Renting In Barbados And Moving To The Caribbean

Hi, and welcome to my blog which is about my and my family's experiences of going on a "reccy" of moving to the Caribbean and in particular Barbados.
Let me give you a little bit of background to us. I am a 52-year-old Quantity Surveyor who has among other places used to work in Trinidad, but that was 25 years ago and I left to move back to England to marry my wife Janet. To celebrate our silver (25 years) wedding anniversary we went on a Caribbean Cruise with our three children, Robin my daughter who was 21 at the time, Richard my eldest son who was 17 and Alec my youngest who is 10. When we got off at the first island which was Tortola, I knew that I wanted to emigrate to the Caribbean as it felt like home to me.
The UK has not felt like home for some time and I am at a loss to understand how the economy can possibly work as we, i.e. a nation that appears to be living well beyond it’s means and we have for various reasons become very selfish. My wife and I are Christians and England does not feel like a Christian country to us.
Five years ago we were fortunate enough to be able to spend seven weeks in Malawi (Africa) working for a charity and for us the feeling of the presence of God was there from day one, I have likened it to walking in the Garden of Eden. It was wonderful to walk down the streets in the villages (where admittedly everybody knew who you were because we were the only white people around) and to see all those happy smiling faces. These were people who had nothing and the sole object of each day was to get enough for a meal when they have to achieve that it was a successful day. People warned us before we went that we would encounter a culture shock, well there is nothing shocking about a mother struggling to do anything she can to feed her family, and going there it was very easy to understand and accept their existence. Coming back to England however (apparently called the counter culture shock), was very difficult to adjust to. Walking around the streets of Preston you would see all these people who, as far as the African's were concerned, have absolutely everything, and yet they all looked as miserable as sin. We have no concept that the majority of the people in the world think themselves lucky and content when they have enough to eat in a day. We are not content even through our cupboards, fridge and freezer are full of food. We have unreasonably high expectations (encouraged by the media) and consequently are constantly unhappy. How spot on Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones were with ‘I can’t get no Satisfaction’. Rant over.
We then, with good friends of ours, Sandy and Linda, started our own charity working through the local churches in Malawi and providing a for mosquito nets, small business loans, blankets, education in food, nutrition and agriculture along with lots of other small projects, and so we were able to continue visiting Malawi and enjoy the feeling of the presence of God. (Our charity was called Mission Heart and might well get resurrected). The church needs out grew just needing our financial assistance, and we handed over the running of the work in Malawi over to our church, The Freedom Centre, and they have taken what we have started and continue to help it grow now under the banner of Luv Africa. In fact we were invited to be part of a group visiting in October 2010 although we could not go because were going on this reccy to Barbados.
Anyway I have digressed enough. After I first stepped foot on Tortola and decided that was where I wanted to be/I thought God wanted me, and that was the Caribbean as opposed just Tortola, we then started looking around and considering which island we would like to live on. At this point of course I should mention that my wife Janet was up for the idea of moving and in the past we have discussed with our children emigrating and the Caribbean was the only place that they were all happy to emigrate to.
We considered various islands including Puerto Rico, which we ruled out partly because of the Spanish-speaking, although I daresay I could muster that, but largely because it was American and therefore emigration could be very difficult. We looked at the various islands and after visiting Barbados for a day (on the same cruise) we thought it could be a good one to try. I believe that if you do not have a map for life then you will just drift along and get nowhere, if you have a map and head in a certain direction, then even if you don't make that destination you have at least moved on and in the right direction. The more we considered Barbados the more sense it made. Some of the things it had going for it for us was that we had friends who live there, it's English-speaking, and because of its position as the most easterly island and the only one that isn't volcanic, it does not seem to have the same problem with hurricanes as the other islands and of course it has a fantastic climate and fantastic people. Last Hurricane being in 1955, Hurricane Janet!
So we have come out to Barbados for a month on a recky to see if and how we can move here next summer. Some of the things that we have to investigate include, how much it will cost us to live out here, how are we going to make a living, what education can be provided for Alec, where on the island we would like to live, how we go about getting visas, paying taxes etc.
We are fortunate enough that we have been able to rent a house of friends on Barbados, Sue and Vanessa so that has made the initial planning very easy. As I mentioned at the beginning I am a Quantity Surveyor and I have recently been self training myself I was a Internet marketeer. Obviously the Internet marketing can be carried out from anywhere in the world and that would therefore be an obvious way forward. My ideal would be to make a living as an Internet Marketing and then spend some time teaching the poor in the Caribbean how they can use the Internet to make a living for themselves and also to promote local businesses locally and globally. Time will tell. As a Quantity Surveyor I am fortunate that the laws with regard to building are very similar to England and that they to employ Quantity Surveyors so it may be possible to earn a living this way.
My understanding of the employment law in Barbados is, and quite understandably, that you cannot work in a job at a local person can do.
We are not looking for a grand lifestyle in Barbados, as perhaps your mind would conjure up, but a simple existence living in a modest house, which is not too far to walk to the beach!
Janet, has recently qualified as a Commercial Pilot and their may therefore be opportunities for her to work out here. Depending on what happens and what doors open for us, we may not both work full-time, and indeed it would be preferable. Depending on the education situation we may home educate Alec as we did with our two elder children.
Anyway today is the first day. We arrived in Barbados after a enjoyable flight at 6 PM, we were collected by Sue and Vanessa and taken back to the house. Janet and Alec have gone to bed as it is on midnight back home, but it is only seven o'clock local time. I am just writing this blog to record our experiences and findings for anyone that might be interested in getting out of the rat race and living a different lifestyle, after all God meant there to be far more to life than working hard to get a pension to rely upon and then live happily into your old age, as we have seen all too dramatically in the last couple of years on reliance on pensions or the government providing for us in our old age, is not something that we can rely upon. Lots of people have said how lucky we are, and indeed we are, but lots of people can live a more enjoyable lifestyle, not centred around money and material possessions, if they want to. You have the power! I am very fortunate in that, as a self employed person, I can do a lot of my work remotely over the Internet and this is one of the things that I will be trying out during this four weeks.