*I know this is an old post but hopefully this post will help someone*

There is no sensitive way to say this but it needs to be said -- in certain parts of West Africa dogs and cats are seen as food and not pets. I am not saying that every Ghanian eats them but it does happen. In one of the countries I lived in near Ghana, a neighbour's friendly roly poly little dog got out of his compound in a gated community and was never seen again. The theory was he since he would walk up to anyone for a little bit of attention or love he was an easy catch.

Generally people in West Africa are terrified of big dogs. They can be excellent security if you have concerns about that sort of thing. People usually treat cats and dogs as animals not pets. We had a housekeeper who was very kind to our cat even though I am sure she thought we babied the cat way too much.

My next question would be have you lived in Africa before? When working in West Africa with local staff the laissez faire attitude of 'it will get done tomorrow (but tomorrow never comes)' can be quite frustrating. The other thing I found difficult was people asking for stuff. Random strangers walking up to you and saying 'Give me money' can get tiring. Sometimes people/colleagues will boldly come out and ask for outrageous requests 'Buy me a laptop' or 'Give me your car' because of the mentality that maybe the 'obroni' might just say yes. I found that this made it difficult to completely trust some local people as it felt that they were only being friendly because of the potential stuff I could give to them. That being said I still have a handful of really close local friends that I am still in touch with to this day who are not looking for handouts and never have.

If you freely admit that you are single local guys hit on you. You may get a couple marriage proposals. Some guys can be a bit creepy about it but if that bugs you just wear a wedding ring and pretend you have a husband.

Overall I would not trade my West African experience for anything. Life is never dull in Africa especially the more involved you are with local culture. If you are looking for an adventure and can laugh when things often don't work the way they should when they should, you will do just fine.

Breaking in to the PYP circuit can be a bit difficult. One thing I did was get intro PYP training that way I had the chance to wrap my head around the theory and the lingo.

When I applied for jobs the following year I crossed my fingers and in interviews mentioned all the ways that my teaching connects back to PYP even though I had not been teaching in a PYP school (use of inquiry learning etc.. One school decided to take the risk and that is how I got my foot in the door.

If you can't attend training in person I know the IB offers an intro course online called Making the PYP Happen. You can look into that. While training is pricey going that route helped me get into the PYP circuit.

I'm told some of the housing is as bad -- if not worse -- than the reviews make it out to be. Some teachers live in rather nice, spacious apartments while others are forced to live in buildings which had been, for lack of a better word, condemned. If you check the Director's Report, it mentions a bit about housing and even flooding! I've heard that they are in the process of building new housing at the elementary campus, though I'm not sure when it will be available though construction is ongoing. Much to the frustration of my friends, it's happening day and night by their housing. The school, as mentioned in the reviews, operates on a housing lottery system which rewards those who've been there longest. Friends say they will be leaving once their contract is up as it's not worth living in sub-par housing conditions with only a small chance of improvement to something marginally better, but still below par compared to other schools they've been at.

The best advice we were given when we went through the process was to talk to an accountant and get our hands on a copy of 'Canadians Resident Abroad' by Garry Duncan.

On the advice of our accountant skilled in this field we filled in the NR73e form (determination of residency status) and sent it off. We were warned that we might not get a reply but a year later we received some correspondence stating that our information had been received -- though no mention of whether or not we passed their test. However, since then we've not had any troubles over us not filling out Canadian taxes. (Though they did ask for some GST money back in the year we left.)

The only ties we kept with Canada were our passports, drivers licenses and credit cards.

Shadowjack is right. What I try to do after I am offered a position is Skype or email a few teachers at the school before making a final decision.

Usually people on the ground can provide some insight into certain problems mentioned in the reviews for the school. These contacts can also tell you what to bring in terms of resources and what items are really difficult to find in your possible new place of residence.

To answer your question- yes I am currently a music teacher in a school.

This school goes from primary to secondary. Before I got into school teaching I also taught private music lessons and built up my own studio/program. This helped me get the job as a music director at the school I am currently at. Along with having some Orff certification, I have various other training courses as well as a BEd.

As director of music I teach a majority of all music classes, I write or proof read report comments, I order music supplies, deal with instrument repairs and purchasing, plan 4 productions/large scale performances a year, coordinate all music clubs and activities as well as after school lessons which comes with a lot of paperwork and extra time. Since the music room is always open I am also on supervision duty in my room every break and lunch time. Most days I am at school at least two to three hours after school.

To be completely honest I am feeling more than little burnt out right now with this current job and am looking into other positions. Teaching privately was much easier and it paid WAY more than this job. That being said it could just be this school which lacks in support, input and foresight from management.

There is no harm in trying to apply to different schools, there may be positions that open up. With a bit more training you may be able to teach music overseas or you can always take the TESL route and teach English overseas.

Do you have any other music certifications? Did you participate in Orff or Kodaly training? Music for young children? Suzuki training?

There are international schools out there that hire music teachers from time to time. I have heard and noticed that in some locations music teachers stick around for years to build up there programs so these jobs are not always easy to come by. That doesn't mean the jobs do not exist though. In the past few years I have notice that there are a lot of music teaching jobs being paired with other positions such as a part time music teacher for an entire school as well as a part time primary teacher. This might work out well for you.

Just a word of caution though, I interviewed with one school a while back that wanted a part time music teacher in one such position, however they expected the teacher to pull off three large scale productions a year which involved either all primary students or secondary students. The catch was that each year group only had a 40 minute music class once a week to pull it all together. The teacher was also required to organize after school private music lessons for students as well co-ordinate at least two music clubs per term. The teacher would also be required to teach grade one when they were not in the music classroom. The truth came out as I began corresponding with staff memebrs already employed by the school that the school was downsizing the music department but they still wanted to keep all the productions and the extra-curriculars. That correspondence really helped me make my final decision on that position.

Having just gone through the process of becoming non resident Canadian I can pass along the advice given to me before leaving.

1) Pick up a copy of the book Canadian Residents Abroad at Chapters or online. It answers many questions people have about becoming non resident Canadians.

2) Print off the 'Determination of Residency Status' form from Revenue Canada. Begin to fill out the form and bring it with you to step 3.

3) Visit an accountant or tax lawyer with your form. Go over the form together.

The accountant my non-teaching partner and I visited helped us out tremendously. I just received the paperwork back saying my non-residency has been accepted. This is one year after submitting the paperwork. My partner is still waiting on his, despite us submitting the paperwork together.

Our accountant said these days if you own a home or rent it out it is very, very, very difficult to be declared a non resident Canadian. The less tick marks you have on page three of the form the better. My partner and I got rid of all bank accounts, vehicles, furniture and personal possessions, medical coverage, mailing addresses etc.

We did keep our RRSPs but are no longer contributing to them.

As my contract renewal time is coming up I am going over my contract and began looking at the maternity clause.

The director is keen to have more families at the school, so as to bring stability to the ever changing staff.

While kids are not in the imminent future, it would be good to know what other schools offer in terms of maternity leave.

My contract states I would get one month month off paid, a second month off at 1/2 salary and a third month off at no pay.

What does maternity leave look like for you at your current school?