrap-around porch of the Abbott Farm in Rumford.

Right now, she is on a month’s leave from a two-year stint serving in the Niger capital of Niamey. At the end of August, she’ll be heading north to Ottawa to work on Arctic issues, energy, economics and the environment. She is dividing her time between her camp in Bethel, her parents’ home in Portland and occasionally, at the Abbott Farm.

Her travels began early. As a child, she visited many African countries with her parents. Her father, Wilder “Kim” Kimball Abbott, a 1955 Stephens High School graduate, was in the banking industry and often took his family to the countries of Africa as part of his business.

But Lucy really wasn’t sure what she wanted to do when she graduated from Smith College in 1983 with a degree in history.

Then, after holding five very different jobs in five years, someone gave her an application for foreign service. She applied, took the exam, passed, was nominated by the president and confirmed by the senate. And she’s been serving in the foreign service ever since.

Much has changed since 9/11. It used to be that either American diplomats or military personnel were in a country. Now, with the rise of al-Qaida in many countries around the world, both are often present.

Her most recent assignment, in Niger, saw a peaceful coup, a rewriting the country’s constitution and an active democracy.

“Our job is to keep tabs on each country and why it matters to the United States,” she said.

Niger is fighting al-Qaida, which is in the interest of the U.S.

Lucy attended the former Pettingill and Virginia elementary schools in Rumford, and taught swimming at Black Mountain and Howard Pond. She graduated from high school in Manhattan. Her legal residence is Bethel.

Coming home for a month is a congressional mandate. People in the foreign service must keep in touch with the issues at home when serving as diplomats in foreign countries, she said.

Her presentation on Wednesday night, sponsored by the Friends of the Rumford Public Library, is also a part of the Hometown Diplomat Program. She’ll speak on the advantages as well as the downside of serving in the diplomatic corps.

She said college graduates who are having a tough time finding a job, or those who want to make a career change, may consider applying for such service by logging onto www.careers.state.gov.