Wow, what a month for anniversaries. Our nation’s birthday, this blog’s birthday, and this month my family celebrated one year of living in Nouakchott. How has it already been a year? After seemingly just arriving, my family finds ourselves as one of the more established families at post. We have crested past the halfway point
How difficult is it to get time away from the job if you are the only provider at the embassy? If you are new, is accruing paid leave difficult? A few people have asked me this, and this was something I also asked folks before I onboarded. Simply stated: It is not difficult to get
Several folks have asked me recently what my “day to day” work life is like, and I realized that even before I arrived to post, but had completed orientation, this was a huge black hole of knowledge for me too. I think most folks coming from the private sector are focused on patient volumes and
Has it really been 2 years? This past week marked 2 years since I started this blog, documenting my journey through the belly of the Foreign Service. Holy moly. At the time I was living in West Texas, working as a hospitalist, and 6 months away from receiving a job offer to join. Since then
I learned this past month where I will be headed, and am so excited to announce I will be taking a solo assignment to Peshawar, Pakistan. Choosing to do a solo post might seem like a strange decision, and a few months ago I would have never entertained it, but ultimately my wife and I
I feel like I have been highlighting a lot of the cool benefits joining the Foreign Service entails, and this week adds to that. The Bureau of Medical Services has a mentorship program where new providers are paired with a like minded more senior provider, who they can go to for questions, career advice, and
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
One of the things Foreign Service folks love to talk about at just about every social gathering or event you attend is previous assignments, future assignments, and bidding. Everyone always seems to have one foot halfway out the door even though they still have a significant amount of time in the place they currently are.
One of my favorite things about working the the Foreign Service is the opportunity to do things on behalf of my country but not necessarily related to medical work. Case and point, this past month I was given the opportunity to represent our country as an election observer for the national elections Mauritania had on
Shortly after I received my 2nd tour bid list last week, my wife and I discussed our priorities, and in short order returned the list back to the powers that be. I am not one to go back and forth over things, and I hate second guessing, so once the ball was in our court,
