More SA

After 5 days in Jo'burg, we are getting ready to head to Cape Town. Jo'burg is an interesting place -- the entire downtown is, for intents and purposes, completely depopulated. All major businesses, hotels, and homes have been abandoned. As in the Ritz just shuttered and chained their doors and simply left. It is quite weird. We kept asking people where was a cool neighborhood to walk around and hang out and they just kept looking at us like we were speaking a foriegn language. The population lives in high security suburbs, completely segregated. There is really no where to walk around and you don't see many people on the street. We stayed about a block away from a cool block that was walkable with great bars and restaurants. We later learned that was practically the only place in the suburbs like it. . . We were watching TV one evening and stumbled upon a show about the block we were staying on -- in Afrikaans. Kind of like Melrose Place in Jo'burg.
Yesterday we went on an amazing safari and saw a huge selection of birds and mammals. Cheetah, giraffe, lions, hippos, sacred ibis, bee-eaters, swallows, marabou stork, african fish eagle, snake eating eagle, zebras, warthog family, blue wildebeest, impalas, waterbuck, kudu, etc. It was lovely.
Getting on the train today for a peaceful 2 day journey across the country to end at the sea-side.
New Year's will be on the beach in Ghana with hopes that we will be able to cross the border back into Togo. Ghana is having a run-off presidential election on the 28th and likes to close the borders. Oopsie!
Happy holidays and much love to all. We are happy to be here, but sad to be away from our families.

South Africa!

Safely in SA after what might possibly have been the most painful flight of my life. Do NOT crank up the air conditioning on a plane full of tired people who have been living on the equator for two years. Got to Joburg - we are staying in a cute B&B in an adorable neighborhood called Melville. Kind of like Fells Point, actually. Going to the MALL today! Apartheid museum is closed. . . A weird casino tonight (modeled after a Tuscan village -- should be interesting). We are going to do a safari on my birthday then board a fancy old-fashioned train on Christmas to go to Cape Town. The train traverses most of the country so apparently we can see ostriches and springbok, etc. from the window while eating ostrich steak and drinking good South African wine. I am soooo excited. The climate is lovely, cool in the mornings, hot in the afternoon, cool again in the evenings - NO humidity!
Hopefully I can get a hold of Kevin's camera and post some pictures soon.
Until then, cheers, happy holidays & I love and miss you!

IHT article

U.S. Foreign Service revamps its test for job applicants
By Tamar Lewin
Sunday, December 17, 2006
NEW YORK: The path to the U.S. Foreign Service has always been straight and narrow: The first step is the written test, perhaps the nation's leading smarty-pants exam. Since 1932, hundreds of thousands of applicants have grappled with a half-day of questions on geography, English usage, history, math, economics, culture and more.
"It's like being on a golf course," said Justin Norton, a 26-year-old who flunked the test this year and last, but wants to take it again.
"You've got all the sand traps, the water hazards. I remember I didn't understand the question about economies of scale. I remember something about Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance.
"And sometimes even when I knew it, like a question about George Kennan and containment policy, I got it wrong anyway."
It is not an easy exam to study for. The State Department suggests reading a good daily newspaper for a year. There are prep books, and at places with lots of applicants, like the Fletcher School at Tufts University, maybe even a study group. But mostly, people prepare on their own, looking through a world atlas, the Constitution or the word problems they did on the SAT.
Still, the exam gets rid of most applicants. More than three-quarters of the 17,000 to 20,000 who take the exam each year flunk.
The test is more about breadth than depth. So for a question about Etruscan vases, the applicant might need to know that the Etruscans preceded the Romans in Italy, but nothing more.
Those who pass the exam go on to an oral interview, where they are hammered with questions and situations by several Foreign Service officers, and the best performer gets the job.
But now, the State Department wants to try a new approach, a bit less quantifiable. At the suggestion of McKinsey & Co., the management consultants, it plans to revamp the process to evaluate what it calls "the Total Candidate," The Washington Post disclosed last week. The written exam will stay largely the same, although streamlined and given by computer, instead of bubble sheet and bluebook. Online, the exam will be given more often, to speed the recruitment process, one of the State Department's main goals.
As applicants register for the exam, they will submit an online "structured r�sum�" describing their work experience, foreign residence, leadership experience and language abilities, among other things. Then, on the basis of the test results and r�sum�, a screening committee will decide who goes on to the oral assessment.
Some Foreign Service officers, past and present, have applauded the new approach.
"Testing people on their general knowledge, their ability to parse questions, is a poor standard for bringing people into the Foreign Service," said Mark Van Fleet, who was posted in Thailand for five years.
"You get people who are well educated, and understand the relationship of inflation and interest rates. But the test doesn't measure more important things, like good judgment," Van Fleet said.
But the change raises concerns. Some worry that adding more nonquantitative factors could open the door to political considerations, or applicants with family connections. (Note to State Department: To understand the possible complications, talk to the admissions officers at Harvard or Princeton.)
Anthony Holmes, president of the American Foreign Service Association, said he was not worried, because the factors to be considered are things like foreign experience and language ability.
"Whether you gave to a political party is not in the paradigm," Holmes said.
Others, though, are troubled by the proposed revamping, given that the Foreign Service is already so prestigious and so competitive.
"Since it's working really quite well, why make such a major change?" said Robert Gelbard, a former ambassador to Indonesia. "I have great confidence in Condoleezza Rice, but what about the law of unintended consequences? Who knows whether, some years down the road, political factors could creep in?"
And will the Foreign Service be dumbed down, given that adding factors will mean that some candidates could qualify with lower scores?
Not to worry, said Marianne Myles, director of the State Department's office of recruitment, examination and employment. There will still be a failing score, and the passing score won't drop all that much.
"The population that applies is so large - and so many of them are so qualified and smart and capable and have so many skills and abilities - that we can't take them all," she said. "Rather than sorting by one criterion, we're going to use more factors. But the very small percentage we take will still be the smartest, most qualified people representing America."
Notes:

Copyright © 2008 The International Herald Tribune www.iht.com

Foreign Service Oral Assessment

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am on to the next step in becoming a Foreign Service Officer (aka diplomat, or just plain dip).
I submitted a lenghty application (worse than Peace Corps' actually) in June I think, took the written Foreign Service Officer Assessment in July and found out I passed in September.
Since then the Qualification Evaluation Panel has been reviewing the application ( they don't look at it unless you pass the written) and checking references, etc. It is possible to pass the written and still not get invited to the Oral (common, actually).
Well, I got my invitation to take Oral exam today! I have to be in DC sometime between January 29-April 7. I schedule my test date on December 15th so I will let you know more then.
I am very excited and very proud of myself for having come this far (what? you've got be your own biggest fan:)
As for other news, am very happy and very busy in Lome working at the International School and living life. Still going to South Africa for Christmas.
Much love to all; I miss you.
Heather