In astrophysics, the event horizon is the point around a black hole that not even light itself can escape. It’s essentially the point where there is no turning back.
That’s how I feel the last few weeks at post is. In less than a month, the family and I will be leaving Mauritania, and as we prepare to go, it is an interesting drawdown.
When we first got to Mauritania, I wrote a post about how the first few months are this process of leveling up. You first arrive to post with the items you could hold in your 2 suitcases. Then you get a few hundred pounds of air baggage. Then you get all you stuff a few months later from cargo ships and consumable items like food. This dance is a slow steady beat to making your home away from home feel more like “home”. You’re also able to ship yourselves non-liquid things through the diplomatic pouch system to make up for any shortcoming you might have. I’ll cover that in a future post, but basically that next day Amazon order in the U.S. takes about a month in our mail system.
The drawdown to depart a post is basically the same process in reverse. A month before you leave, you’re slotted a time to have all your belongings backed out, and eventually, your last few weeks are with the few items you think are so crucial that you’re taking them in your packed luggage. This part isn’t so bad, but it can be really complex when it comes to consumable items.
For example, we have been in the process of potty training our 2 year old, and in that dance, have somehow started burning through her pullups/diapers at a much higher rate than the last few months. As it stands I have about a week and a half of supplies remaining, but we are here nearly 3 more weeks, which means I’ll be at the mercy of the substandard diapers available on the local economy. Not a huge deal, but a little annoying.
Another awkward thing is trying to make sure you time consuming all your food in the pantry and fridge to essentially the last day. It isn’t practical or in some cases legal (meats) to take them back to the U.S., so you’re in this weird dance of rationing some things, but then furiously trying to consume a bunch of other things you bought too much of. My 2 cases of pizza/pasta sauce looked great a year ago, but that nearly full case remaining has me scratching my head. I love Bush’s Baked Beans, but now I have a case of them that isn’t going to be gone by the time I leave.
Thankfully, the diplomatic community has adapted to these challenges and there are ample opportunities to sell of excess items, or donate them to those in need, but it’s definitely a lesson in consumption. It’s also a highlight of moving in the Foreign Service that you don’t think about if you are moving to a new house in your home town or even a few states away.
Our time in Nouakchott has hit the event horizon, where anything we would try and order will get here after we are gone, and there is not much point in trying to procure much on the local economy. There are some things we have too much of a surplus on, and other things we wished we had more of. It’s definitely been a great learning experience and will prepare us well for the future. -Nick
