BusinessWeek recently published a list of the worst places in the world for expats to work.

The fact that I’m blogging about this should tip you off that Bogota is on the list.  #8.

Which means that the recent post about frustrations with Colombia could easily have been amended to include this post.

Actually, I really like my job.  I have great co-workers and great bosses.  The work is very challenging, even when I’m doing 100+ visa interviews a day.  When you consider that each decision you make has a very real and direct impact on the security and economic well-being of the US, it helps you focus and find ways to do your job better.  Embassy Bogota is the 2nd largest in the world, behind Baghdad.  Which means that there are always interesting things going on.  Whether attending an art show featuring West Texas paitings and photos the Ambassador hosted at his residence, working on visits by American delegations, helping arrest narcotraffickers, or working on the 4th of July.

And, speaking of work, Bogota has been the perfect place for Kristen to do part-time speech therapy.  When we arrived, I never would have guessed that her services would have been in such high demand.  I mean, an English-speaking speech therapist in Bogota?  Again, due to the embassy communtiy being so large, she has had more patients than she can handle.  Since we only want her to work a few hours a week, she has had to turn away many referrals, and even found another therapist in the embassy that can take some of her patients.  While she is looking forward to being done working, none of it would have been possible if we had been in Bern (due to the high cost of child care and the smaller embassy).

While the reasons listed in the article are reasons we’re looking forward to leaving Bogota and arriving in Bern, we are still enjoying our jobs.  I think Bern will be a totally different work experience for all of us.  Kristen likely won’t work.  I’ll be 1 of 3 Americans in the Consular section in Bern instead of 1 of 40 here.  The embassy will be so much smaller, which will mean I’ll likely get to do many things that aren’t possible here.

I won’t argue about Bogota being #8, but I also think it’s been a great place for us, workwise.