Just wanted to very briefly say Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all the readers here. This holiday season finds my family and I enjoying our time in Mauritania and I couldn’t be more grateful. It’s so nice to have a job in healthcare that doesn’t demand I work the holidays and I can actually spend the time with my family. I can’t remember a time in my entire career where I actually have had every single major holiday off to enjoy, and this being the government, if a holiday falls on a weekend, you usually get the proceeding Friday or following Monday off. At a time when my girls are still very young, I am so thankful for this blessing.

I will leave it brief this week and share my Health Unit’s holiday card. In the Foreign Service, every health unit from around the world sends out a similar greeting card to one another, and it is probably one of my favorite traditions I have discovered since joining. Getting to see my colleagues and health units from all over the world really hits home that we are as worldwide as it gets. From Ulaanbaatar to Buenos Aires and London to Tokyo. Really glad to be a part of this wonderful tradition.