Assignments - Part Two

The jobs for the Army that lead you to living in countries like Djibouti are part of a very small section of the Army. Essentially, the Army provides Military Liaisons to the US Embassy in a host country. The jobs vary, as well as the responsibilities - but that is what the jobs are in a nutshell.

So, this is what my husband will be doing and that is how we were able to go to Ethiopia and now how we are going on to Djibouti.

You might be asking yourself, can't you do that job, say in France or Sweden or Austria? The answer is yes - those jobs exist there, just not for my husband.

Years ago - I am going to estimate 10, he filled out paperwork asking to be part of this Liaison program. I was excited about the opportunity to move somewhere exotic, like France, Sweden or Austria.

We had learned about the program during my husband's first year in the Army when the soldiers who were years ahead of Darling Husband were putting in their paperwork and getting their futures planned.

My husband listed his credentials, took a language aptitude test - or supplied them with his scores, and gave the Army all pertinent information. Later in the process, he was asked to put preferences for areas of concentration. He put down his preferences and for a bit of drama, listed Africa as his last choice for an area of concentration.

We were fairly confident that he would be put in the European program, he had studied Russian, and has a high aptitude for languages (which I will address in a later post, I am sure). We were certain he would be picked up to do the Eastern European program.

Imagine our surprise when the paperwork came back and said that he was slotted to go to Niger, Africa. Huh? That is not Nigeria, that is Niger. French speaking in the middle of Africa.

I wrapped my mind around it, we started doing research. We bought books about Niger. We studied everything we could, laughing that every bit of tourist information regarding Niger warned to "Stay off of the Kennedy bridge" and were generally excited to give it a whirl.

Kosovo, 9/11, Army and life got in the way and while Darling Husband was in language school for Portuguese we found that his assignment had been changed and we were going to Abidjian, Ivory Coast. Back to research, reading, preparing, etc. I was exchanging e-mail with the family we were replacing and one of the last I received was from the wife who was hunkered down listening to the coup d'etat that was happening out on the streets of Abidjian. Coup d'etat's trump assignments and all of the sudden we were moving to Ethiopia. (Where they don't speak French OR Portuguese.)

Language school finished, we were off to Ethiopia! (More to follow on Ethiopia.)

What I wanted to tell was the story of Djibouti. For many reasons that I am sure I will address in later posts, the opportunity to go back to Africa is a real gift. When Darling Husband was supplied the list of places in Africa he COULD go and asked to put in preferences, it had some seriously uninviting locales and Djibouti is one of them. I know people who LOVE Djibouti, but when the list of locations are Tanzania, Botswana, Kenya, etc., Djibouti is not the natural first choice. In fact, it was the LAST place on the list Darling Husband supplied. And when he put it down, I said to him, "You know we are going to go to Djibouti because I am sure you are the ONLY person who put it on their list."

Voila!

That is how Djibouti became the next military assignment. As I type this, know that had we stuck to the other plan I would be in Vicenza drinking a REAl macchiato right now and deciding what flavor of gelato I wanted for lunch..