Hey friends and family,
Moving to Colombia is back on the cards. For those of you that are sighing, we thought it'd be nice to do a recap for you... Welcome to Memory Lane
10 May 2010
Do you remember about three years ago? When we had the ::in a yurt:: blog, and explained our reasons for leaving Thornbury?
Well, it's time to explain our reasons for leaving Thornbury... again.
Our goals have not changed over time. We still want to live more sustainably, with land to grow food and keep chickens. A way to use energy more efficiently and hopefully with renewables. We still want to live "in community" (not just in a community).
But we've run up against the same problems over and over again. Land (especially with a house, or at least planning permission for a house) is expensive in Britain. And it's very expensive in Thornbury, which happens to be the place in Britain where we have the most friends and loved ones. Which is essential for Elsie Maribel.
And we don't want to go into debt.
So, over the past three years, we've run things over in our heads, looked into different options, almost moved to Lincolnshire, gave a remote part of Wales a try, and stayed put in Thornbury.
This, however, is no longer sustainable, or desirable, for a number of reasons.
- Our budget is really tight living in this rented house. And that is with me working four days a week, which isn't going to continue because I will only have three days a week starting in August.
- Our lifestyle is more challenging than it needs to be. We are living in a nuclear family, which is isolating and unnecessary – when you think about it clearly. So many families live like this: each making separate meals, doing chores separately, finding it difficult to find child care. Some families are more extended than others, with grandparents living around the corner. We don't have that, though.
- We aren't meeting our goals by living here: tiny garden that we cannot cultivate and no renewables. (Howard did manage to put in a wood burning stove last year, which has helped enormously in keeping us warm downstairs.)
Last summer, along with our friends from Germany (who include a boy six months older than Elsie), we were actively looking for a (possibly joint) solution. Everything was untenable.
Then one day, Howard said: "It doesn't have to be in Britain." My ears perked up! Really?? We'd thought about living in Colombia a couple of years ago, but with my CFS/ME, it just seemed unrealistic that I'd have the energy for what we were envisioning, on top of learning Spanish properly. But NOW. Now I'm CFS/ME free!
Howard said he had started looking into Costa Rica (due to a more sustainable transport system). So I looked it up and immediately saw that we couldn't afford to move there as foreigners needed to come with some outrageous amount of US dollars equivalent.
So I said, "But we could move to Colombia, since I'm half-Colombian, it wouldn't apply there."
And so began our investigation, which culminated in our trip to Colombia in January... and our decision to move to Colombia on 1st October 2010. Less than five months away!!
The move isn't entirely definite yet: still some costings to be made, but 1st October is still the goal.
I'll give you some more thoughts and facts on all that as I find time. But wanted to get the ball rolling and this has sat as a draft for a LONG time. :)
Then
21 June 2010
The big news happened this month. Another sort of saying goodbye. Goodbye to the Colombian dream. After loads of research, we finally came to the conclusion that moving to Colombian was too much of a financial risk. The cost of moving would eat well into our savings, thereby leaving not much over for buying land or a house. And there was no guarantee of replenishing the savings quickly or easily. PLUS, Howard would only be allowed to take 7 of his 9 bikes, which is like cutting his nose off. So it's a no go deal.
Then
26 July 2010
We've decided to stay in Thornbury until work necessitates that we leave (if it ever does). And I'm going to do a three-year, part-time counselling degree, which should help job prospects in the long term (hopefully). In any case, it'll be fun. One day per week. This replaces the one day per week I've lost on my job.
Then: those of you who only get your news from us via this blog will have missed the decision to not do the course (another financial risk and a low-paid job at the end vs some high-paid work I was getting and that was keeping me busy); thoughts about moving to Stroud, York, and the Isle of Wight; thinking about doing the course again (my job situation has been so unstable, low-paid but higher certainty seemed logical); and then realising I am employable (well-paid) and the uncertainty is just something we have to live with. Until Christmas 2011, we were fairly set on staying in Thornbury, due to the people factor (the place in the UK with the highest concentration of loved ones).

So let's go through the thinking...
- Living sustainably – We ask ourselves, is our own personal energy better spent on making ourselves as self-sufficient as possible, or in making the community/world more resilient and sane in the face of current and impending economic and enviromental (etc) crises? Behaviour change isn't the solution: system change is. So we don't need to be able to afford to buy land and a house, have chickens and grow our own food. We can work on system change from anywhere.
- Financial risks – Therefore, a move to Colombia is no longer a financial risk (not in the way we mean). We can afford to move and still have money to move back (if it comes to that), but money for in between isn't as essential now.
- The bikes – We reckon we gave up too easily two years ago. We are pursuing things and it looks like Howard will be able to take all his bikes and tools to Colombia. (We have family in Colombia to thank for helping us with all the logistics and details.) ... However, let me emphasise, we have agreed that the bikes aren't make or break for this move to happen.
- Employability – Last time we planned to move to Colombia, I was hoping I could continue my project coordination work from there, and not quite sure what I'd do if I had to work in Colombia. Howard getting a job was a last resort. Since then, however, Howard has been doing work as a mobile bicycle repairman, and is kept quite busy during the "mainstream" cycling months . He's feeling confident that he could start a similar business in Colombia (where cycling season never ends). As for me, I have freelance work that I can do from anywhere, but if that dries up, I'm confident that the new work I've been doing on the circular economy could get me plenty of work in Colombia. And the fall back of teaching English isn't too shabbily paid.
- Loved ones – And that brings us to loved ones, and to the main reason we want to choose Colombia as our base from which to work on system change. Elsie adores people. She loves it when there are get togethers and lots of people to interact with, watch, play with, entertain. Although we have an extremely lovely handful of friends here in Thornbury, they are inevitably busy, either with family, work or other stresses. We can go a whole week without seeing anyone for more than an hour. And that's very isolating. It's hard on us as parents, to not have any family support, but also hard on Elsie, not to have family like that around. We realise that, in our culture (in the West, but particulary in the USA and the UK), it's quite common for families to feel isolated. But I know so many people with extended families that see each other very often that I long for this for Elsie and for me and Howard. (Howard and I could do with spending time with each other, for a start! I think we've been on four or five dates since Elsie's been born.) So: where in the world can we find family support? Bogotá, Colombia has 23 close family members, with three more arriving next spring (not us!). They don't see each other every day, but there are get togethers at least every week. And Elsie will love that. And we plan to live with my grandmother while waiting for our ship to come in, and Elsie can't stop talking about that. And we plan to rent an apartment near family, especially my grandmother, so we can still see her every day.
Ah, so I went from NYC (pop. 8 million) to Thornbury (14,000) to semi-rural Wales (maybe ~2,000?), back to Thornbury and now to a huge ol' city, Bogotá (pop. 7 million).
When? end of September 2012 or 1st October 2012 (waiting to hear about a face-to-face meeting I need to attend)
How? Get to London (train or car), hotel, fly to Paris, hotel, fly to Bogotá
Why? Because there's lots to do in this world, and we want a strong & loving family base from which to do it!
Who? What about YOU? Are you coming to visit? Open invitation once we have our apartment/flat (by Christmas 2012)!