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U.S. Foreign Service Officer headed to Wuhan, China

The mission of a U.S. diplomat in the Foreign Service is to promote peace, support prosperity, and protect American citizens while advancing the interests of the U.S. abroad. The work that diplomats do has an impact on the world as they serve at one of any of the more than 270 embassies, consulates and other diplomatic missions in The Americas, Africa, Europe and Eurasia, East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.

The duties of a Consular Officer include to provide emergency and non-emergency services to American citizens and protect our borders through the proper adjudication of visas to foreign nationals and passports to American citizens. We adjudicate immigrant and non-immigrant visas, facilitate adoptions, help evacuate Americans, combat fraud, and fight human trafficking. Consular Officers touch people’s lives in important ways, often reassuring families in crisis. They face many situations which require quick thinking under stress and develop and use a wide range of skills, from managing resources and conducting public outreach to assisting Americans in distress.

New Students

This past week I've started working with two new students: Tatiana and Jan (pronounced Yan).  They are friends or co-workers from some of my current students who gave them my contact information.  I'm happy about this becuase now that I'm not housekeeping, I have more time and energy at night and with Sean working a crazy amount of hours it's nice to have something to do.

Tatiana is from Brazil and is meeting twice a week with me to practice basic English.  She is a twenty-six-year-old biologist by trade who is a housekeeper here saving up money to return to Brazil and buy some property.  According to Tatiana, it is way easier to find a job and save money in Queenstown than in Brazil.  It is worth it to her to stay here for a year or two even if she doesn't want to be away from her family simply because of how much she will be able to save and bring back.  Considering that I think the wages here are horrible and competition for jobs very steep, I find this news about Brazil slightly alarming.

Jan is a twenty-eight-year-old Czech who is studying for the IELTS exam in preparation to move to Canada.  His dream is to live and work in a hotel in Vancouver but needs a good score on the IELTS in order to get the right visa and a good job.  It's been fun working with him because his level of English is already so advanced and because he has a specific goal in mind and test to study for.

Things are still going well with my other students.  I am reading "Matilda" with the other Czech couple and we are having a good time discussing the book along with learning a lot of new vocabulary.  Dan, my British student studying Spanish, has made it to about the equivalent of Chapter 3 of any introductory Spanish book and is conjugating verbs and speaking in sentences. It's actually really exciting and cool to watch him catch on to new things every week.

I am really enjoying teaching and it makes me miss school.  With working for NZSki, we are required to do a course on our own which earns us a certificate in New Zealand tourism.  It's actually quite a lot of busywork and writing and has consumed most of my mornings when I am not selling the occasional bus ticket.
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    Sarah Sanderson
    I am currently in Mandarin language training as a new diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service. Sean and I depart for Wuhan, China in November 2019 for my first tour in consular affairs.
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    Grateful for my very tolerant, supportive and easygoing husband who's always game for a new adventure

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