Rainbolt Travel Diary

So we are now “expatriates”. What a weird word. I still haven’t decided whether it is a positive or negative word, but it seems to be the word that defines us right now. We teach expat children, we shop in stores that cater to expats, we live on the expat island, and we eat in restaurants filled with expats.
The plus side of this expat lifestyle is the expat community. If you need anything from information about great hotels in Ghana, to where to get chocolate frosting, you just have to ask. It doesn’t matter if the person you are asking is from South Africa, Holland, or Houston. You will get an answer. You will get more than an answer; you will get a guidebook with all the kid friendly restaurants highlighted and margin notes about the service. You ask about chocolate frosting and someone will hand you a bag with a couple of cans that were lying around the house. Earlier this fall, Jacob had managed to put holes in all of his socks. We launched an exhaustive search for new ones because Jacob is very particular about his feet. We hit all the stores and Tony searched the local markets. We were only partially successful. Gina asked a parent of one of her students where she got socks for her son, and a week later we got a package of 12 pairs because they knew someone who was headed back to the states. So, even in Africa you can shop at Target.




Nigerian’s don’t celebrate Halloween, but Emily and Jacob sure did. We were invited to dinner and Trick or Treating at the Mobil Oil employees compound. We ate a great dinner and drank some very good home-made beer, while Emily and Jacob joined the Trick or Treat brigade. The came back hot and sweaty and dragging a pillowcase filled with enough candy to (in their words) “last until Easter”. Once again we were invited into a group for no other reason than we were outsiders.
There is truly a sense of community here among the expatriates. There is a willingness to help each other out and include everyone. This sense of community has certainly made it easier to adjust to living in a place where we have no idea of how to do most things.



That is the negative of being an expat. You are the new kid in town and everybody knows it, especially here. You have to ask questions about everything, and that takes swallowing a lot of pride. It is difficult to go from being a competent, independent, fully functional adult with a driver’s license to a permanent occupant of the passenger seat.