Dreaming of far away places

One of my favorite things to do as I walk between work and the subway is daydream about possible posts. Some are dream posts that we most likely will not bid on right away, even if they are available. Some of the countries that call to me, for various reasons, are Croatia, Turkey, Greece, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Bahamas, Norway, Italy, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Brazil, Mongolia, Mozambique, and so many more. Now before you chime in to tell me x country is a terrible post for families, let me just say that I have not done my research on all of these. FSOs know that some places are great to visit but difficult to live in, so the above list may include some of those.

Those of you who know me know that I have a real passion for Latin America. My children have been in Spanish-speaking daycare since infancy. They are familiar with the language, culture, and food. I speak Spanish pretty well (I would probably need training, but hopefully not a full course) and it’s the only language my husband has a few words in. AND, it’s close to the USA. So my hope is that our first post will be in Spanish speaking Latin America. I think it would be the easiest transition for all of us, especially the kids. It would solidify their language, especially since we would hope to do our second tour in a Spanish speaking country too. This is because State only teaches you one language before you get tenure, so if D gets Spanish training, we would not be eligible to learn another language for our second tour. So that leaves English (India, Nigeria, southern Africa, Caribbean, etc) or Spanish.

There are few posts I wouldn’t be excited about in Latin America. I love Mexico, having married and vacationed there many times. I will probably think twice about the border posts, but Guadalajara, Mexico City, etc all sound great to me. And then there are Lima, Guayaquil, Quito, San Salvador, Guatemala City, Montevideo, Asuncion, Bogota, Panama – just a few that excite me.

I should take this moment to mention that just because I hope to be posted in Latin America, doesn’t mean we will! The State dept sends us where we are needed, and if we are tandem (what State calls a couple with both partners serving as FSOs), the possibilities will be fewer. Manila seems likely, as are posts in China and India due to the size of the countries and their U.S. missions.

We just won’t know anything until we get our bid list, which we receive the first week of training. We must rank all the choices on the list as high, medium, or low according to identified preferences (such as wanting to stay together, wanting to learn a certain language, etc). On Flag Day, about 5 weeks in, we find out where we are going!

But for now, I’m going to keep dreaming. I love that the entire world is a possibility! How cool is that!