Day 16 - 10 Questions To Ask Yourself First Before Moving To Another Country

Last week Michael Snyder wrote a great article titled " Should You Move To Another Country To Escape The Collapse Of America? 10 Questions To Ask Yourself First" Funny thing is that I keep an eye on Micheal's pages and posted this to my Unpacking Costa Rica blog. That same day I must have had 15 or so people forward me the article. So I included it in the next PZ News Watch for everyone to read. I want to thank everyone who sent this article to me, I know that they did that looking out for Tracye and I. Since many have sent this to me, I thought that I would take the time to answer these in light of relocating to Costa Rica. 10 Questions To Ask Yourself First Before Moving To Another Country 1 - Do You Speak The Language?  If Not, How Will You Function? I am not fluent in Spanish and neither is Tracye. One thing going for me is that God has blessed me with the ability to pick up languages. When I was young someone spoke a form of Souix. I am part Cree Indian and they come from the northern Canada area. The Cree speak a Souix dialect of sorts, at least that is what it sounds like to me. I remember a movie called " A Man Called Horse" and in the movie an Indian language was spoken. Funny thing is that a lot of what was said, I could understand. I also remember a song someone taught me when I was young. I think it was a corn growing song, but I still remember it today. When I was a young child my parents spent some missionary time in Haiti, we could not go due to the problems that were taking place there. My parents had to learn the language and because of that, I picked it up as well. In Haiti they speak a "pig-french" or french mixed with African. I understand that it is close to the Creole that is spoken by the Cajuns in Louisiana. When I was with the 82nd, we were "encouraged" to learn a second language. So I chose Japanese. Not that we would be jumping into Japan any time soon, I loved sushi and wanted to learn the language. I learned it well enough that I could go into a nice sushi restaurant and speak to the chef behind the counter and carry on a pretty good conversation. Today, I can still understand a little bit when I see films like Shogun, or the "B" Japanese monster movies. After the 82nd, I was stationed in Germany where I picked up German and became pretty fluent. Not 100%, but again enough to talk to the Germans and carry on a day to day conversation. Living here in Texas, one just picks up pieces of Spanish. While we were down in Costa Rica we already found ourselves picking up the language pretty quickly. The Costa Ricans are very patient and if you try to speak Spanish, they will bend over backwards to try to help. 2 - How Will You Make A Living? Since Prophezine is on the internet, it really does not matter where we live as long as we have solid internet capability. This is one reason why Belize was not a great fit with us. Belize does not have very fast internet nor is it stable. As long as we have the internet, we should be able to continue our mission that the Lord has given us. 3 - Will You Be Okay Without Your Family And Friends? This is a great question and one that I point out to people who are thinking of moving. Having people that you know in a foreign land is important. This is one of those things that if you do not have friends or the ability to make friends, it will be pretty difficult and is one of those things that will cause a person to return to their country of origin. Tracye and I are fortunate because I have some High School friends who live in Costa Rica as well as my old friend Gary Kah and his wife. John Price and his wife also moved to Costa Rica and I learned that Daniel Daves author of "Warning America" was also living in Costa Rica. Now the hard thing will be leaving our grand kids here in the US, but we are already working on getting them their Passports so that they can come down and visit Waa-waa and Nana. 4 - Have You Factored In Weather Patterns And Geological Instability? This is another excellent question and one that rated high on our list. See living here in Texas things have become pretty dry due to a 5+ year drought. Temps have also gotten a lot hotter during the summer and one becomes a prisoner in one's own home. We wanted nice spring like weather and where we are relocating, the weather is literally spring like 365 days a year. It is 80-85 during the day and low 60's high 50's at night. 5- What Will You Do For Medical Care? Here in America we have not had a regular check up in probably 5-6 years. Why? Plain and simple, we can't afford it. In Costa Rica the medical is on par if not better than here in the US. That is because Costa Rica got rid of their military and are a neutral country just like Switzerland. All that money they saved, they put into education and medicine. Today Costa Rica has some of the best medical available in the world. We checked into what it is going to cost us to get insured and for private full coverage and the ability to walk in anytime it will cost us $60.00 a month. I can't even pull into a doctor's parking lot for that. 6 - Are You Moving Into A High Crime Area? The crime rate in Costa Rica is pretty low. Yes they have crime, but not the violent crime they have here in the US. The crime that they have is more crime of opportunity. Leave a cell phone on a bench, it will be gone. Your Laptop is sitting on the front seat of your car and the passenger window is open, it is gone. The same thing happens here. The Costa Rican people are very non confrontational. They have a 97% literacy rate and absolutely no welfare at all. They truly believe in "you don't work, you don't eat." Put all these together and you come up with a very content peaceful people who do not use drugs and alcohol to escape. Poverty levels are very low as well as wealthy levels. Costa Rica has a very large middle class with a strong work ethic. 7 - Are You Prepared For "Culture Shock"? We know that this will happen. The honeymoon phase will end and the long term marriage begin. What helps with this is having friends you can visit, things you can do, places to go. What also helps is a willingness to adapt to your new culture and integrate yourself. The failure to integrate is one of the main things that causes a person to return back to the US. In fact here are the main things that will cause someone to move back.... A - Failure To Integrate - "I am an American and if you do not like it, to bad. Gimmie my Oreo cookies and Kraft Mac & Cheese. Oh Spanish... I don't need no stinking Spanish." Get the idea? Unless you have a lot of money, you will not last long being an "ugly American." B - Lack of Community - Being an expat it's easy to make friends. Being a "gringo" the locals are curious about you and ask you all sorts of questions. Being from Texas is also a big plus. Everywhere I have been globally, people love Texans. You will hear "Hola Ya'll." Would-be political foes back home become fast friends overseas. Same for those of different age groups or economic status. In an expat community, you're all in the same boat. You learn from each other, depend on one another and, more than anything, you tolerate uniqueness and respect one another for the decision you made to try out expat life. Todo está tranquilo == Everything is Tranquil, another famous line that one hears a lot in Costa Rica. Failure to fit in is something that will do you in quickly and you will be packing your bags pretty fast. C - Missing The Grand Kids - This is one that we are going to have to deal with. The solution? SKYPE.. it is a wonderful thing being able to video phone your kids and grand kids. It is the next best thing to being there with them. We are going to also help our daughter get the grand kids passports so that if things get "weird" they can jump on the next flight out and come on down. 8-What Freedoms and Liberties Will You Lose By Moving? Look at what freedoms and liberties we have lost already here in the US. Our constitution is pretty much gone, the powers that be has the American people over a barrel and life today is basically legalized slavery when 54% of your weekly earnings go to some form of taxes, fees, or other required bill one must pay. Religion, Free speech? Gone. Look at how many people speak in a whisper today and churches are over the 501c3 barrel. Talk about real sin and the IRS comes knocking at your door. Drones flying over the US. The ability to detain Americans indefinitely, forced Obamacare or pay massive fines, and the list goes on. 9-Is There A Possibility That The Country You Plan To Escape To Could Be Involved In A War At Some Point? Again, like Switzerland, Costa Rica is a neutral country. She is a country that marches to the beat of her own drum. There is no need to invade Costa Rica nor any desire. This is mainly due to the fact that she does not have what the world craves...that being oil. Costa Rica is happy growing some of the world's best coffee, bananas, mango and other produce. 10-When The Global Economy Collapses, Will You And Your Family Be Okay For Food? You can not walk 20 yards without running into some coconut, banana, plantain, mango, guava, passion fruit, papaya, etc etc etc. You would have a hard time starving in Costa Rica. Same goes for Belize, the tropics has a lot of food growing wild. Over the years Tracye and I have been looking for a place to relocate. We knew that God would open the doors once we found the right place. We have tried looking into many areas in the US and God never opened the doors. We looked into Mexico, Belize, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and other areas in the Caribbean. No doors opened up. That is till we visited Costa Rica on the invite of an old friend. From that first open door, the doors kept opening and we have been faithful in trusting God in walking through those doors. Living a life with the Lord is exciting and Tracye and I truly live Proverbs 3:5-6. Proverbs 3:5-6  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. When you trust and put your life in God's Hands, life is an adventure. There are ups and there are downs. Valleys and mountain tops. But no matter what, He is with us and His grace is sufficient for us. That is His promise to us. If you have any questions about living abroad or you would like to learn more about Costa Rica, feel free to contact us. If you would like to come down for a visit, let us know and we would be more than happy to show you around. Pura Vida!