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The past couple weeks have been busy ones. Besides turning thirty two weeks ago, I've been occupied with my bidlist for my second tour. This time, I got a list of 253 jobs, from which I had to select 30 and put them in rank order by preference. People who have served at higher hardship differential posts get higher equity in second tour bidding. Caracas is 20% hardship (the lowest is 0% and the highest is 70%), which is actually in the higher equity group, meaning we bid in the first half of the group, and after we are assigned, those who have served at 15% and lower differential posts will bid on the positions that are left. There are several timing issues to take into account considering start times, training, home leave, etc., and we are only allowed to submit "realistic" bids when all timing requirements are met.
Before seeing the list, I hoped to bid on a French-speaking post so I could get French training. Once the list came, there were few French language designated posts whose timing worked for me, so I ended up with a majority of Portuguese-speaking posts on my list. I chose first based on location and second based on the job description. I ended up with a fairly eclectic list: Havana, Lisbon, Suva, Tokyo, Maputo, Melbourne, Guadalajara, Sydney, Dublin, Rome, Maputo, Tokyo, Skopje, Perth, Praia, Bogota, Bogota, San Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, Quito, Kingston, Guatemala, Beirut, Cairo, Cairo, Sao Paulo, Pretoria, Stockholm, Kinshasa, and Manila. I will have my assignment in just over a week, so the wait won't be too long. Work has been plenty busy to keep my mind off it.
I'll post when I find out! In the meantime, I'll continue practicing jiu jitsu, playing violin, waiting on my supplemental HHE shipment, which was supposed have arrived at the port yesterday, and getting together with a cousin, Brittany, who just moved to Caracas to teach at one of the international schools here!
