Wow, in less than 6 months the family will be packing up and heading out from Mauritania. Surreal.
It truly feels like we just arrived to post and the sensation of being “the new guy” hasn’t really left me. I guess I am new in terms of Foreign Service experience, but I am not really new in terms living in Mauritania. The reality is our family is now the longest serving family at post, and has been heavily relied on to welcome our new arrivals and serve on numerous committees at the Embassy.
This way of life is so fascinating in how it evolves so quickly. At each post going from apprentice, to master, only to move again and be an apprentice. Since every post/country is so different, the logistics of moving and the functions of an embassy are so varied that even if this is your 10th tour, nothing will ever be quite the same. I think that’s really cool, and sort of equalizing in a way.
Looking ahead to the next few months, we will begin the new year purging and giving away a lot of things we quickly learned aren’t necessities in this sort of lifestyle, and really get things leaned down. With Angeli and the girls moving back home for the year I am in Burma, we will probably pack-out a month or two before we actually move to ensure our stuff gets home around the time they do. Plus, there’s also a decent chance Angeli might depart early if the stars align and she gets a really good job, so packing out early would really make a lot of sense.
We also have one more R&R left under our belt that we will be taking shortly, and after that, we will be in Mauritania until we depart for good. A lot needs to happen between now and June, but I can still happily say that we are enjoying our time here in Mauritania, and are going to enjoy it to the last minute. -Nick
So curious to hear what you decided you don’t need and what you’re sliming down to!
Tons of clothing, shoes, kids stuff. I brought tons of hobby stuff that sat around and thankfully I have been able to donate a lot of it and get some folks in the embassy interested in my hobbies. Win-Win.
Also quite a bit of furniture. We were lucky we got an assignment with tons of space in the housing, but even then the department fully furnishes so we had extra beds and stuff we really didn’t need to bring along. You’re allowed 7200lbs of stuff to ship to post which we used all of, and I think our goal is to trim that in half, and when I get my 3rd assignment, put even half of that in storage.
We also bought a lot of stuff that we will keep forever, mostly kitchen items. Really good knives, quality cooking pots. An Ooni Pizza oven. Back in the U.S. we probably ate out more than 50% of our meals so didn’t really prioritize quality kitchen items. In Mauritania it has been more like 95% of our meals are out of our own kitchen. I am sure future posts will have more availability on the market, but we have really enjoyed cooking for ourselves and quickly learned we can make better food, for less than most restaurants.