I feel like I have been highlighting a lot of the cool benefits joining the Foreign Service entails, and this week adds to that. The Bureau of Medical Services has a mentorship program where new providers are paired with a like minded more senior provider, who they can go to for questions, career advice, and just general information. Within that, they also sponsor a trip to go and visit your mentor at their post, so you can see with your own eyes what another health unit looks like and how it is run. Each health unit operates like their own little kingdom, which makes sense when you consider just how different each country is and what resources it may have available. For a new provider it gives great insight into the way different people, places, and countries operate their systems. On this occasion I was afforded the opportunity to travel to Frankfurt where my mentor is posted.

The U.S. Consulate General in Frankfurt seen above is an interesting and repurposed building. Construction was initiated by the German Luftwaffe during World War 2 as a hospital. Following the Allied Victory over Germany, it turned into a U.S. operated hospital, where it served in that capacity until the mid 90’s. Fun fact, Elvis Presley had his appendix removed here. Eventually, the Frankfurt Consulate got too big for its britches and they decided to repurpose the hospital as our Consulate, where it continues to serve this purpose nearly 20 years later.

Having already seen health units in Dakar and Abidjan, this was my first look at a large unit in a western country with high standards of healthcare. Our consulate in Frankfurt is one of the busiest health units in the world (as well as one of the largest diplomatic posts), and the provider serving there (my mentor), one of the most seasoned in the service. It was great to experience and get a taste of what it might be like to work in a place like this. While definitely busier than my post in Nouakchott, they had staffing to accommodate the increased patient needs, so the overall workload was still quit nice, especially compared to the private sector.

To be honest, I am not sure if a large embassy/consulate is my thing. It’s definitely far less scary if a real medical emergency happens in Germany than Nouakchott, but I also like my job in Nouakchott because it doesn’t feel like work back in the U.S. the same way working in Frankfurt did. I guess the trade off is, at the end of the work day and on the weekend, you are in an incredible city, with a great culinary scene, and you have access to the whole of Europe. Definitely not a bad place to be, and I wisely allotted myself a few extra days to enjoy my surroundings.

Ultimately it was an incredible learning experience and I got to expand my Foreign Service horizons a bit more. The trip ended with me buying as much delicious German meat as possible, and ferrying it back home to Nouakchott. YUM. -Nick

This is how you play meat Tetris with your hotel fridge..