We’re On Our Way to Pretoria
Two weeks ago I received my next assignment, which is Pretoria, South Africa. I was blown away when I got the news. It was number six on my list of ten posts, of which most admittedly were very nice places. Meredith initially didn’t want to even consider going to Pretoria, as the crime is really bad. We compromised though, and put Nassau, Bahamas as our number two, which I wasn’t that high on, and put Pretoria at six, which she didn’t really like. I also thought the odds of us getting Pretoria were pretty low, as it’s a very desirable place to live, if you can get past the crime rate.
I’ve been told that in the African Bureau, Pretoria is the post you get once you’ve paid your dues in less desirable places, such as Chad, the Congo, Sierra Leone, etc. The reason we got this is that the particular job slot that I’m taking is reserved for entry-level employees, of which I am one. Had I been tenured when I bid on the job, the odds would have been stacked against us.
When I came home to tell Mer the news, she said “Oh.”, thought about it for a minute, and quickly warmed up to the idea of living there. Our reservations with the place are the previously mentioned crime problem, and how far away it is. The good news is there’s a direct flight from Dulles to Johannesburg, which is awesome. The pluses far outweigh the negatives: safaris, wine tours, beaches, cheap good restaurants, English speakers (yea!), San Diego like weather, excellent housing(which will probably be a house, maybe with a pool), etc. You can see why it’s been so hard for me to concentrate at work recently!
So we’re very excited, but the work begins shortly to actually move there, which is a painful, slow process. In the meantime, we are going to enjoy our few months left in Turkey, which has been a great first post.
