Those of you who read my blog know that we are truly enjoying our time in India. We have had opportunity to travel to locations that I never imagined visiting and we have all become friends with people from all over the world. Therefore, it is with mixed emotion that I report our family is moving home to the US. I am thrilled at the prospect of moving back home and regaining my privacy and independence and seeing my family and friends. But, I am also sad that I am leaving an area of the world with travel opportunities that I will never see from the states and the friends that I have made during my short time here.
First, our decision to leave. Kyle moved to Bangalore in April of last year and, in total, will have spent about 15 months here by the time we leave. His number one goal was to identify and mentor his ultimate successor. He has achieved this and the company is ready to move forward with the replacement. In addition, and significantly more important to our decision, was a family reason. We have two children - a 7th grader and a 4th grader. The 4th grader is going to be fine no matter where he goes. That is simply his personality and he is young enough to adapt to changing environments with ease and flexibility. The 7th grader is a bit more challenging in changing situations. I don't write about him often because he has forbidden me from talking about him on the Internet and given the long lectures I give him about Internet privacy and security I must take his request to avoid talking about him seriously if I expect him to listen to me on the subject. Therefore, all I am going to say about this is that the schools in Bangalore are not appropriate for my 7th grader. He is doing well in a lot of areas - even better than we expected in some areas - but there are a few important areas where the school is falling down on the job. I have no problem recommending Indus for a younger student, but once a student gets into the middle school years it is woefully inadequate for a student like Jameson. I am not alone in my feelings on this and I suspect the school sees significant declines in enrollment during the middle school years.
I absolutely have no regrets about our decision to move here. I am confident that we have given our children everything we had hoped to during this past year. They have seen the impact of extreme poverty and extreme wealth, they have had conversations with people from all over the world and seen that any and every choice we make - whether it be the food we choose to buy or the charities we choose to support or the words we choose to speak - has an impact felt far beyond the confines of our individual home or neighborhood or town. There are certain choices we are not free to make...We can't choose where we are born or what our parents or friends will do or what will happen when someone else makes a bad choice that impacts us through no influence of our own. Sometimes our choices are not our own and we need to figure out how to adapt and change to still succeed in whatever we are trying to accomplish.
Once we get home Kyle will hopefully spend far more time working in the US than he has in the past 5 years and I am hoping to go back to work in some capacity. The kids will go back to school and sports and activities and somehow life will try to be normal again. But, before that happens we still have two more months of craziness. We have three short trips planned (gotta get all my travel done now, who knows when it will happen again!) So I am counting down the days (10) until I get to go to the Maldives which was one of the top spots on my travel hit list when we arrived - we got very lucky when Bangalore unexpectedly scheduled their voting day for Thursday, the 17th of April, (voting day in India is a local holiday and businesses are expected to close) which happens to be the day before good Friday, which is always a Fidelity holiday, so Kyle and the kids have a 4 day weekend that we are taking advantage of. We will also go to northern India and see the Himalayas for a long weekend in May and stop in Dubai for a couple of days on our way home this summer. Emirates now flies direct from Dubai to Boston so it is a new carrier option for travel between Bangalore and the US. We priced out the flights and surprisingly Emirates was a significantly less expensive option than Air France or British Airways so who am I to argue?
I am sure I will do a whole end of visit recap about the highlights and low lights of our India adventure, but right now I am simply looking forward to a house that is not constantly full of people working, the ability to drive myself wherever and whenever I want, consistent electricity and Internet access, drinkable tap water and salad. I am very surprised to say that salad is the food I miss the most.
The things I will miss the most about India…the instant friendships of Palm Meadows and the expat community, the travel, and the amazing parties! Although my liver and my waistline are looking forward to fewer parties :)
First, our decision to leave. Kyle moved to Bangalore in April of last year and, in total, will have spent about 15 months here by the time we leave. His number one goal was to identify and mentor his ultimate successor. He has achieved this and the company is ready to move forward with the replacement. In addition, and significantly more important to our decision, was a family reason. We have two children - a 7th grader and a 4th grader. The 4th grader is going to be fine no matter where he goes. That is simply his personality and he is young enough to adapt to changing environments with ease and flexibility. The 7th grader is a bit more challenging in changing situations. I don't write about him often because he has forbidden me from talking about him on the Internet and given the long lectures I give him about Internet privacy and security I must take his request to avoid talking about him seriously if I expect him to listen to me on the subject. Therefore, all I am going to say about this is that the schools in Bangalore are not appropriate for my 7th grader. He is doing well in a lot of areas - even better than we expected in some areas - but there are a few important areas where the school is falling down on the job. I have no problem recommending Indus for a younger student, but once a student gets into the middle school years it is woefully inadequate for a student like Jameson. I am not alone in my feelings on this and I suspect the school sees significant declines in enrollment during the middle school years.
I absolutely have no regrets about our decision to move here. I am confident that we have given our children everything we had hoped to during this past year. They have seen the impact of extreme poverty and extreme wealth, they have had conversations with people from all over the world and seen that any and every choice we make - whether it be the food we choose to buy or the charities we choose to support or the words we choose to speak - has an impact felt far beyond the confines of our individual home or neighborhood or town. There are certain choices we are not free to make...We can't choose where we are born or what our parents or friends will do or what will happen when someone else makes a bad choice that impacts us through no influence of our own. Sometimes our choices are not our own and we need to figure out how to adapt and change to still succeed in whatever we are trying to accomplish.
Once we get home Kyle will hopefully spend far more time working in the US than he has in the past 5 years and I am hoping to go back to work in some capacity. The kids will go back to school and sports and activities and somehow life will try to be normal again. But, before that happens we still have two more months of craziness. We have three short trips planned (gotta get all my travel done now, who knows when it will happen again!) So I am counting down the days (10) until I get to go to the Maldives which was one of the top spots on my travel hit list when we arrived - we got very lucky when Bangalore unexpectedly scheduled their voting day for Thursday, the 17th of April, (voting day in India is a local holiday and businesses are expected to close) which happens to be the day before good Friday, which is always a Fidelity holiday, so Kyle and the kids have a 4 day weekend that we are taking advantage of. We will also go to northern India and see the Himalayas for a long weekend in May and stop in Dubai for a couple of days on our way home this summer. Emirates now flies direct from Dubai to Boston so it is a new carrier option for travel between Bangalore and the US. We priced out the flights and surprisingly Emirates was a significantly less expensive option than Air France or British Airways so who am I to argue?
I am sure I will do a whole end of visit recap about the highlights and low lights of our India adventure, but right now I am simply looking forward to a house that is not constantly full of people working, the ability to drive myself wherever and whenever I want, consistent electricity and Internet access, drinkable tap water and salad. I am very surprised to say that salad is the food I miss the most.
The things I will miss the most about India…the instant friendships of Palm Meadows and the expat community, the travel, and the amazing parties! Although my liver and my waistline are looking forward to fewer parties :)
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