Just one of those weeks…..

We all have them – those days when we get to our new country, when we discover just what exactly the difference between home and abroad is. 
This week we took a trip to the post office – only to be confronted by the fact that here is Nala land they can only sell a book of 5 stamps – not just one.  This fact tested the language skills, but we attempted to continue – until they finally broke down.  On the statement – I don’t understand in English – the response from across the desk came back – “if you don’t speak the language you need to ask us to speak English”.  This direct approach does little to encourage our feeble attempts to learn the language, and does not really give you any real willingness to actually integrate.  At the same time we got a phone call – from across the distance way back from home.  “I think there is a problem with the satellite box, do you think you can talk me through it…” just to remind you that in addition to missing your own support network – they are also missing you.   It is days like this when the world is not going completely to plan – in the dark of winter, that you start to question is it really all worth it?  What is it that drives us to go full on down a path, the end of which we do not know?  Is it the promise that the will be a light at the end, or is it some other thing?  How do we know we will eventually get to a more relaxed lifestyle?  Do we know what the point is still?
There is no answer, and it is clearly just home sickness, but it does serve to remind me that having been here in Nala land the best part of 10 years, that maybe you need to clearly have an answer – because the question will always come back.  For a lot of people, the reason may well change over time.  At the time I arrived, here was the most exciting place on earth – now it no longer holds that glow.  I feel the same for people who move half way round the world, only to find that the children who they moved round the world for – upped and moved on themselves.  It reminds me that actually the getting into the local life is what gives you the strength to carry on – the friendly face in the street that says hi, the neighbor who waves to you sitting in the bus, whilst they sit in the same traffic both fighting to get home.
After a few years life without this for one or other part of the family, will always give you the pressure to move on, and it reminds me that the decision to move to a location cannot be made by one.  It has to be a joint decision, and it has to be something that neither can question.  After 10 years here in Nala land we find ourselves in this situation. Our time has come to look to move on, but the same questions and fears from the first move are now multiplied, because the conditions to move on your own, needs a lot more thinking when you look to move along side others.  Both need to believe in the reasons – or at least both have common reasons to follow into the move.  Moving anywhere is going to change your life radically, from the mundane of working you way round a new supermarket and finding new routes to the local school, to new Doctors, with a medical care system that feels as though it was dreamed up by the Ancient Greeks, and improved by the modern Greeks.
Still until next time – if you have any comment you can always drop me a line on andrew@andrics.com