Same heat, different desert

Cristina is growing a little tired of recounting our newest plan to people, and I don't blame her. I've told it to a few people as well, even though it would be much easier to just blog about it. So for those that haven't heard yet, here's our newest plan for the next few years.

First of all, in case you haven't heard, the economy is bad right now.

If you have read my blog somewhat regularly, then you probably know that next summer (2009) we had intended on moving back to Florida. The way the economy is now, it would be very hard to sell our house and buy a new house, while taking a $20,000 pay cut to teach in Alachua county. We're willing to deal with the pay cut, but without selling our Arizona house for enough to cover a decent downpayment on a Florida house, it would be hard to make the numbers work. This is a conundrum that I'd been tossing around in my head for the past few months, when, at a district training in May, I heard something interesting.

At lunch, a curriculum person in my school district was talking about her daughter, who teaches English in Saudi Arabia. I was kind of eavesdropping on her conversation and it made me remember that years ago, Cristina and I had thought about teaching abroad. I even interviewed for a teaching job in Costa Rica in 1998. But then kids were born, years went by, and our life went in different directions. I had heard that teaching jobs in Saudi Arabia paid very well, but I thought having kids was the deal-breaker for being hired overseas. This person, however, was talking about how her daughter just had a baby last year. I entered the conversation and got some more info. Her daughter and her son-in-law both teach at an international high school in Dahran, Saudi Arabia. They taught in Columbia for 2 years, then they went to Saudi Arabia, where they've been for 2 years. And they recently signed another contract for another 2 years. They have 2 kids, both under the age of 4.

Armed with this new idea, I mentioned it to Cristina. My mom was visiting at the time, so she heard the discussion as well. It was just a half-baked thought at this point. But, intrigued, we continued to research the feasibility of such a plan. We got in email contact with the daughter in Saudi Arabia and she answered dozens of our questions. Then she put us in contact with an administrator, who called us on the phone from Saudi Arabia. Not an interview, just information-sharing. We talked to him for over an hour.

Consideration #1: The job. Each school offers different salary and benefits packages, depending on your degree and experience. We don't know what school we'd be at if we moved to Saudi Arabia, but based on the school in Dahran that we've made contact with (ISG), I could expect about $40,000 a year salary (tax-free), free housing, utilities, and healthcare. The school pays for us to move there, they pay for us to fly home once a year each summer, and they pay for us to come home when our contract ends. About the only expenses we'd have would be long-distance phone and groceries. ISG is a private school that follows an American school calendar and college-prep curriculum, and the students are mostly children of ex-pats working in the oil industry. All classes are taught in English. They have AP classes, they have sports and clubs, band and drama. It's pretty much like any American private school.

Consideration #2: The lifestyle. Living in a conservative Muslim country will have some challenges. It's against the law for women to drive. There are no movie theaters. No alcohol (no problem for us). We couldn't teach our faith. It's another hot desert, with the added bonus of humid summers (which we would mostly avoid by coming home).

Consideration #3: Waldorf kindergarten. As much as we are both ready to get out of Phoenix, we both would like Isabella to at least have a Waldorf kindergarten experience. If we moved to Saudi Arabia in the summer of 2009, she would just be about to enter Kindergarten. So that means starting this adventure summer of 2010, 2 years from now. That would allow Sofia to finish up her middle school years at Arizona School for the Arts, and Alex would complete 3rd grade at Desert Marigold.

Consideration #4: Cristina, the teacher. In order for a school to be willing to pay for an entire family, they will want to employ both spouses. While Cristina does not want to teach elementary school, she wouldn't mind teaching high school for a few years. Since she has a bachelor's degree in Anthropology, the logical subject for her to teach would be social studies. She just needs a teaching certificate. There are several options for post-bac teacher certificate programs here in Arizona which she would have 2 years to complete. She could do the coursework online and do her student teaching in a local high school. It may take a little bit of creative scheduling, but it can definitely be done in 2 years. As of right now, this is still the biggest questipon mark in the whole plan.

So what are the major benefits of this plan to teach in Saudi Arabia? There are many.

1. We could keep our Arizona house as an investment property. We'd hire a property manager to handle renting it out. Hopefully the rent would cover most of the mortgage payment, but even if we still have to pay some, it's money invested, not lost. The lousy housing market becomes a non-issue.

2. We could pay off our student loans within a year. It's been hard to imagine paying off our student loans at all, let alone within a year or two. We could return to the States completely debt-free.

3. We could actually save up some money. In addition to keeping our house as an investment, we could save money for retirement, a house downpayment, kids' college, etc. Things we've never had the ability to do.

4. Travel. Not only would be be able to come home every summer (to the east coast) but we'd have the time and money to be able to travel to Scotland, Germany, and other places we'd like to see during winter and spring breaks.

5. From what we've learned about ISG, it's a school that our kids would benefit from attending. If we like the school for our kids, we might stay longer. We'll take it a year at time, but if we all really like it, who knows?

6. Strangely enough, we'd see our family more often than we do while living in Arizona. As it is now, we don't come east every summer. But if we worked in Saudi Arabia, we'd come back to Florida/North Carolina every summer.

7. The kids would be exposed to another culture, and they'd reap the benefits of traveling more around the world.

So there's the new plan. Nothing is for sure. Just ideas. But it's looking like a pretty good possibility. Two years from now, we might be heading to Dahran to teach at ISG, or maybe some other school. Or maybe some other country. It's too early to make any firm predictions. But we feel good about the concept and it's definitely the way we're leaning.