This week marked the end of orientation, and boy was it a productive one.

As mentioned in the previous post, I learned my first assignment will be taking me to Nouakchott, Mauritania. I remain incredibly excited about the assignment, and perhaps more importantly, my family is too. My eldest daughter couldn’t be happier to be living near a pristine beach, and it sounds like there are several kids her age at post. It seems to be the perfect post for young families like ours, where BBQ’s, beach trips, and hanging out by the pool with the embassy community are common.

Following flag day, I turned my attention to a vehicle search. I mentioned previously that I am sort of a car guy, and I went back and forth on the perfect vehicle for my family and the location. The only hard and fast rule for importing a diplomatic vehicle to Mauritania is it has to be less than 8 years old. Given the difficult desert environment and overall driving habits of the locals, I didn’t feel like taking something pristine to post. I also needed something 4×4 capable to get me to the beach or the sand dunes, and be comfortable enough for the whole family. Not mandatory but a bonus, something with a 3rd row in case family comes to visit (which is planned), or taking friends we meet at post out and about.

The first order of business was inquiring if there was anything at post available. Sadly, there was nothing. I also looked at some export companies but there wasn’t a whole lot that met my requirements for a reasonable price. Then, I turned my attention to dealers locally in the DC area, since I figured it would be easier to ship cars to post from here versus El Paso. Added bonus, if I buy something now, I once again have a car to make grocery runs, buy consumables for post, and no longer need to rent a car for when my family comes out next week. I set myself a budget of 35k since I wanted to buy straight cash as it makes shipping a vehicle without a loan much easier, and got to searching.

Common car brands in Mauritania are French brands like Renault or Peugeot, or Japanese brands such as Nissan or Toyota. The Rav4 seems to be the unofficial car of the foreign service, and although I did entertain it, I wanted something a little beefier off road, with more space. I thought about something like a Jeep Wrangler (cool looking but unreliable even in the US, and likely impossible to service abroad), the Ford Bronco Sport (same issues as the Wrangler and ever smaller), or a Land Rover discovery (unreliable and very expensive to repair, also requiring premium fuel).

Ultimately, after searching for a bit I went with….

A 2016 Toyota 4Runner SR5 Premium. AKA “Nouakchott Battle Cruiser”. It checked all the boxes. It’s lightly used with less than 8000 miles a year on the odometer, has brand new tires , 4×4, and it has the all important 3rd row. I can’t begin to tell you how hard it is to find one of these with a 3rd row, but I’m glad I did. It also came in under budget, and although it is a fairly clean vehicle, it has a few little dings and scratches that I’m sure will only build in Mauritania. After the vehicle was secured (huge shout out to my MED friend Anna for taking me out to Fairfax to get it done), my focused returned to the close of the orientation week.

The final day of orientation featured the ceremonial swearing in with guest speaker Deputy Secretary Brian P McKeon, second in the State Department to the man himself Antony Blinken. Below is a photo of the class at the ceremony he was kind enough to share on his Twitter feed. He gave a great speech to the class, and really hit home on the gravity of our work, and undertaking we have committed to. This was the first time in over two years swearing in was performed in person, and I found it a strangely emotional ceremony. Taking the Oath of Office with my classmates and affirming my duty to uphold the Constitution of the United States of American really hit home. If you followed the Trump impeachment proceedings, and the testimony of many of the diplomats involved, you understand just how seriously the Oath is taken.

It’s a bittersweet feeling finishing orientation, knowing several of the friendly faces I have befriended will be moving along to post or language training. That said, I’m glad to be into the meat and potatoes of training, where we will finally get some MED/Job specific training. Before that though, we get a week of FACT training, short for Foreign Affairs Counter Threat training. It’s a crash course in surviving dangerous situations, and includes what seems to be a fun driving component. Here is a link to the public website that goes into it a bit more.

General orientation is done, and the final push to Mauritania has just started. It is coming fast and I couldn’t be more excited. –Nick