Moving to Prague – The Journey Begins
01 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in Family, God, Growing & Learning, Take Action, Thoughts, Work Tags: answering a calling, ex pats, expats, following God, over seas, Prague, TEFL, TESOL, traveling
Let me start at the beginning.
Life in Illinois was rough. No good jobs or job prospect. We’ve been searching for years. Was just denied foodstamps. Hated being on them, but the kids needed to eat. So, with savings in hand we decided to take the leap.
Our extended family was not happy (to say the least) at our decision. But, really, how long were we going to survive where we were? We were totally dependent on favors from others. That’s not a very stable way to live. Plus, let’s face it, 5 minutes outside of East St. Louis living in a meth infested trailer park with registered sex offenders living around the corner is not the ideal place to raise a family.
Most of you know that our calling has been and always will be to start the school and farm. The problem has always been a lack of resources. Maybe we will 
have better luck somewhere else? Who knows. But we have to keep trying. That’s the key. So we did a LOT of research. My husband got TEFL/TESOL (teaching English as a Foreign Language) certified. I only got half-way through the course before the ball started rolling. It was like dominoes falling. Looking back, I am still in awe of the whole thing. It was definitely the work of God. But anyway… next thing I know we are on the ship crossing the Atlantic.
It is hard to grow when everyone around you as at or below your own level
I don’t say that to be mean. It’s the truth. Everyone needs a teacher, a mentor, someone to show you the way up. The cruise was definitely interesting. We got to spend a lot of time with people who had VERY different lifestyles. One of our dinner partners is a Canadian farmer and rancher. It was funny how he described it. “Whatever the farm bureau says not to plant, that’s what I plant.” He does his farming based on the market. It’s a gamble, but it’s pretty fool proof as he always make at least average market price for what he plants. But usually much more. It isn’t the same kind of farming that Sweetie and I want to do, but at least he is rotating his crops because he rarely plants the same thing two years running. It was eye opening networking with such people. Hearing how they talk and watching how they treat others around them. It was very refreshing. They weren’t worried about money – they had plenty – but they were very conscious of how they spent their money and were always looking for a fair deal and comparing experiences and prices. Sure, we all do that. But the main difference was, they were more willing to invest and pay a good price for something if they decided it was worth it. These were not Wal-Mart shoppers looking for the cheapest deal.
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