For those of you who follow this blog religiously, I apologize for the long delay in posting! We traveled to Italy this summer and life has not slowed down since the moment we got back. As I have mentioned before, our first house here in Ghana had multiple issues, including water leaking into ceilings from showers, INDOOR waterfalls on 2 different floors every time it rained, and mold, among several other concerns. Due to every single house in that compound having similar problems, the embassy has moved everyone out of that compound over the last couple months. We had a running joke that we were all playing a game of Survivor…who would last the longest in their house? Guess what?? We won!!!! We were the last fam standing…but still trying to figure out who is gonna shell out the million dollar prize 🤣. Anyway, we finally moved to a brand new house last week, which we absolutely LOVE. So here’s to a more peaceful next 10 months!
After dominating Survivor, we began playing a new game this week…the next season of Hunger Games, aka, bidding season. In case you are new to our story, bidding season means that over the next few weeks (possibly months), we will research and fight for the location that we want to be sent to starting in the summer of 2027. Since this will technically be our 3rd post (Houston counts as the 1st), bidding works a little differently for us this time.
Rules of the game
Last week, the State Department sent out the official list of all the posts in the world that will have openings for Don’s job starting in the summer. There are over SIXTY countries on the list, almost a third of all the countries in the world! They span all continents except Antarctica, everything from Argentina to Tajikistan (yes, I had to look that one up too). We have until mid October to research the countries on the list and place our bids for where we would like to go. We have to bid for a minimum of 5 posts, but can bid up to a maximum of 15. We also will be able to rank our 5 to 15 selections from the one we want most to the one we want the least. It is still a bit of a mystery how people are chosen for the posts…I laughed when I saw one person describe it as “It’s like when they choose a new Pope. A bunch of men go into a room, shut the door and no one knows what happens.” 🤣 When they come out, career development officers reach out to individuals with what is called a “handshake”, an offer for a specific post. Receive a handshake offer, accept it, and you’re in!
Let’s Play
The list is so huge, it is a bit overwhelming! After one week, we have it whittled down to about 30 or so, but are still working on selecting our final choices. There are MANY very desirable locations, lots of prime locations in Europe for example. Choosing those countries seems like a no brainer after the hardships of Africa, but in reality, bidding is far more complicated than just choosing your dream posts. It ends up being a mix of strategy, pure luck, and in some cases, just knowing the right people to put in a good word for you.
As the bidding process goes on, we are able to see how many people have already placed their bids, and for where. If you want one of the prime spots, you may be fighting 50 or so other bidders. For ONE slot. While it could happen, the chances of us getting one of those are very slim. Don’t get me wrong, we are definitely going to try, and we plan to have several European locations on our list. BUT we also have to “bid realistically.” Or risk losing the game.
IF we do not get any of the locations we place bids on, then we keep getting recycled to further rounds. It is a dynamic process; as some of the posts we selected are awarded to other bidders, we will have the opportunity to place more bids, again always keeping in that total of 5-15 selections. However, the further this process goes on without us receiving a handshake…the less and less “desirable” posts there are. Eventually it will get down to the few posts that NO ONE ever wants to bid on, and then we are stuck with choosing the best “bad” option. So, while we’ll bid on a couple Europe, we are also going to ensure that we bid on a few of the less competitive posts. We have to walk a very fine line; on the one hand, we need to choose places that we DO want to go, and not “settle” for the hard posts just because we’re afraid we won’t be able to get anything better. On the other hand, if we aim too high and refuse to “settle”, we may end up with whatever dredges are left at the bottom of the barrel.
Now, it is actually quite common to not get a handshake after the first round, especially for those relatively young in their careers, like Don. And it doesn’t always mean a death sentence – for various reasons, sometimes “dream posts” will pop back up on the list months later, after most of the competition is gone. For example, people who previously received handshakes may have a change in circumstances, such as a family member being diagnosed with serious health issues, causing them to have to forego their assignment and instead take a position in the US. I’ve heard of multiple times where someone was in panic mode, still waiting for an assignment all the way in the spring, when out of nowhere, they land an awesome post. The entire process can be over in November, or it can drag on till just a couple months before you are due to leave your current post.
There are also SO many things for us to consider when choosing posts. Since we will have 2 kids in middle school and 2 in elementary school, one of the most important criteria for us is the school options available. Interestingly, families tend to gravitate toward the developing countries (like Africa) because of quality of life factors. The housing is large, household help like nannies and housekeepers are easily affordable, pay is higher, and cost of living is more affordable. Often, this means the schools at these locations receive a lot of financial support, and are top notch schools. Parents rave about the international schools in Kenya and Tanzania for example, while the reports on the schools in the Eastern European countries are often lackluster, mediocre, or downright negative.
We also have access to reports on various quality of living information for each post, such as housing, traffic, commute times between embassy/housing/schools, availability of healthcare at the post, safety, and ease and affordability of getting American style groceries. To be quite honest, I have gotten so used to having abundant household help with cooking, cleaning, gardening, etc. that a small part of me cringes at the thought of a non-hardship post where Mom is back on the hook for EVERYTHING 🤣
Don’s salary will also differ drastically depending on the post. The more challenging posts have hardship differential pay, and some also have danger pay. Some posts have cost of living allowances to varying degrees. All of this means that the pay between 2 posts can vary by tens of thousands of dollars per year!!
Of course, we also want Don to ENJOY his job, and while it is technically the same position at every post, his day to day responsibilities would vary depending on the culture and location. In some locations, he would be dealing with a lot of petty crime, theft, car accidents, and residential and embassy security breach concerns. In places like Europe, there are many less of these types of incidents, but many more visits from the heavy hitters in Washington…congressional delegations and even visits from the Secretary of State himself (currently Marco Rubio). These visits require extensive protection detail planning and execution, and are a different type of work altogether.
Then there is language to consider. About half of the posts of the 30 that we are currently looking at require language training in DC for 6 months to a year before heading to the actual post. This would be very difficult for us as far as figuring out what do with the kids for school. This post will also only be a 2 year commitment (after that, we will do 3-4 year stretches). So, going to language training for a whole year for a 2 year assignment feels like a bit of a waste. But again, you gotta walk that fine line. If the “less competitive” posts, the ones with less bids on them, are the language posts, do we just bite the bullet on language or risk getting placed somewhere we hate?
Our plan will become clearer over the next couple of weeks as we research posts and as others start to place their bids. At this point, we are planning on bidding on a mix of places in Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Middle East. (South America is highly competitive AND requires language training). As time goes on, we’ll be able to see which posts are going to be HIGHLY competitive, and which ones we think may be within our reach. Please pray for our discernment over this next month. I keep reminding myself that God has always guided us thus far, and no matter where we end up being placed, it is His plan. And His plan is always the BEST plan, even if we can’t see it at the time.
So. Let the games begin! And may the odds be ever in our favor ❤️.