Farewell to Nouakchott

***NOTE:  Some of you may have read “Version 1” of this post… but a trusted friend suggested I edit the work-related details since my employer doesn't like it when employees blog publicly about their work experiences without prior approval/clearance - even if I have nothing but nice things to say.  Since this friend has much more experience in this arena than me, here’s the watered down version (still a good read).***

A mere 63 days ago, I arrived in a country I hadn’t heard of 4 months ago.  Scant few details were available online and the only “first-hand” stories I could find from people I knew weren’t promising.  Disease, crime, poverty, and threats of terrorism were just some of the things I had to look forward to on my trip.  However, such is “normal” in the life of a Foreign Service Diplomatic Security Special Agent.

But much to my surprise, this assignment wasn’t as bad as I expected.  Don’t get me wrong… there were long hours and hard work, but Nouakchott, Mauritania wasn’t as bad as everyone told me it would be.  I had the good fortune of working with some wonderful people who were kind and welcoming, helping me as I (often times blindly) navigated my two-month assignment in Mauritania.  I can’t wait for our paths to cross again (which, in the Foreign Service, is inevitable)!

My experiences here definitely covered the gamut of work performed we do as Special Agents overseas, from working with the Marine Security Guards, to managing the local guard force, to providing protection to high-level visitors.  Although it still baffles my why Mauritania was on their travel itinerary, I had the luck of working two VIP visits while I was here on TDY: One for Former President of the United States Bill Clinton and the other for U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus.

SECNAV Mabus and Ambassador Powell walking into a meeting (that's my shoulder in the dark suite on the left side of the picture)

SECNAV Mabus talking with the best MSGs in the U.S. Marine Corps!

SECNAV Mabus reviewing Mauritanian Sailors (my shoulder can be seen right behind the Mauritanian Naval Officer with SECNAV - always out of sight, but never too far away)

President Bill Clinton and Chelsea, along with Ambassador Powell (and me in the background)

I met President Clinton back in 1998 at Boys Nation... we've both aged! 

***NOTE: Some of you have asked whether this is really me in the picture – yes, I can promise you it is… scary how much we can change over the years, huh?***

While there was definitely plenty of work to do, I had the chance to have a little fun as well.  The full-time Assistant RSO was on leave during a large portion of my assignment here, so I had the good fortune to dog-sit and house-sit in his family’s absence.  So Jersey the dog and I got to hang out together for almost 5 weeks.  Of course, you’ve already seen a picture of the beach, but I finally had a day off (after almost one month straight), so I took Jersey to the beach to stretch his legs and have some fun.

Jersey the dog

Camel market along the side of the road

Isn't the beach beautiful?

Even Jersey appreciates the calmness of the beach

This has got to be my favorite picture of Mauritania - two donkeys fighting!!!

Having access to a house also meant I had the opportunity to cook.  For those of you who know me well, you know I love to cook – especially deserts.  While I was here, I found a recipe for Peanut Butter Pie that was actually possible to make given the significant lack of resources (i.e. U.S. groceries) here.  It was definitely a treat for the people here since items like that are hard to come by!  It was so good, in fact, I made a second one just prior to my departure so my new friends would have something to remember me by!

Peanut Butter Pie

This TDY assignment was definitely an experience I’ll never forget.  I met a lot of professional contacts, made even more friends, and gained a lot of valuable experience I’ll take with me down the road when I eventually move overseas and become an RSO.  But like all good things, this TDY assignment must come to an end, so I’m off to Paris for a few, much needed, days of R&R before heading back to the U.S.  And since our 9^th Wedding Anniversary is next week, I’m flying Karen out to meet me so we can have some time together.  I’m sure that’ll be a blog post in and of itself in a few weeks!

Summertime

Soon after Carl left for his TDY to Mauritania, the kids and I made a trip over to Florida to visit Mimi and Poppaw.  While we have lots of friends in Texas, it’s still nice to see some of our friends in Florida too.  We visited our former church in Cantonment and then made our way over to Navarre Beach to spend some time building sandcastles, swimming, and looking for shells (one of our favorite pastimes).  Although it rained the first couple of days we were there, the sun eventually came out and we were able to enjoy the sand and sea.

Navarre Beach

We were able to spend some time visiting with some friends that I had not seen since moving to Texas. Overall, we had a great time and found a ton of awesome shells, caught crabs, and even a few small fish. Katelynn already talks about returning to the beach.  After a week or so at the beach, the kids returned to Pensacola with Mimi and Poppaw to attend VBS while I got some much needed relaxing time alone.  I will admit it did get a little quiet… amazing how quickly you miss the chaos once it’s gone!

We traveled to Brevard, NC on July 19 for a trip to the mountains with Mimi and Poppaw.  This is Todd's third time and Katelynn’s second time visiting the area and its one of Todd’s favorite places.  We rented a house in Brevard and enjoyed catching fireflies at night.  Brevard is located in Transylvania County, NC and area known as "the land of waterfalls."  We hiked to 7 different waterfalls and were able to get fairly close to all of them.  Katelynn was a trooper and hiked to all of the waterfalls with hardly any help.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous and cool.  We picnicked everyday and played in the streams and hunted for rocks.  The area had received a good amount of rain recently, so the waterfalls were full and rushing.

Moore's Cove Falls

Daniel's Ridge Falls

Slick Rock Falls

We spent most of our time in Pisgah National Forest and a portion of our time on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Sliding Rock is a natural water slide well known in the area.  The temperature of the water at Siding Rock is a cool 54 degrees.  Todd and Poppaw braved the temperatures and went down Sliding Rock one time.  They are nuts!

Todd and Poppaw going down Sliding Rock!!

One of the days, we went mining for gems at a place called Gem Mountain.  We started out with a 5 gallon bucket of rocks and sifted through them and found many gems including garnets, rubies, amethysts, sapphires, emeralds, sodalite, quartz, citrine, and amazonite.  The kids had a blast!  On our last full day, we strolled around the quaint town of Brevard, NC.  We went to an old fashioned soda shop and had an awesome chocolate malt (yum!).  We’ve been sending pictures to Carl of all the yummy food we’re enjoying, but realized it was a little mean since he’s limited on what’s available in Mauritania.  We also visited the famous O.P. Taylor's Toy Store.  This toy store has every kind of toy imaginable.

O.P. Taylor's toy store

Our last stop was Ernie's Rock Shop where Todd picked out a geode and helped the rock man cut the geode.  Todd was the first person to see what was inside his geode and he is quite proud of it.

Todd helping the rock man cut his geode

Todd's geode with quartz inside

As I write this, we are heading back to Pensacola and already miss our daily hikes to waterfalls.  We will be driving back to Texas on Thursday where Mimi will be riding with us and keeping the kids while I go a MOPs leadership retreat at Lake Conroe – supposed to be really pretty out there.

Countdown to when Carl comes home:  25 days!!!

Happy Fourth of July... from Mauritania!

OK… so I can see many of you already shaking your heads wondering, “Where are you, Carl?”… and the other question everyone asked before I got out here, “Where’s Mauritania?”.  Well, the answers are (1) I’m in Nouakchott, Mauritania this summer for a long term TDY assignment and (2) Mauritania – officially known as the Islamic Republic of Mauritania – is a country located in the Sahara Desert in Western Africa.

I arrived a few weeks ago and started getting settled into my new assignment, albeit temporary.  This place definitely took some getting used to (given the fact I don’t speak French and typically obey traffic laws) but the American Embassy community has been very welcoming.  Although the days here can be long, the weeks are flying by.  And despite the long hours, I’ve had the chance to see some pretty beautiful sights while I’ve been here (although you should be warned – the pictures below are the only beautiful sights in Mauritania – there’s little else here besides more sand… along with donkeys and camels).

Sunset in the Sahara

See how natural and untouched this looks

It's quite relaxing to sit and enjoy the sound of the waves

I was working (hence all the gear under my shirt) but stopped for a quick picture... Tough day at work!

Fast forward to today… the Fourth of July.  Although I’ve been celebrating the Fourth of July earlier than most of you in the United States (since there’s a 5 hour time difference here in Nouakchott compared to Texas), I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Fourth of July!  I’m celebrating the holiday by working all day (and most of the night) getting ready for American Embassy Nouakchott’s Annual Fourth of July Celebration.  It’s typically the “big event of the year” so everyone is putting on their best suit or dress (the one they try to keep pristine since there’s no dry cleaning here) and coming in for the event.

So… while I’ll be celebrating the Fourth of July a little differently than most of you (hopefully without any fireworks… in my line of work, fireworks aren’t a good thing), I hope all of you are enjoying your summer and particularly the Fourth of July!

Big Events

So, the problem with being super busy with fun things is that there’s no time to write about them.  But with a little down time comes an update.

We left off our adventure with Todd’s 3^rd place win at the pinewood derby.  Well, Carl came home after 5 weeks of training to three people VERY happy to see him.  It was great to spend time together as a family before he had to leave again.  This time, we knew well in advance about this trip, which was only one week long.  A week seems like a short trip after coming back from a 5-week trip, right?

Sometimes, my husband has the coolest job in the world; even if takes him away from us too often.  He traveled to Louisville, Kentucky to provide protection to the Dalai Lama.  Carl got to be the limo driver, which was pretty neat!  He said it was really surreal to look in his rearview mirror and see the Dalai Lama.  Of course, he also said he felt a little guilty skipping out on church to drive the leader of the Buddhist religion.  He got a really cool picture with him too…

Sometimes my husband has the COOLEST job in the world!

While Carl was gone, Mimi and Pawpaw came to town for the barrage of big events lining up.  It was great to hang out with them.  Carl made it back Wednesday afternoon just in time for Big Event #1 on Thursday… Todd’s Kindergarten Graduation (it doesn’t hurt that I’ve been threatening him within an inch of his life if he missed this big event for months now).  Can you believe it??? Our little man graduated kindergarten.  We’re so proud of him and how well he’s done in school.  Todd loves to read chapter books now does so whenever he can.  At graduation, the teacher picked a character trait that best described the child and spoke about it.  Todd’s trait was Respectfulness.  She couldn’t be more right!

It took 100+ pictures to finally find one where he was smiling (and not picking his nose)

The Graduate

Family Picture

With Daddy

With Mommy

Saturday brought another big event… Katelynn’s 3^rd “bur-tee” party.  In years past, it hasn’t been such a big deal, but this year, you’d think it was going to be covered by all the major news outlets the way Katelynn was excited.  We tried to keep it low-key so we reserved a pavilion at a local park and grilled hot dogs.  It was great to let the kids run around and play while the adults spent time together.  Katelynn had a blast with her friends and definitely enjoyed her “bur-tee” party.

Ready for the party!!!

The "bur-tee" cake

A very pretty princess

(Look at Katelynn's handful of gummy worms - right before cake!)

Ready for cake!

Although Katelynn’s birthday was actually Monday, it was a fairly quiet day with everyone trying to recuperate from the busy weekend.  Tuesday, Carl took the day off for my birthday, surprising me with a nice quiet dinner just the two of us at one of my favorite restaurants – Maggianno’s Little Italy.  We used to go all the time in Dallas, but there aren’t any close by in Houston.  It was really nice enjoying a nice meal with the man I love. 

Todd also got to experience a “first” on my birthday… Carl took Todd (along with Pawpaw and me) shooting for his first time.  Before he was allowed to go, Carl made Todd memorize the 4 Rules of Gun Safety, which he can still recite.  Carl’s reinforced gun safety with the kids from an early age, and it was great to watch Carl as he introduced Todd to one of his favorite hobbies.  Overall, it definitely ranked up there on the “best birthdays” list!

Todd shooting (and Carl making sure the rifle is pointed in the right direction!)

Wednesday, Carl had to go back to work and Todd left with Mimi and Pawpaw for a special trip to Colorado… Rocky Mountain National Park and a family cabin.  Todd’s been fascinated by the outdoors and nature for as long as I can remember, so he had a blast.  The pictures say it all…

Don't worry... Todd can run faster than Mimi!

Now that he knows how to read, he loves to read ANYWHERE!

Panning for gold

Future Scientist??

While Todd was out of town, we learned that life is exponentially easier with just one kid as opposed to two.  Katelynn was so calm and tame while Todd was out of town we thought she was a different person!  Over the weekend, we went to Galveston to check out the beach.  It’s a trip that’s been on our Houston “Bucket List” (i.e. things to do before we leave) and we had a great time… especially Katelynn.  The beach was nice, but I figured out I’m totally spoiled having grown up with the beautiful white sands of the Northwest Florida coast.

Lookout Pamela Anderson... here's the next future star of "Baywatch"!!!
(over Daddy's dead body!)

Not to waiver from the craziness of our life (especially the craziness of Carl’s job), Carl got pulled for a last-minute trip to California and had to leave right before Todd got home.  Carl’s flight left 6 hours before Todd’s landed… so they just missed each other.  Carl hated missing all the excitement and Todd’s stories, but bent over backwards – taking a red-eye flight Saturday night/Sunday morning – to get home sooner so he could hear all about his trip.  Carl may have to travel a lot for his job, but he really tries hard to minimize the time away from our family… even if he literally has to lose sleep to do so!  And in true DS fashion… Carl was gone again 48 hours later on another short trip.  He returned home just in time to spend five days with us, pack, and leave us for the summer to work at one of the U.S. Embassies in West Africa.  Come to think of it, we’ll have made at least one trip to the airport each week since the beginning of May.  At least we get to have dinner at Rudy’s BBQ every time we drive by (YUMM!!!)

It’ll be a rough summer without our guy, but we’ll make due… as we spend lots of time at the beach in Florida! 

Third Place

I wasn't there to join in the excitement, but I wanted to share with all of you the results of the Pinewood Derby.  The "Todd-mobile" came in third place out of 52 different cars.  There was a very excited little boy who called me to share the news with me yesterday... and I wanted to share it with all of you!

Speed Racer with his certificate and "trophy" (it's a holder for the car)

I hate that I missed it, but on the bright side, I have 364 more days to think and design next year's car!