The Foreign Service Journal, May 2022

42 MAY 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Sam worked as a part-time adviser in the USAID Health Office in Peru, where I served in 1986, and for other missions. I was able to get several short consulting contracts with for- mer institutional contractors (cleared by USAID Legal because I was advising them on general directions in health development and in no way representing them to USAID). For short-term assignments, not reimbursed by the government, they were happy to pay me a generous daily rate, which established my salary history. From 2010 to 2020, I worked part time with 13 USAID mission health offices under a wide variety of agency hiring mechanisms, I had lots of adventures, and some challenges, but really enjoyed the work, especially mentoring junior officers. including GHPro, Mission Personal Service Contracts, BPA, STAR, the Firehouse and others. I would do almost anything a mission health office wanted me to do, and could put up with nearly anything, anywhere on a short-term basis. There was a lot of demand for challenging missions like Angola (home of the $250 cheeseburger) and Nigeria (where I would go to and from the airport in an armored vehicle with an armed guard in the front seat, unless they forgot to send some- one, in which case I would take a taxi). My wife encouraged me to take one-month assignments, so we could enjoy more retire- ment time together. So if a mission wanted me for a longer-term assignment, I would negotiate terms like one month on, one month off. I had lots of adventures, and some challenges, but really enjoyed the work, especially mentoring junior officers. I was recruited to work in Benin and Mali. When I protested that I don’t speak French, the missions said they didn’t care—I spoke USAID-ese, which is all they wanted. Fortunately, the USAID/ Benin health office assigned a third-year Peace Corps volunteer