This week I am handing over the reins to my lovely wife Angeli. Last week she was kind enough to leave me in Nouakchott and travel with some of our embassy friends to the Canary Islands. I thought the best way of rubbing it in my face in a lasting fashion would be to have her write about it on my blog. Going forward, I plan on having her do a few more semi-regular posts to help give the blog a better perspective of what it’s like being a family member of a diplomat, and everything that entails. Lastly, the reason it’s called “Kandi’s Corner”, is when we first started dating/working in the same hospital, a very memorable patient kept calling her “Kandi” instead of Angeli, and now our closest friends and I affectionally call her “Kandi”. Without further ado….

Kandi’s Corner:

Wow, what an introduction. Having followed this blog since the beginning, it feels weird to be writing in it. Its given me an interesting perspective into my husbands thought process as he/we have embarked on this journey. Recently he asked me to start writing some posts on here to give more of the trailing spouse perspective, which I believe is quite valuable. Even though one person ends up working for the Foreign Service, the decision impacts every member of the family in a very large way.

I suppose I’ll start by briefly introducing myself, my name is Angeli and I too am a Nurse Practitioner. I was born and raised in the Philippines to a Fil-American father and Filipino mother. When I was 21, fresh out of nursing school, I relocated to the U.S. where I met Nick, starting a chain of events that has me sitting in Nouakchott, Mauritania today. Four months ago I was working in a fairly busy nephrology practice, right until the day we moved, and today I am a stay at home mom while I wait for my security clearance at the Embassy to start working in the management office. In the interim I also volunteer at a medical NGO to keep my skills fresh.

I guess one of the reasons we are in Nouakchott right now is because I wanted my husband to put it at the top of his “bid list”. I wanted somewhere close to a decent beach since the Island Girl in me has grown weary of living in a land locked portion of West Texas. When I learned about quick and inexpensive flights to the Canary Islands, Spain, I was sold. When you have small kids, the shorter the flights, the better, and although there were some better quality of life posts available on the “bid list”, I think Nouakchott is a great post for young families, and it checked a lot of travel boxes with 3R&Rs in two years built in.

Last week, to celebrate 3+ months of Nouakchott living, I packed up the kids and went with an Embassy friend for a girls trip to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. A much needed break from the monotony of waiting for security clearances. Unfortunately for Nick, he was left behind to live vicariously through all the photos of fun and food that I bombarded him with.

If you ever have the opportunity to visit the Canaries, I whole heartedly recommend it. It is a gorgeous place with varied scenery, easy travel around the islands, wonderful food, great resorts, and beautiful beaches. Most of the resorts are all inclusive, with many of the same resort companies you see in Cancun or Punta Cana. A trip to the Canary Islands is very much a relax and turn your brain off vacation, not one where you get back from vacation and realize you need a vacation from your busy vacation.

We stayed at the Abora Interclub Atlantic, a 4 star, family friendly, all inclusive resort. Room and board was only about $130 a night for a large suite that was more than enough for myself and 2 daughters. The food and alcohol was completely included, and both my kids loved it. I’m not sure if living in Nouakchott changed my perceptions of decent dining out, but I was very impressed throughout. The resorts here don’t seem to have the plethora of dining choices you get in the behemoth Cancun resorts, but they were still great. Thankfully, because it’s so affordable, if you find yourself wanting something other than what the resorts offer, there were tons of great restaurants very close to the hotel, and you don’t feel too guilty spending elsewhere. We ate Chinese, Thai, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese while we were there.

Other activities we took in were going to the Maspalomas Sand Dunes, pictured in the title photo, visited their wonderful aquarium, spent a couple of days on their gorgeous black sand beaches, and just lounged around the resort pools. The resort had tons of kids activities, water slides, a kids club where you could leave them in a supervised area, and nightly dance parties. My eldest daughter loved it, and even our baby E got in on it. For those without kids, there are a plethora of water sport, snorkeling, and night life options available to you, just to name a few.

Overall, the trip helped validate our reason to choose Nouakchott as our post, and we are already planning our next trip back (maybe this time I’ll even bring Nick along). This would be a wonderful vacation for anyone, no matter where in the world you find yourself, but having these lovely islands at a little over an hour plane ride away gives us the opportunity to really explore the place during our 2 years in West Africa.

In the end, I was glad to be heading back to Nouakchott as we are finally settling in and feeling quite comfortable. All that remains is for me to start my new job, and then things will really feel like business as usual. I believe in the coming weeks I will discuss the job and hiring process for spouses in the Foreign Service. Until then, thank you for reading along. — Angeli