When are you guys leaving?

We have been asked this a lot lately. Now that we know we are going to Thailand, we are anxious to go. However, there are a lot of things that have to happen first.

Right now (and for the next month) I am doing additional trainings and working for various bureaus in USAID/Washington. Right now, I am working in the EGAT bureau and sitting with the Economic Growth team. I am working on any project that they send my way. I have worked on monitoring a financial crisis supplement and a briefing on Somalia. Additionally, I am working with some of the economists in the Asia bureau, and working to familiarize myself with that staff.

Additionally, I am taking any relevant training being offered. So far that has included a 2 day training on the Agriculture bureau, a Domestic Resource Cost Analysis training and I am working on an online Economic Growth training.

In November (this is the current plan), I am heading to language training. I will most likely be taking French. I have to test out in a language before I go to post and since Thailand is a regional bureau they rather you not take Thai. In fact, Thailand gets very little bilateral money. So I am taking French so I can further my career down the road.

So to answer the question...It depends how long it takes me to learn french (anywhere from 6-9 months)

That is all for now! Andrew will update soon!