Hachi Machi! So much to do with such little time.

The final month before our PCS sort of feels like being in a small room with the walls closing in.

With Angeli back home, successfully navigating her re-entry into the medical field, I have been coordinating pack outs, play dates, and work functions, doing my best to keep things afloat. But with one month left to go, there still is a lot to be done:

1. Pack out our UAB. A few weeks ago most of our HHE was packed out, so our house is feeling quite empty, but we still need to coordinate nearly 1000lbs of air freight that will be going to two different locations.
2. Finalize our tickets out of here. The government finally funded my departure, so this should be simple.
3. Get my Myanmar Visa. It was shipped off a couple of weeks back, now I have to wait for their Ministry of Foreign Affairs to give me a thumbs up. Fingers crossed.
4. Get all my departure ducks in a row at work. Work is great, but there are certain departure procedures that need to be done when transitioning from post to post, and often they need sign off from other section heads. Not difficult but it is tedious.
5. Give a sign off to the incoming MP. I am lucky that the person taking over for me is a good FS buddy that I have had great communication with, but I definitely want to make sure I leave the Health Unit in a situation where they can hit the ground running with no administrative headaches to deal with (like hiring new staff or restocking the pharmacy).
6. Receive a sign off for my next assignment
7. Finalize some training in the U.S. that I have to do on home leave. Nothing like having to plan a trip within a trip, between a trip.
8. Make sure to get current school paperwork that will be needed for the new schools
9. Finalize enrollment in new schools
10. Once I get my visa, arrange all of that travel and fill out the necessary paperwork. Turns out, getting to Myanmar is a pretty epic ordeal with fairly limited options, especially from El Paso. Still not sure how I will travel.

These are a few of the things I can think of off the top of my head, and it seems like the list keeps growing. I try to stay on top of taking care of things well in advance, so I don’t see any snags tripping us up, but it’s a lot to take in and perform, all while still doing my day job of running an embassy health unit in Nouakchott. The next month will be over in a flash and before we know it, we will be back on U.S. soil. Didn’t we just get here? -Nick