A family member recently asked me if I could go back in time, would I have prioritized bidding on Mauritania when I first joined the State Department, and the answer is an emphatic YES!
At the time, my list had 4 African countries (3 of which have since had coups) and 3 eastern European countries with low equity but increased workload due to the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. I think I chose wisely, or at least I was lucky.
Although Mauritania might not be the easiest place in the world to live, the tour overall has been wonderful. Great colleagues, friendships, a great work experience, opportunities for growth and learning outside the medical wheelhouse, fantastic travel opportunities, and an easy pace of life. My supervisors both in the embassy and with MED have been fantastic as well.
We also got to Mauritania when our youngest daughter was 7 months old, so any sort of extreme social agenda out on the town typically isn’t in the cards when you have kids that age, and wouldn’t you know it, Mauritania is the perfect place to be if you don’t want to have FOMO on all the fun stuff to do in country. Other than a great beach and 2-3 decent restaurants, there’s not much going on in the city. The diplomatic and expat community is great at making our own fun with house parties, board game nights, book clubs, and embassy pool parties. It’s the sort of pace and excitement that is great for folks with young families.
Another big pro to me picking Mauritania was I had pretty high pecking order when choosing my next assignment. All posts are assigned a number called “equity”, where the higher the number the more difficult and/or dangerous it is to live there. Career development officers give weight when making assignments for those that served in more difficult assignments. Mauritania has one of the highest hardship equity scores in the Foreign Service, so that meant in my group of 17 colleagues all vying for their next post together, I was #2 in the pecking order.
Some of you might be scratching your head and wondering how I ended up getting assigned to an unaccompanied danger tour in Myanmar, but the simple answer is I chose to bid 1 year assignments highly, and that’s what I got. Had I not done so, I would likely have ended up getting another assignment in Africa (which I love the continent and will be back, but wanted something a little different for post #2 and #3), or one of the initial Eastern European countries that don’t really interest me. Of my entire bid list, the only country on my list outside Peshawar and Rangoon that really was interesting to me was Mongolia, but the one person with more equity than me had it in their sights, so I knew it was a lost cause. I also really REALLY wanted Rangoon, so things worked out great.
Above all other things, the most valuable item I am taking away from Mauritania is incredible friendships. I still talk to folks that left last summer on a regular basis, and will continue to chat with my colleagues here after I depart. This goes from locally engaged staff all the way to the chief of the mission, the folks here have been incredible and I really worry if the bar is set too high for my future assignments. I guess only time will tell, but I am definitely thankful for my time in Mauritania and wouldn’t change a thing. -NIck
