Where is "Safe?"

My two year old?  Wakes up to cereal and Barney, and a hula skirt where she dances to Lilo and Stitch on a portable DVD Player.   She has fed the seals at Sea World, and the closest she gets to being near a goat is at the petting zoo.  I am afraid of tetanus, e-coli, stress about 5-point harnesses on car seats, make sure there are plastic covers on all electrical outlets in our house, worry about her banging her head on something sharp, not getting enough nap time, getting to bed on time and stress about brushing her teeth twice a day.  

A few months ago I was talking to a travel client about her daughter.  Her daughter is about 5 months older than Myla, and so we instantly had a connection.  She was inquiring if it was possible to send her daughter to the Philippines with her mother so she could live there temporarily.  I started my usual textbook answer of how I couldn't give any kind of immigration advice and started to name a few people I thought who could help her.  Truth, is, I wasn't really listening to this woman, even though we had a common interest and bond.  It's just a handy trick of the trade when you talk to as many people as I have.  My mind instantly goes blank, and I think of other things while I look her straight in the eye and she really, truly, believes I am listening.  We are both mothers to two year old girls, and in our early 30's.  She went on to volunteer more information as to why she wanted to send her two year old daughter to the Philippines to live with her mother.  

"He doesn't have a job, and he gets frustrated sometimes..." she began.

Now, I'm listening.

"He cut her hair the other day... to punish her for being bad..."  

At this point, she is starting to cry.  

We got her daughter an open ended ticket, and her mom (grandma) a round trip one as well.  This little girl, just a few months older than my own little girl lives in a farm about 40 miles east of Manila, Phillipines.  She collects eggs from their chickens and can feed a handful of poultry and knows where to take the goat when he needs to graze.  She will be in the Philippines until her mother can figure out how to get rid of her husband, and they send me emails about her progress, and she is growing fast and strong.  Keep in mind this baby is 2 years old. 

 

Don't get me wrong, this doesn't sound like a bad way to live at all.  In fact, it sounds great. And fulfilling. and uncomplicated.   This client is just recently asking for a ticket so she can move back to the Philippines with her daughter.  Away from the abuse and the complications of America.  

This leads me to wonder, can't I take both aspects of living somewhere else and living here and make it wonderful?  Downside of living here as opposed to a foreign land... insurance companies.  Automated messages, robots who determine the outcome of your healthcare.  The need for money all the time, HUMONGOUS portion size and consumerist society.  Just the need to have more and more and more is so stifling.  The upside of living here?  Most diseases and nutrition problems are abolished with immunizations and proper sanitation in the city. People know that proper hand washing is what kills germs.   I don't have to take a two day trip to get my daughters or husband to a hospital.  If I want a certain kind of cheese from anywhere in the world I can more than likely get it almost immediately.  I have the freedom to go places if I like.  

Even though there is a higher risk of bad healthcare in third world countries, and basic societal functions are unheard of in most of them, this two year old girl who moved to the Philippines is still safer cleaning up after a goat, not washing her hands and then eating, than she was in her own little apartment alone with her stressed out, abusive father.  

There's something wrong with that.

Where We Are...

Logistically  

We have a few things sort of hammered out.  We are at the planning stages right now where everything is reconnaissance.  We are asking around, reading, emailing, talking to various families who have done RTW trips.  There are quite a few out there.  I have my sponsor list almost done and pretty soon will be executing the emails, inquiries, and phone calls.  I am at the hunting and gathering stage and I only have some simple ingredients.  

The trip itself has a few kinks in it we have to figure out and we should have the itinerary finished in a few months.  There are a lot of things to factor- transportation, availability of routes, roads etc.  And this will be a very rough, rough itinerary because we won't really know what it will be like in 2011.  A week before each change we will have to confirm everything.  For instance, there is only one ferry from Tunisia to Sicily, and it only leaves weekly, which I didn't know.

Financially, I am not too worried about this.  Luckily, our every day expenses are simple.  (there will be an entire post on budget coming up).  We are going to be very dependent on saving literally nickels and dimes, fundraising, and sponsors.  Also, I start my quest for the publishing aspect of it soon.  We have a very simple life, with one small car, and home made lunches.  I think also, we are at the point in our life where we don't possibly need anything else. This is through the generosity of our parents.  We make enough money to sustain ourselves with very little savings, but I always think something as common as money should never get in the way of your life.    

Theoretically:

We are at the part where we are still dreaming up this trip, and it isn't quite real to me.  The thought of it is real to me.  The thought of being with my kids and my husband for 4 months sounds like a dream.  To be able to share these sole, precious moments of their life, together as a family makes me want to work harder than ever to get to this goal.  I am already a busy person, but having this as a goal has really changed my step in terms of work and the everyday grind.  Trips always do this to me.  I feel like when stuff gets hard, I have this to look forward to.  Not to say, I don't enjoy my family when there isn't a trip planned, I just feel in my total element when I have a trip planned somewhere.   Overall I think travel is good for you.  So other people should do it too.  

I spent my college years starting things, finishing some, and then starting other things and not finishing those.  I traveled in between those, and the only regret I have is that I wasted my time spending it in the classroom.  Don't get me wrong, I understand the value of education, and that alone is a journey in itself.  But I also understand the value of life, and precious, precious time.  I can always go back to school.  I can always go work somewhere and make money, but I will never have Myla be 3 and Emily be 2 ever again.  

Anyway, enough of this sap.  I thought I would close today's post with my favorite travel quote...

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. 

- St. Augustine

Why This is Important

This is important because we want to let our girls know that they are small, although important parts of a larger world.  I want them to feel like the world is an explorable place, and that there is much more to their life than just Cost-Co and Gymboree class. 
I can already hear the hamster wheels spinning as I get a couple more hits on this blog.  I have put some FAQ here.  Believe me, I have asked myself these questions before we take our kids someplace other than an hour and half drive away.  

Why would you take your little kids on a trip like this?  They won't even remember!

I think it's best to say as far as memories go, this trip is for Andy and myself.  Myla is at the age now, where she can appreciate, retain and comprehend more than what people give her credit for.  Emily just loves to be out of the house.  She loved the month in the Philippines and being toted around and just being near us all the time.  The truth is, we will be able to spend quality time with our kids while sharing the world with them.  There will be no regular TV watching, no house to worry about or grind to work on.  I think for people with kids, you will understand that feeling of watching your kids go through it also.  It's more fun to watch your kids experience it, than it is to experience it yourself.

Aren't you afraid of the dangers in other countries?

Foreign countries are no more dangerous than any major US City or the Philippines for that matter, and I have been going there almost every year since I was fourteen.  

How are you going to pay for this?

The water jug in our living room.  Mostly sponsorships and advertising.  Private investors.  No loans.  This is all being worked out and we have two years to work on it.  We are a very simple living ffamily, and our indulgences rest on DVD's and books. We have one small, non-gas-guzzling car and make homemade lunches. The water jug will be supplemented by some small and big sacrifices we will have to make for the sake of the trip.  

Our budget...just numbers.

In case you are wondering...

Here is a breakdown of what a trip like this might cost...and of course, I estimated an overage of EVERYTHING by about 50 USD, and I also made everybody the cost of an adult.  Some of the things, like rail passes and airfare and such the kids might still be free.  As things get weeded out we will deduct or add from this list.  I kept in mind inflation in two years also.  This is based on a 120 Day Trip... 

1. Daily Allowance accomodations 100 USD = 12,000

2. Airfare (round trip for 5 passengers) 4000 USD = 20,000

3. Rail Passes/Ferry Tickets 900 per passenger = 4500 USD

4. Emergency Money 10,000 USD (in the form of a credit card)

5. Travel Insurance 400 USD per person = 2000 USD

6. souvenirs 25 USD a day = 3000 USD

7. Museum/Attractions/Events Admission 50 USD = 6000 USD

8. Baby/Kid Supplies 20 USD a day = 2400 USD

9. Food 50 USD = 6000 USD

10. Local Transport 20 USD = 2400 USD

11. phone/internet 10 usd a day = 1200 USD

12. laptop 1100 USD

13. cameras 1100 USD

14. Travel Gear = 600 USD

15.  entry/exit fees = ???? varies by country

16. Visas = ???

17. Passports/Pictures 100 per person = 500 USD

18. Toiletries 50 USD per per person = 250 USD

19. Change Money Fees/ ATM Fees 5 USD a Day = 600 USD

20. Misc. 20 USD a day = 2400 USD.

A Grand Total of 76,050 USD.

WAAAAAIIIIIIIIT!!!  Don't leave!  There are adjustments to be made... remember I estimated the MAXIMUM of what something could cost.  Automatically, 10,000 on the credit card is just there, not an expense.  It's a bill I would have to pay later.   Let's say, I never use it.  

66,050 USD

Travel Insurance only costs 340 per person, so we save 300 USD there...

65,750 USD

souvenirs at 25 dollars a day?  Too high!  If we spent an average of that much... it would be too much... so let's bring it down to 20 USD a day, subtract 600 USD.

65,150 USD

Let's face it, there isn't going to be admission tickets to something EVERY day.  So let's bring that down 20 USD a day... subtract 2400

62,750 USD

laptop and cameras... sponsored or use the ones we have...

60,550 USD

Travel Gear, sponsored or use what we have...

59,950 USD

Accomodations, subtract the days we will be on the road, in a couchette or traveling (estimate about 20 of these...2000 USD saved.

57,950 USD

I didn't even go through what things could have been sponsored only because I don't want to jinx anything.  I will update this and the cost will predominantly adjust as time goes on and sponsors get wind of this.  So we brought this down predominantly, and haven't even skimped while we are there.  I think the key is just your daily budget and also planning a little bit ahead as you go, so that you aren't driving yourself crazy.  For instance, if we are in Southeast Asia and a week later we find out our family has only spent 800 for 9 days, we are totally under our weekly budget for when we go to the more expensive cities, like Paris.  

If it was just Andy and I traveling, we would do more camping and more outdoorsy, sleep in the train station stuff to save money.  But since we are taking the little ones, accomodations will have to be a little more than the typical low budget traveler's ideas of saving money.   Also throughout the year there are little things you could do to budget.  I have a jar method.  Which I will talk to you more about in length later.