Happy Guessing

And may the odds be ever in your favor.

The handshake has arrived.

Our fate, well, at least our destination for the next two years, which has been in the hands of others, has finally been revealed.

But before we celebrate the elaborate GeoReveal (like a gender reveal, only different), let’s have a guessing contest!

Here are the rules:

1. Anyone may enter. However, if you were privy to the Top Six bid list, (you know who you are) please submit your guesses privately, via email or FB private message, as you would have an unfair advantage.
2. You may enter as many times as you’d like. (Really, there are very few rules in this contest.)
3. Enter the name of the city. Remember, the state department, in all its wisdom, refers to these locations as cities, not countries.
4. You may submit guesses via comments on this blog or on FB comments on this post. Or any other way you can think of to publicly share them. WhatsApp. Hangouts. Skype. Viber. iMessenger. FaceTime. Smoke signals. Skywriting. Shout it from the rooftops. You have to admit–we have way too many choices of ways to communicate.

But whatever you do, you should enter a guess. Just because you should be a good sport and play along. And because the prizes are so cool. Like free room and board when you come to visit. And the pride of knowing you guessed well.

So then.

Here are the hints:

1. You’ve likely heard of this city. I mean, maybe. If you’re pretty decent at national capitals. I am surprised to be giving this hint, as I was expecting to be saying the opposite. Most of the cities on my list you’d likely never heard of. Generally, if you’ve heard of it, I wouldn’t be going there.
2. You’re more likely to visit us here than our present location. Unless you’re Britta Erickson or one of our Kigali girls, because they all visited us here. (FYI: you’re all welcome to visit, and Britta, if you come, it’ll be like a tradition!)
3. It’s not on the same continent as our present location. That is in response to the mandate Randy laid down: NO. MORE. AFRICA.
4. Its climate is…surprising. It’s full of interesting contrasts; for example the diurnal temperature variation is typically large. Who knew?
5. As national capitals go, it’s a superlative. That means it’s a ‘something-est’. You know, like biggest or smallest or coldest or hottest or cleanest or dirtiest or some other -est. You get extra points if you guess what -est it is.
6. Its inhabitants speak a different language than our present location.  I mean, that’s not really a good hint, since they speak Kirundi here and only here.
7. It’s a post with no USAID presence. Now I know that doesn’t mean much to you non-Foreign Service people, so that’s just a little trick to throw people in the know off the trail.
8. We’re really excited. It was #1 on our Bid List, which is absolutely amazing to me, because I never never never expected to score this.

So there you have it. Let the guessing begin. Free room and board when you come to visit!! Please please please enter your guesses so I can share our news soon. You know I don’t keep secrets well!

Peace out, y’all.