We took doxycycline daily in Africa, which was inexpensive and available at any pharmacy. It's another daily medication like malarone, which we preferred because we could stop taking it over the summer when we travelled back home and resume taking it about a week before going back to work. My family didn't have any negative side effects from it, so we personally had no issue taking it long-term. We also had a couple of coworkers get malaria, which got rid of any ideas about risking it.

Worked a bit with this over the past couple of years. A lot of schools that have adopted it are using it to provide some focus to MYP, rather than use it as a curriculum in lieu of MYP. As a standalone curriculum, it is lacking; rather it is designed to support and clarify curriculums that already exist along those values.

The workshops are really hit or miss, though. My experience is after the big picture ideas (which are interesting), we were provided with a lot of warmed-over activities and practices that weren't really novel (a PD experience everyone has had, I'm sure).

You may also conduct separate interviews with two different school representatives at the same time, particularly if you teach different school levels. We had two interviews separately with respective admin for a school, and then had a joint interview to discuss HR materials like salary scale and benefits.

rake wrote:
> I'm reading it as you must have taught two years full-time out of a three
> year span. In the event someone didn't teach for two consecutive years due
> to medical or maternity leave, or because of a change in locations or
> positions midway through a school year, they wouldn't be penalized.

My meaning was that if someone was unable to teach a second year immediately after their first year (year 1 and 2), but had taught full-time two out of three (year 1 and 3), they would be OK. Hope that clears it up!

I'm reading it as you must have taught two years full-time out of a three year span. In the event someone didn't teach for two consecutive years due to medical or maternity leave, or because of a change in locations or positions midway through a school year, they wouldn't be penalized.

If you have already opened and are contributing to a Vanguard acccount, you will be fine making continued contributions from a US based bank account.

I have a worked in a country where the exit visa included demonstrating that you had no outstanding debts with businesses in the country. So any pending government debts (unpaid traffic tickets or fines), phone/utility bills, and any lines of credit with local banks all had to be zeroed out before exit paperwork was granted. I'm sure that some folks managed to get out without paying, but it was an extra preventative hurdle.

It's pretty easy to live on the local economy in the city, but it is possible to spend a lot going out to restaurants and bars. Even with going out, savings potential is pretty good. The country currently has the fastest growing economy in Africa, so a lot of effort is being put into developing better infrastructure and moving past the troubles the country had earlier in the decade. Travel within the country is pretty easy, but it can be expensive to travel within Africa by air.

A friend a couple of weeks ago:
"We are under power black-outs, finding medications is pretty much impossible, and finding basic food staples is a challenge, but because of my purchasing power, I am able to buy goods from the re-sellers so I really haven't gone without anything."

Friend is not in Caracas, so the situation on the ground may be calmer where they are vs. the capital.

The WealthBar fee is slightly higher than the fee you would pay to a Vanguard Personal Advisor (.75% vs. .3%) if you decided to use one, but it's definitely not the 4% you get shackled to with Friends Provident or the like, and you don't have to deal with penalties for moving money back out. I don't have any personal stake in it one way or another, but it is an option for Canadian expats.

I do tend to agree with you PsyGuy; I prefer to manage my own portfolio and keep the fees as low as possible.

I have worked with a couple of Canadians who really like WealthBar. They were able to build indexed portfolios with Vanguard ETFs and let their advisor at WealthBar rebalance their portfolio yearly. The fees are under 1% and there are no commissions.

You shouldn't need a tax return, as long as you have a domestic bank account you are drawing funds from.

You shouldn't have a problem as long as you have a US address for your primary residence. Assuming you know the Vanguard funds you would like to buy, you can do that yourself without ever dealing with an advisor. Vanguard also has joint accounts, so you can use the residence/employment info for someone like a parent or person with POA to open an account for "general savings" which you can then contribute to.

If you currently have a portfolio/investment advisor, you also have the option of buying ETF offerings of Vanguard funds, which gives you access to their products without opening an account directly with them.

Sounds familiar. The State Department authentication can take a long time (think 8 - 10 weeks). If they have your documents, there isn't really a way to speed them up. I've heard some have had a much easier time physically going to the authentication office in DC and having their documents processed while they wait. Your KW school may also call on your behalf if all of the paperwork for their hires is stalled; that may move you to the top of the pile. The good news is you have started your paperwork early and the KW consulate can turn things around quickly (think 3-5 days) and you will get your authenticated stuff back from DC with plenty of time for the consulate to process it.

Grade 9 is generally HS.