{"id":9152,"date":"2017-02-02T15:00:31","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T20:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/?p=9152"},"modified":"2020-09-07T09:12:02","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T13:12:02","slug":"living-overseas-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/blog\/living-overseas-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Living Overseas Right for You?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a very serious question that a lot of folks are beginning to ask themselves these days.\u00a0 Perhaps it is because of the recent economic and\/or political uncertainty.\u00a0 Or perhaps a latent desire for adventure is rising to the surface of our consciousness and we are looking for ways to get out and ride the range a bit. Either way, wondering if moving overseas is right for you is something on people\u2019s minds and I\u2019m starting to see a flood of inquiries about this topic.<\/p>\n

This issue of the newsletter addresses this question from our family\u2019s experiences in day to day life living in Managua Nicaragua for over 14 years.\u00a0 Hopefully these anecdotes will shed some light on life here specifically, but also generally in the region of Latin America.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If it open fields of questions in your mind, drop us a note and we\u2019ll share thoughts and answers that can perhaps help you decide if a life like ours might be right for you too.<\/p>\n

Also, at the end of the newsletter is a series of questions that an associate of mine pulled together to \u201ctest\u201d a person\u2019s appetite for life south of the border.\u00a0 I love it and took it right away.\u00a0 I scored a 45 out of 47, so I guess living here is a good fit for me.\u00a0 Take the test and if you want to shoot back your score, I\u2019d sure appreciate seeing how folks find themselves as ready to move south when the time is right.<\/p>\n

But to go back almost 14 years, I didn\u2019t know the answer to the question, \u201cIs living overseas right for me?\u201d\u00a0 Today in hindsight, I can clearly say yes, in fact, a resounding yes.\u00a0 Life for us here, despite the challenges, cultural differences, and \u201cforeignness,\u201d is far richer than we ever could have imagined.\u00a0 We are incredibly settled and feel very much at home.<\/p>\n

It has now been fourteen years since we packed up the 40-foot container sitting in our front yard in Shepherdstown WV and drove the Honda CRV into the back to complete the shipment.\u00a0 We had received several quotes for packing the house and they all seemed outrageous to us, so we had the freight company drop the container off and we proceeded to pack and load for 3 days.<\/p>\n

Carol did a great job of boxing and labeling everything down to the socks that we packed around fragile items, listing the contents of each box precisely.\u00a0 This is a gem of a tip, by the way.\u00a0 When you pack and label, be 100% precise.<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0 The customs folks (Aduana) are very serious about imports.\u00a0\u00a0 If they inspect and find a box out of count or the sock covering a candlestick not listed, they will proceed to open every box, not just a random sample.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This greatly prolongs the time and add huge expense to the inspection.\u00a0 Time being the key there actually, because \u201ccamping\u201d in an empty house isn\u2019t a whole lot of fun.<\/p>\n

Finally after all the house contents were loaded we hired the local tow truck with the lift deck to come and raise the car to the level of the container.\u00a0\u00a0 Then we drove it into the back of the container, locked it into place with straps and tire chucks, and placed a mattress on either side.\u00a0 We sealed up the container and the truck came to take it away.\u00a0 Three weeks later<\/span><\/span>, it was in Managua and so were we, Carol and I, and our 2 year old Amanda.<\/p>\n

Now, let me be clear.\u00a0 Having your container in Managua is very different from having your stuff.\u00a0 Even with Carol\u2019s meticulous labeling and paperwork, customs took about 4 weeks to process and it was only after appearing several times in person with crying baby in arms, did they relent and let us have our stuff.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure if Carol pinched Amanda (she wouldn\u2019t do that) but a crying baby definitely helped.\u00a0 In all fairness, I will tell everyone that 2 days after we arrived in Managua, I subsequently left for 10 days of travel and meetings.\u00a0\u00a0 It was Carol who took care of getting our stuff out of customs and moved into the house.\u00a0 My bride is a real keeper.<\/p>\n

There, in fact, is the next major point when asking whether a move to Latin America is right for you.\u00a0 Both partners have to feel good about the move and do well on the test below.\u00a0\u00a0 Living and working in Latin America will provide a constant line up of things both new and uncertain.\u00a0 Most of these new experiences are pleasant or at most minor annoyances, but you have to maintain the right frame of mind to experience them in a positive way.<\/p>\n

I like to call it, \u201cmaintaining a sense of adventure.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 There is a powerful pioneering feel to the life experience overseas.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s the electricity or water being out from time to time, to the lack of some tiny part for the stove you\u2019d just pop into Home Depot to get.\u00a0\u00a0 The long, long, long waits at the bank for a simple deposit can get on your nerves.\u00a0 These are the kinds of things that you must take on stride in order to have a happy existence here.<\/p>\n

Our girls grew up in Nicaragua and enjoyed a wonderful life full of richness.\u00a0 For them it\u2019s about the activities they have and we are at no shortage for these.\u00a0 Every week Amanda and Emily have 30+ hours of dance between jazz and ballet.\u00a0 Both have taken acrobatics and gymnastics and are involved in international dance competitions in Panama, El Salvador and Costa Rica. \u00a0\u00a0Amanda swam for the German School and her friends at the American School participate in competition volleyball, baseball and martial arts.\u00a0 Except for the surf lessons, our life here is pretty much like a typical life in the states\u2026.. except that it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s some of the why?\u00a0 One thing, and maybe the single biggest thing I can put my finger on is the low, low cost of the activities and general cost of living.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dance was less than $100 per month, per girl for the\u00a0 more than 120 hours of studio time with incredibly talented dancers and instructors.\u00a0 The full time maid and gardener we employ costs us around $350 per month.<\/p>\n

What that means is that we have no chores.<\/p>\n

I really mean that.\u00a0 No chores.\u00a0 Ever.\u00a0 One can scarcely imagine how this impacts your quality of life.\u00a0\u00a0 That is unless you already have one.\u00a0\u00a0 I know I couldn\u2019t afford this luxury before we moved here.\u00a0 Life in the US was dishes after dinner, cleaning the house, cleaning the bathrooms (not that I did much of that), doing laundry, making beds, cutting grass, cleaning leaves, fixing broken stuff, and lots of chores that I have absolutely forgotten about.<\/p>\n

Now imagine having none of those things to do.\u00a0 The amount of free time in your life expands exponentially.\u00a0 Especially on the weekends.\u00a0 And this is where the really fun stuff comes in.\u00a0 Yes, some of it is wild crazy fun like bungie jumping in Costa Rica\u2019s Colorado Canyon, but often, it\u2019s simply spending lots of time with the girls reading, playing games, going to the beach, having dinner with friends, and leaving a huge mess of dishes and feeling no guilt since they won\u2019t be doing them anyway.\u00a0 It is also about having friends come and visit and sharing this amazing experience with them too.<\/p>\n

\"unnamed-1\"<\/p>\n

So, we\u2019ll keep exploring the question, \u201cWhat is it like living overseas?\u2019\u00a0 Such a simple question yields an unbelievably complex answer.\u00a0 Because each of us comes from different backgrounds and holds widely varying expectations, talking about \u201cwhat it\u2019s like\u201d can become a long conversation.\u00a0 There are some things that seem to be universal to the experience that most expats would agree upon and this is the subject matter of this Gringo Life.\u00a0 I will draw upon some of the familiar experiences that we all share and add in some funny anecdotes to boot.<\/p>\n

In fact, as I wrote this I made a bunch of notes about some things to write about in the future including a shopping trip to the various \u201cmercados,\u201d the supermarket, and the mall to.\u00a0 This should be fun for me and informative for anyone interested in a possible life overseas.\u00a0 Right now, take a look at the test below and see how you score.\u00a0 Once again, love to get your score and get a sense of how people feel about a life overseas.\u00a0 Take care and until next time, all the best.<\/p>\n

(After 14 years in Managua Nicaragua, Mike packed up a container and moved partially back to the states.\u00a0\u00a0 He and his family are now splitting their time between Shepherdstown, WV and Managua Nicaragua.\u00a0\u00a0 In a forthcoming article, he will discuss the reverse move and items to consider when coming back north.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"mike_cobb-1\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Michael Cobb
\nChairman and CEO
\nECI Development, Ltd.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a very serious question that a lot of folks are beginning to ask themselves these days.\u00a0 Perhaps it is because of the recent economic and\/or political uncertainty.\u00a0 Or perhaps a latent desire for adventure is rising to the surface of our consciousness and we are looking for ways to get out and ride […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":5563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[6211,14346,14345,11222,4729,1895,2022,8699,1768,2776,8201,14343,4621,1889,4006,9602,3379,14344,4507,2198],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/image009.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9152"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9152"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30886,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9152\/revisions\/30886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9152"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}