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Books for and about Expats

I usually have a lot to say about the books I’ve been reading, but right now I have to admit that none were either especially memorable or important for expats and prospective expats. In my e-mail, however, I discovered messages from an e-group catering to expats, abroadview@yahoo.com (the group is an offshoot of the excellent website talesmag.com) with messages about books they’d been reading and would recommend to others. I began making a list of books I’d like to read and decided to pass it along.

Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible is a novel about a Baptist minister who takes his family to the Belgian Congo in 1959. One of the many well known books I haven’t gotten around to reading. It’s sometimes compared to The Mosquito Coas,by Paul Theroux, which, as I recall, was excellent.

For something different, there is Azadeh Moaveni’s Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America And American in Iran, which promises to be interesting.

Pulitzer prizewinner Jhumpa Lahiri has written The Namesake, a novel about a young man who comes to America from India to study.

Another memoir, this one by Sarah Macdonald, is Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure, a young Australian woman’s account of following her journalist boyfriend to India. One reviewer called it “a wonderful roller coaster ride on the road to enlightenment.” I definitely want to read it.

In Tahir Shah’s The Caliph’s House: A Year in Casablanca, an Englishman of Afgani descent moves to an ancient house in Casablanca with his pregnant wife and young daughter. Although everything that can go wrong does, readers find this book extremely funny.

Extra Virgin: A Young Woman Discovers the Italian Riviera, Where Every Month Is Enchanted by Annie Hawes is a travel memoir in which two English sisters set out for a village just two miles from the Italian Riviera. Note: the author has remained in Italy.

Rules of the Wild: A Novel of Africa is a well received novel by Francesca Marciano, narrated by an Italian woman who goes to Kenya.

Since I started making this list, I’ve started reading The Savage Garden by Mark Mills, a mystery narrated by an Englishman who goes to Tuscany. I’ll have more to say about it next time.

Belize - A Small, Spectacular Country

Belize is part of Central America, but many people think of it as a Caribbean country, even a Caribbean paradise. Before becoming independent in 1981, it was British Honduras, and the legacy of the British is still apparent.

For one thing, this small, exceedingly friendly country has English as the official language. For another, the banking system in Belize is both sophisticated and solvent.  It’s easy for foreigners to open a bank account, which could either be in your own name or held by a structure, such as a trust or a business. Banking secrecy is observed here and it’s possible to open an account without ever setting foot on the country. Banks here are extremely healthy, one reason being that they are required to maintain a liquidity rate of 24%. Recently, as banks were failing worldwide, not one bank in Belize failed. When it comes to mortgages, banks here lend only 50% of the value of the property.

Belize has still poverty, to be sure, but the overall economy is prospering. The growth rate has held steady at about 6% per year. The major industries are finance, tourism and oil. (Oil is supposedly being extracted in ways that preserve the barrier reef and the shore.) Inflation is at a low 1.4% per year.

Residency requirements are easy. Belize welcomes expats, including those not yet of retirement age. Internet access enables them to continue to work free-lance or operate small businesses. Affordable beachfront properties make it possible to enjoy diving, snorkeling and fishing near to home. Other pastimes here include horseback riding, enjoying the country’s biodiversity and visiting the spectacular Mayan ruins.

For those interested in learning more about living in Belize, there’s a “Live and Invest in Belize” conference scheduled for June 21 - 23, 2010. For more information, see www.liveandinvestoverseas.com/belize-conference10. 

Coming Home is the Hardest Transition

For some, being an expat is forever, while for others, it’s an interlude that may last a few years or perhaps many but with the intention of returning home at some point. Peter Hessler, who went to China after college and stayed 15 years, has written a New Yorker article “Go West” about his coming back to the U.S., with many keen observations of the cultural differences between the two countries.

He and his wife arranged for movers without knowing where they’d be living. Since it would take five weeks for their possessions to reach the U.S. by ship, they figured they’d have plenty of time to decide.

He describes how the Chinese movers worked, carefully fitting cardboard around the shape of each piece of furniture. A chair became a box shaped like a chair; another package resembled a bed. He writes, “It was like watching a tam of sculptors work backward, until every object we owned had been converted into a larger, rougher version of itself.”

Finally he and his wife, who was from New York born of Chinese parents, decide to live in a small town in southwestern Colorado. It’s a long way from Beijing and not just in miles or even in population density. He notes, however, that the Americans he encounters here have an “appetite for loneliness.”

The individuals he meets willingly tell him their stories in a way that Chinese people would never do. In this lonely landscape, it seems that everyone has a story, and fortunately, he enjoyed listening. He observes that Chinese people, on the other hand, like to talk about relatively impersonal subjects such as food or weather, rather than disclosing much about themselves, and they unabashedly ask foreigners all sorts of questions. They are genuinely interested in other people.

Americans, he notices, like talking about themselves are less keen on listening. Merely mentioning that he and his wife had lived in China is a conversation stopper. There’s more, and you can read it in The New Yorker, April 19, 2010 or online at http://www.newyorker.com, where there other examples of Hessler’s writing, including an article titled “the Doorknob,” about the Peace Corps. His most recent book is Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory.

Don’t Lose That Rental Car!

Ever wonder how to get back to your rental car? Sandy in Collingwood, Canada, provided this useful tip on journeywoman.com. She and another woman were at the market in Sienna and parked the car they’d rented without knowing exactly where they were. This resourceful pair, however, took digital photos of the parking lot address and of various signs along the way. “It was a little like Hansel and Gretel in the forest.” she writes. After much walking and consulting their photos, they got back to the car. The same technique would work well for finding your hotel or the perfect little place for lunch.

This is just one of the travel tips at the journeywoman website. Others include free walking tours in Buenos Aires and an English bookstore in Barcelona. The site is especially for women, but has information men are likely to appreciate as well. 

The Hague Hosts Job Fair

The Bilingual People Fair, dedicated to multi-lingual recruitment, will take place in Grote Kerk. The Hague, Netherlands, on Saturday, April 24, 2010 from 10 AM - 6 PM. The largest event of its kind for language jobs and multi-lingual recruitment, the job fair is free to all job seekers who wish to attend.

Employers from The Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe will be present. Positions are available in various sectors including customer service, shared service and finance, IT, sales, marketing and translation. There will also be an Expat Zone at the event offering useful information and services to expatriates living or planning to move to the Netherlands.

To obtain a free ticket to the job fair and for more information on this and upcoming recruitment events, see www.bilingualpeople.nl.