No matter how many times one moves in the Foreign Service, it is never quite the same. As much as one tries to prepare and learn from previous moves, each one is its own beast. It does not get any easier, it just becomes different. Unlike in moves past, where I was working or in training right up until our PCS Permanent Change of Station, aka moving day, aka the actual day or days of travel from one location to another , this time I opted to take some leave between training and our departure.
I had had an inkling way back when I was organizing my PCS travel orders around April , when I had to lay out a day by day plan my PCS from Malawi through to Guinea, that I might want some time off on the back end.
After nine months of training online, through Zoom, much of it trying to learn French, I did indeed need a break before heading to Conakry. Wait, how does that work?
Well, between each overseas tour a U. That time must be spent in the United States and is intended to reacclimate and re-expose the officer to their home country. For each year in a post overseas, an officer earns 15 days of Home Leave. An officer is expected to take at least the minimum of 20 days of Home Leave between overseas posts which can be combined with training with a maximum of 45 days of Home Leave.
And this does not include weekends or holidays! In my opinion, it is one of the best and most important benefits we have as FSOs. Over the course of my now year career, I have taken several permeations of Home Leave. Then between Shanghai and Malawi I took about seven weeks, using the last two to move into our training housing two weeks early on my dime to help us settle in a bit.
