A La Siguiente….
And on to the next… Just like that we have our next assignment!
Chișinău, Moldova here we come!
We will be in Burundi until Summer of 2024, with an estimated arrival to Moldova in the fall of 2024.
As I mentioned in a previous post, this round of bidding was a bit different. We submitted our bid list via email with all the posts listed in sequential order of our preference (we received the bid list 8 months into our first tour). We had two weeks to mull over the locations and rank, and two weeks later an email with our new post was received!
This time around I received my third choice (same as last time!). How do they choose who goes where? It seemed like assignments were based purely on switching everyone to different regions or bureaus. In orientation there was a lot of emphasis on “Equity” which is each locations calculated hardship risk. If you go somewhere with a high equity for your first post, you should technically get some respite and get a lower equity post the second time around. We are going from 35% equity in Bujumbura (one of the highest) to 15% in Chisinau.
Before we head to our next post there is a mandatory approximate one month (20 work days is the minimum you must spent in the U.S.) of “Home leave” where we receive paid leave to go back to the U.S (home leave is a separate bank of hours, that I’m currently accruing). No complaints here on home leave- get paid to eat, relax and visit friends & family in San Francisco- YES PLEASE!
About Chisinau….
The embassy community will be larger- a little over double the size of Bujumbura. So more patients, more kids and families. But on the plus side a bit more available locally in terms of health resources. I’ll be walking into an already established and staffed clinic. While it’s been great experience hiring an entirely new team (4 positions total) it was definitely an extra work load to hire and train an entirely new clinic staff. Bonus- no more weekly malaria prophylaxis medication for the family!!
Goodbye Bujumbura
I’ve learned a ton this past year and a half- how to manage a health unit with multiple employees, how to hire (and fire) staff, how to practice health diplomacy, how to juggle living and working in a small town community (please don’t show me your rash in line at the Boulangerie sir), and how to do some serious emergency planning (the FS loves planning for emergencies- real doomsday stuff over here). Looking back I can honestly say that nothing in orientation prepared me for this journey. It was really just being thrown into the deep end- sink or swim. I may be frantically doggy paddling, but I’m afloat!
Knowing what i know now, would i still have joined? Absolutely! I miss a good strong hi-def wifi connection, and sushi- but none of the things I miss outweigh what we have gained. Two years living and exploring in East Africa, new friends that have become like family, and a drastically improved work/life balance with more family time. Living in small town Africa has allowed us to really slow down, and spend more time together.
Now we enjoy six more months in Burundi. As our time winds down here, there is a feeling of urgency to see and do ALL the things in East Africa luckily our third and last R&R is on the horizon….
