worried about emigrating

[empty nest]

Hi

I am a 43yr old mother/grandmother who has worked as a school teacher in England for four years. My own kids have left home and my boyfriend is keen to travel abroad doing paid teaching work alternately with charity work in more remote areas. I have been doing a TESOL course and am quite confident about the teaching side of things, it is the idea of moving that scares me. I have not even been on holiday abroad apart from a fortnight walking in France. I'm panicking about being robbed or mugged as a "rich" European, falling ill and not being to get medicines, how to get back to the UK if there is a family crisis, and even more silly concerns such as I don't even know if they have toilet paper in the rest of the world.

I can look on the charity websites and they are full of bright eyed students on gap year saying how wonderful it all is - but then they wouldn't print the people who hated it would they?

Please can anyone who has got experience working abroad let me know their version, warts and all, so I can make a decision if I really want to do this and where/where not.

[susiedqq]

Go ahead and travel, but you stay in the cities - send boyfriend to the "remote areas" he thinks are so romantic.

Foreign travelers should not be in "remote areas" unless it is with an agency or guide.

[Anglika]

Many long years ago I worked in the headquarters of VSO, at a time when school-leavers would be sent to teaching and other posts overseas. Some were sent to urban or relatively urban places; others [the tougher ones] were sent to remote postings in places such as New Guinea.

Their postings were for 12 months, and there was a universal pattern in their letters of excitement in the first three months, some disillusionment over the next three months, and growing maturity, involvement and enjoyment after that.

If you are going to go and work overseas, decide how "primitive" you are prepared to accept. It can be very rewarding to be with people who have little in the way of luxury. The most essential thing if you are uncertain is that you go under the aegis of an organization that will keep tabs on you, and who will act as backstop if something goes wrong.

[empty nest]

Thank you so much for your replies. I've been doing some net surfing and also been watching some of the travel programmes on Discovery to try to learn more about places abroad. A friend has suggested I get a passport and take advantage of a few budget airline offers and go places for long weekends and get a flavour of the temperature and culture to see what I am comfortable with. My daughter has just had a baby and I got to meet her father-in-law, who has invited us to stay with him in Abu Dhabi for a forthnight! which I might take him up on...