Living Abroad

Okay, so my husband is in a career advancement program with his job that may/may not result in a permanent move abroad. It will likely include a temporary move abroad though. I'm actually excited about the possibility but still a little anxious. When he finished grad school, there was a possibility of moving to China for a while but he was NOT interested. He was like "we can go visit but I have no interest in moving there." My thinking was that we were young, childless, and adventurous and the timing was perfect. This would suit us just fine. Now, he is extremely excited about moving but this time we have two children...small children at that. This is what makes me a little nervous. The three main possibilities according to a recent email from his boss are...Maracaibo, Venezuela; Lagos, Nigeria; and Bangkok, Thailand. Of the three, I actually would prefer Bangkok.

Why? Well, I decided to do a little research about these places (since I have very little actual work to do).

1. Maracaibo, Venezuela - highly industrialized modern city in Venezuela. The pics are very cool, kinda like NYC but supposedly not as fast-paced. They have great education, healthcare, and nightclubs but don't have all the traffic, crime, and pollution. Sounds great, huh? Well, the bad thing to note is that there is a high level of kidnapping. Okay, so now I would have to be a paranoid, always-looking-out, scared-of-everyone-around-me mama everytime I would venture out with my babies. And, we know Bush and Hugo Chavez (Ven's pres) don't get along so would I be in peril as an American living there? Maybe I can disguise myself as a South American and just keep my mouth closed all the time.
2. Lagos, Nigeria - way too much political unrest. The positive is that you can live it up because it's not a very expensive place to live. But, the locals don't care too much for the oil people who are over there stealing their natural resources (without leaving much of the profit) so there are flare-ups from time to time.
3. Bangkok, Thailand - the best of the three. This city is also pretty highly industrialized with not too much crime going on. The only really bad thing I can think of is the expose on Primetime or 20/20 or whatever that showed those little bitty girls prostituting themselves for all the white American businessmen. Not a big deal for me because I know my baby wouldn't be out there talking about "the yum yum".

In our discussions about this, we feel the best thing is for him to go first and scout out the place to see if it's okay for the family to join. I think the experience would be wonderful for our children, although they're so young I don't know if they would even remember it. Maybe the oldest will. What if he goes and says it's too unsafe? Then, I'll be a single mom with two very young children......interesting situation.