Bid List

Lack of a fast Internet connection and busy times at work have meant no updates for a while. I do want to share more photos from our Northern Ethiopian trip later.

Our bid list for next summer came out, and we've been working on what and how we want to bid. There are 35 positions, of which two are in Beijing and one in Addis Ababa (my job), which I'm not allowed to bid. I have to list 20 jobs, in rank order, that I'd be willing to accept. Here's the list, in alpha order:

Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (No children allowed here)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Algiers, Algeria (No children allowed here)
Bangkok, Thailand
Beijing, China (two jobs here)
Beirut, Lebanon (No children allowed here)
Berlin, Germany
Bogota, Colombia
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Chengdu, China
Doha, Qatar
Frankfurt, Germany
Geneva, Switzerland
Hong Kong
Islamabad, Pakistan (unaccompanied)
Jakarta, Indonesia
Katmandu, Nepal
Kyiv, Ukraine
Lima, Peru
Lusaka, Zambia
Managua, Nicaragua
Maputo, Mozambique
Mexico City, Mexico
Mumbai, India
Nairobi, Kenya
New Delhi, India
Port Louis, Mauritius
Santiago, Chile
Taipei, Taiwan
The Hague, The Netherlands
Tirana, Albania
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Vienna, Austria
Zagreb, Croatia

As you might suspect, it's easy to choose where we really would like to go, and where we really don't want to go; it's numbers 17-23 that are the difficult ones, because we can be assigned any of the posts we bid on. I'm confident that we'll receive a good assignment, though, as my predecessor here in Addis got his first choice, and his predecessor got his second choice.

I have until September 21 to bid, so if you have comments on any of these, get them to me soon!

In other news, the Ethiopian New Year starts on September 12, and this year will be year 2000 in their Coptic calendar. There are many events planned here for the end of the current Millennium, and because of the influx of so many people, the Embassy is closing Tuesday through Thursday. Short week this week!