A few family members and now one reader have asked me if there have been any pleasant surprises to this lifestyle. Although we are still early in this journey, roughly a year in, there have indeed been a few things that have been nice aspects to this lifestyle that we didn’t really account for or expect.

The first thing that has surprised me and has been sort of a blessing is just how much more we cook for ourselves since moving to Mauritania. That is probably a reflection of the lack of options in Nouakchott, but since arriving here we have really gotten into home cooked family dinners. I feel like during COVID when Nick and I were both working fulltime, we got really reliant on delivery services like Doordash. That all changed when we moved to Nouakchott. Both Nick and I take a really active roll in what we cook and we even turn it into a fun family affair.

Since arriving, we have bought a tortilla press and have perfected homemade corn tortillas for taco night. We got an Ooni pizza oven which is a huge hit with the kids and friends, where everyone gets to make their own pizzas. We have learned how to make great sourdough pizza crust. I started learning how to bake. Another spouse here taught me how to make great Pho. We make spam musubi. Nick does a killer sausage spaghetti. Overall, I considered myself a decent cook in the U.S. and did some fairly routine cooking at home, but this lifestyle has really reinforced the need to perfect the craft. What is really exciting is I think a lot of these habits are going to stick around. We have learned we can cook really high quality stuff that we prefer to even some of our restaurants back home.

Another pleasant surprise was just how wonderful and opening the embassy community was on day one of our arrival. In the last year we have made some great friendships that will definitely extend beyond our time in Mauritania.

Before we moved here, there’s always that bit of uncertainty when you are not sure if you will fit in. Thankfully, we were welcomed with open arms and the people serving in Mauritania are some of the nicest people we have ever met. I think posts in Africa do a good job of attracting quality people with a strong sense of community. In places like Japan and Western Europe, it’s easy to lose yourself in society as a whole, and go a whole tour without really making any friends at work (or so I’m told). That’s totally fine, but in places like Mauritania where typical social constructs we are used to in the Western world don’t exist, you either get by with the support of your community, or you sink really hard.

This lifestyle is full of surprises, and thankfully, so far they have been good ones. -Angeli