Leaving Home

This is Mike... We had a hectic time packing right up to the end, but we did it! In the last few days I was so tired that I slept everywhere I sat down for more than 30 seconds. We were all pooped from our emotions, physical work and mental exhaustion of planning and re-planning.
   Our neighbors helped us a ton, from moving furniture, prepping meals for us to eat, to outright invites for dinners and cocktails. The help our neighbors gave us will never be forgotten. Having said that, few things in life are as uniquely difficult as saying good bye to loved ones. We were so blessed to have had neighbors whose doors were wide open, both literally and figuratively. To you we say, "Nuestra casa es su casa."

All dressed up for the airport ride at 430am. The Anderson's made our last night and trip to the airport worry free.

 This is Elise.  We made it to Granada safely after a long day of travel.  I was worried that I would have second thoughts when we got here.  It's not as clean and pretty as Steiner Ranch but for some reason, I really like it here.  Even the guy at immigration was nice.  I had no trouble changing some money and going grocery shopping.  I can walk everywhere here. I did take a cab back from the grocery store because the bags were heavy.  It cost 10 Cordobas for the taxi ride (at 28 Cordobas to the dollar.)  It's hot but the plunge pool cooled me right down then I swayed in the hammock with my wet bathing suit.  So relaxing.

Final details before flying to Managua

This is Mike...
We either sold or packed up nearly everything and are now in the final few days before signing the closing documents and boarding the plane for Managua. We booked a temporary place to stay in Granada for the first month. Having a temporary base allows us focus on schools, cheaper longer term rentals, and to test out the community. We chose one of the many on-line resources for booking homes abroad. The rental is more expensive but does include utilities and thus minimizing our hassles for the first few weeks.

Our rental property in Grenada.

   Because of the ungodly amounts of luggage we are taking, we pre-arranged a minivan to pick us up at the airport in Managua. Part of our agreement with the kids for going abroad was they can take their most prized possessions with them on our journey. Unknown to us was just how much of their stuff was "Prized". Either way, as parents, we are happy to accommodate them on this difficult transition of losses and new beginnings.
   We are currently living, shopping and planning our days based on checklists. With so many whirling parts, checklists are the only way to know if you are actually accomplishing anything. Forwarding the mail, notifying the school, packing, and on, and on. I hate to admit it, at present, we are more "Warriors" conquering individual tasks rather than people living in the moment.

Our empty living room of many beautiful memories.

Upstairs was a kid's wonderland and is all cleaned out now.

Our kitchen was our hang out spot and is the last place to we will pack.

Our back deck that was once filled with our neighbors and friendly cheer is now empty as well.

        As for enrolling the kids in school, we scheduled a meeting with the private school administrators 4 days after arriving in Grenada. We could do homeschooling again but have decided against it, so that our kids could meet other children as quickly as possible. A few blog followers asked if we will enroll our kids in public school down there. We checked into all the options, including public schools, but they are simply bursting at the seams. In fact, public elementary classes of 50 to 60 students and only half them receiving desks is not uncommon. This is why charities like www.eduplusnicaragua.org which we visited and supported last year are so important for the tiny tykes. For our school charity post from last year, visit our blog post dated, 5/14/2015 Casa de los suenos, a great charity.

Staff prepping for the lunch rush that so many of the students truly need for their daily nutrition.

Great school changing the world through deed.

As long as we support each other

 This is Mike...
We are now two weeks away from our move date to Nicaragua and the emotions are starting to set in on each of us. Our kids are crying at unexpected times and we as parents are bracing for our own emotional moments yet to come. Guilt plays its part on us as we wonder if we are doing the right thing. Sadness plays its part on us as well, seeing some of our places for the last time. Loss is something that we all experience but it never seems to get any easier. If we had not done our exploratory trip last year we would have gotten cold feet by now. So for anyone considering moving abroad with children visit the place first as a family.
   We are getting wonderful feedback and questions from many of the blog followers. Most of the questions we are receiving are of a practical nature regarding expenses, schools, transportation, and infrastructure. We will be breaking things down as we experience them and will be providing pictures with descriptions.
   As for our expectations going forward:
We are targeting about $2,000+/- a month for total living expenses which includes private school and local transport. If we stay in Granada we are hoping not to buy a car and walk, take taxis, or ride bikes everywhere. We may buy a scooter though, because I think they are cool and would allow us to go greater distances. We have checked into purchasing a car though it is not our first choice. If you are  considering getting a nationalized vehicle, there is a man whom I cannot name out of San Juan del Sur, who can be found on Expats of Nicaragua Face Book group who can get it done for you.
   Our primary focus will be finding friends for our kids. So, whether we decide on one city over the other, playmates will come first in our decision making process. It is difficult hearing our children cry but through it all I can still hear the echos of their giggles and laughter from our last trip. As my wife says, "Though we sometimes have doubts, as long as we support each other, we can do this."
 

Four chairs without a table. Somehow, this describes our feelings right now to a tee.

Choosing storage and movers

This is Mike...
As we draw closer to the moving deadline we have to make arrangements for either selling or storing the furniture. After estimating the few peanuts we could get by selling the furniture we opted to store it instead. As we found out, there are a ton of options for storage. In the end, we chose to climate control our stuff because mildew is an issue for long term storage here in Texas. I know, air conditioning our junk sounds extreme but all of our furniture is nearly brand new and they had a special we could not refuse. So, for $146 a month, we can keep our goods safe in case we move back sooner than we realize.
   We were going to initially hire movers to relocate our stuff to storage, but have since, decided against it after the $1300 to $1900 quote. We are going to do the move "Old School" and move the stuff on our own, with a neighbor or two (still undecided on who I should ask a favor from). Renting the truck and buying packing supplies should come in around $400 or so.  Much nicer to the wallet than the hefty fees the movers were charging. I guess that is the high priced reality of using professionals in a booming area like Austin. We'll use the money saved by doing it ourselves and buy tickets to Nicaragua instead :) For the record, my wife did not like the idea of us moving furniture but saw the light after seeing how much money we could save.

The storage facility.

The temporary home for our belongings.

Looks like a prison for innocent furniture to me.

I spoke with the facility owner, and the Austin area storage occupancy rate is 98%. It is no wonder why they are building so many more units here.

   

One month away and counting

This is Mike...
We are one month away till we close on the sale of our house, and move to Nicaragua shortly thereafter. Part of our dilemma on scheduling anything, is there's always a possibility the home will fall out of escrow for lack of financing, etc. There is also a possibility signing of the documents gets delayed for some inexplicable reason as well. Hence the bizarre world we are in right now, it's all good until it isn't. Lack of absolute timetables we can count on is making us unnerved, which makes us irritable. Once again, we are having crazy dreams just like last year prior to us leaving on our "Big Trip". We have dreams of losing hair, teeth, or each other. Sometimes our dreams effect us after we are awake too, like Elise getting upset with me for something I did wrong in her dream?! And the vise versa is also true, with me getting upset with her. Still, we need to push on and find storage for our furniture, sell our car, transfer the mail and so on. Prioritizing has become a big pastime since that is about all we can do right now. We cannot pack the furniture yet, too early. We cannot sell the car yet, too early. We know the busy days will come and dread the thought.

Nothing beats selling a hot tub to a total stranger on-line

Ah the joys of selling an air hockey table for pennies on the dollar.

    

Moving abroad - and the decision

Shortly after we got back to the U.S. from our road trip, we knew something was unsettling us here. For starters, the first world expectations for faster, bigger, and better run counter to the slower, easier lifestyle which we want to pursue. Prior to our trip last year, we questioned ourselves first rather than the issues effecting us. We usually started with, "We have so much and it is so easy, why not be happy here?" Predictably, we followed that logic by convincing ourselves, "Wherever you go, there you are." Fear had gripped us in far deeper ways than we realized or wanted to admit. Fear of financial loss, fear of losing friends, fear of our children falling behind in school, fear, fear, and more fear.
   There was a dis-ease within us regarding how we wanted to live versus how we were actually living. Our restlessness was a symptom of a much bigger problem. Early on, in our trip last year, we experienced tremendous guilt about our new found ease. In hindsight, though, we realized that finding ease is what made us happiest. Finding harmony and ease is among the most natural of desires, and yet, in our modern hectic lives we found so many trivial things to fill those voids of inactivity. Instead of working through and enjoying our quiet times, we were enabling our dis-ease by not allowing ourselves any quiet time to recharge. It was an eye opener, last year, when we admitted that much of our dissatisfaction in life was our fault and that our constant denial of ease would have to be reconciled in order for us to live happier, more fulfilling lives. We did not want our inability to relax to become a way of life and that was when we decided we needed something and some place different, and hence our decision to sell.
   Regarding our move, we are feeling all the emotions anyone would have with selling our home after almost 8 years of great friends and community. This time though, we have a better understanding of our own limits and possibilities. More encouragingly, we now question the things that give us disease first, rather than question our reactions to them. As we continue through the transition of selling and moving we realize the only thing more difficult than an ending is a new beginning.
   This entry marks the beginning of the second phase of this blog which will now focus on how a family goes about moving from suburbia to a foreign country and all the trials and tribulations that it entails.          

Our kitchen of many parties

Our living room

Our backyard

Our dining area

Our foyer

Stairs looking down

Living area

View to front door

Entertainment area

Our home

       

Without words

This is Mike...
While walking through Miami International Airport, after arriving from Uruguay, I stumbled upon a new customer service hologram. These new pods will be coming to a airport near you. The hologram image was of a beautiful, tall, well busted Latina. The lady in the hologram spoke English and Spanish fluently, and could access other languages if requested. All you had to do was push a button and you could be electronically guided. Soon all of us will be saying, "I can remember a day when people did this."
   I went to a restaurant in Austin, the other day, that has 3 registers two of which were touch screens and one which had an actual human. These positions were formerly starter jobs for young people trying to save for a surfboard, car, or whatever. We are being maximized by our employers and soon to be replaced. Many tech companies are trying to develop driver-less cars. What about the taxi drivers or school bus drivers who have families to feed? I get it, I see the advantage of having a hot pod like I saw in Miami, it works 24/7, never requests holidays off, and never has any of those pesky pregnancy issues.
   I miss seeing the bio-luminescence in the waters of Central America, seeing the fisherman come in after a long days work. I miss the simplest of things that give depth to human interaction. When I become a grandfather I will tell my little ones of a time where people went out shopping, spoke with cashiers, shook a bank teller's hand, laughed at silly jokes. I'll explain till I am blue in the face that the world is not in the computer, it is outside your door. Years ago I took a communications course in college and learned that non-verbals represent 90% of communication. The squint of your eyes, the tone of your voice, the smile on your face all add depth and punctuate what you are saying. I will certainly encourage my little ones not to settle for the shallowness of words and explore the beauty of interaction.

Customer service hologram coming to a town near you.

  

Steiner Ranch, Austin, Texas, USA

This is Elise.  So here we are back at home.  Everything is familiar but strange to me now as I look at it all with different eyes.  It took us over nine months to get to Santiago, Chile and we are home in the blink of an eye.  I felt like I had been sucked back through a time warp.  We arrive in Dallas Fort Worth airport on Thanksgiving morning and use the ladies room to freshen up.  They were the cleanest, nicest bathrooms I had seen in nine months.  We get a breakfast sandwich.  It isn't just a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich.  It's apple wood smoked bacon, chipolte aged cheddar and a farm fresh egg.  I am not used to so much description and choices.  Everything is so big.  I do enjoy having ice in my drink again.  It's been so long since I had an iced drink, I don't even miss it anymore.  Everyone is very polite and professional.  Immigration and customs went smoothly.  If I had known they weren't going to search my bag, there are some things I would have brought back.
As I walk around my house I think "This is a nice house.  Is it really mine?"  The toilets, fixtures, faucets, everything is made with so much more quality.  I wondered if the renters had gotten a bigger TV because it seemed so large.  But no,  it's the same TV I thought was smaller than our neighbor's.  The house seems too big, with too many lights.
I have to go to Verizon to get cell phone service and they have stacks of new tablets and phones just sitting there with no bars on the windows or armed security.  So unheard of in the poverty stricken countries we have been in.  I see everyone walking around with big, new phones and my eyes bugged out when I saw how much they cost.  Does everyone have $800 to spend on these things?
My body seems to not like the food here.  By the end of the trip I was able to eat bread and other wheat products without any ill effects.  Here my hands and feet hurt.  My eyes look swollen.  I don't even know what I am eating that is bad for me.  I only know that when we were traveling, I was able to eat whatever I wanted.  I was eating white bread, empananas, whole milk and sugar with my coffee, all without a thought to portion control, fat content, or calorie content.  I also didn't exercise other than just walking around.  After a few days here I had to go buy some probiotics again because I am so bloated and gassy.  It's funny because here I am eating salads and mostly organic but I am running into problems.  On my trip I gave no thought to organic or healthy.  I just ate what was around.
I asked at the girls public school about getting them re enrolled.  They asked for some homeschooling records to place them.  I had never heard anything about having to keep records before.  I guess now they would have to be tested to re enroll.  For now, I am going to keep the flexibility of homeschooling.
Texans are very nice and friendly people.  It certainly is much easier doing everything in English.
Overall I am very happy we did the trip and it was worth every penny we spent.  I am actually depressed it is over and planning our next step.  We never stayed anywhere long enough to get the kids in school and really settle in.  That is what I want to do next.
I just read Mike's post about selling "Black Beauty" and got very sad.  It was an amazing trip and that vehicle holds some amazing memories for me.  We gained so much from the trip but we also had to experience a lot of loss.  We had to give away pets and possessions along the way.  For me the trip was like life but condensed.  I experienced tremendous ups and downs.  When it was over I looked back at the good times but regretted all the things I had wanted to do but somehow didn't.  Some people had said we were running away when we started this trip.  I found it to be the exact opposite.  I was running towards life full speed in all it's messy, imperfect beauty.