Tag Archives: Election

Our Election ‘Plan B’

June 20, 2024 djarmul 14 Comments

I wouldn’t exist today and you wouldn’t be reading this article if my maternal grandparents hadn’t had the foresight to flee Nazi Germany for New York in 1937, narrowly escaping the Holocaust.

Until recently, this was just part of my family history. But as the election approaches and darkness looms on the horizon, I’ve begun wondering whether it’s a cautionary tale.

My mother’s German passport, with Nazi swastikas on the stamp.

I’m not alone. I recently received the e-mail message shown above, with the title “How to Move Out of the US (and Where to Escape to).” It began: “If you’re anything like me, you’re looking at the election year ahead with some trepidation. And who can blame you? Things could go sideways—politically, economically, socially. It’s not a crazy idea to have a Plan B. In fact, it’s prudent.”

The message came from International Living, which helps older Americans relocate to “safe, warm, friendly spots abroad.” Costa Rica, Portugal and Mexico top its current list of “the best countries to retire,” based on living costs, healthcare and other criteria.

My fears about things “going sideways” don’t reach the horrific level of the Holocaust but they’re bad enough that I don’t want to live through them. Am I being melodramatic? Maybe. I hope so. I know I’m privileged to even consider leaving the country and I recognize the need to fight for my beliefs. I have children and grandchildren, along with countless fellow Americans, who can’t leave as easily.

But my anxiety is real and, unrelated to politics, Champa and I were already discussing how we might spend more time abroad. We love to travel and have been fortunate to visit some amazing places, as I’ve chronicled on this blog. However, except when we served as older Peace Corps Volunteers in Moldova, or while visiting our family in Nepal, we’ve generally passed through countries as tourists rather than slowing down to truly experience them.

That’s what we’d like to do now, traveling more slowly and deliberately, while we’re still relatively young and healthy. As I wrote back in November, “I’m determined to make the most of this precious ‘not exactly retired’ stage of my life when I no longer have the responsibilities of a formal job but am still able to contribute and thrive.”

A retirement focused on travel may sound crazy, dangerous, self-indulgent or extravagant to some. But it’s become common, as I’ve seen from numerous websites, videos, online groups, books and other sources, including conversations with people we’ve met on the road.

It can also be far cheaper than you might imagine. Brian and Carrie, one of our favorite Internet couples, shown above, spent $29,728 for all of their travel and living costs in 2023. That’s $1,238 monthly each, living in Airbnbs and elsewhere in Spain, Portugal, Croatia and other parts of Europe. They later moved on to Southeast Asia.

We’re also fans of Debbie and Michael Campbell, the Senior Nomads, who have stayed in Airbnbs in 90 countries since leaving their Seattle home in 2013. “We weren’t sure how long we’d be gone,” they write on their website. “Now, over ten years later, we still aren’t sure! But as long as we are learning every day, having fun, are close to our budget, have our health, and are still in love, we’ll keep going.”

Debbie and Michael’s Facebook group has nearly 14,000 members who share travel tips, swap stories and encourage each other. An even bigger Facebook group is Budget Slow Travel in Retirement, whose 68,000+ members discuss everything from medical insurance to the best ways to keep in touch with grandchildren.

Brian and Carrie’s YouTube series addresses many of these questions while highlighting destinations from Greece to Vietnam. Other good YouTube sites include Kara and Nate and Earth Vagabonds, which targets “slow travel for retired budget travelers.”

Another travel inspiration is Nomadic Matt, whose blog I’ve followed for years and whose book Ten Years a Nomad I just finished reading. Champa’s reading it now. Matt is younger than us but spent ten years traveling to more than 100 countries and territories. He now offers a variety of guides and products on his website.

I don’t foresee us ever leaving our family, friends and community for good. We’d return regularly, remain connected electronically and keep America in our hearts. But spending a significant part of our time in Nepal and elsewhere over the next four years might be our best way of coping with a post-election nightmare.

Mark Twain famously wrote that travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness — the very forces I now see threatening my homeland. I’ll never stop loving America but I also want to live my life and embrace the world.

I recognize my planning may come across as selfish or apocalyptic to some readers. My grandparents probably heard the same thing.

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who responded to my previous post about our project to help build a new school in Nepal. Sixty donors have contributed $12,811. That’s more than halfway to our goal but we still need more help. If you haven’t already, please donate on our GoFundMe site or, to avoid their fees, contact me directly. All donors will have their names honored in the new school. Thank you!

Message in a Bottle

November 10, 2016 djarmul 5 Comments

14997180_10153924733611625_773040510_n — Signor Rana, when he was one of my students in Nepal

Just a few days before the stunning U.S. election, I received a message out of the blue that confirmed something Peace Corps told us during our training: You never know whose life you may touch, no matter what happens in the wider world.

The message came from Signor Rana, one of my students when I taught English at a school near Kathmandu as a Peace Corps volunteer four decades ago, long before I began serving again in Moldova.

It came to me on Facebook: “Hi, are you the same David Jarmul who was peace corp volunteer back in late 70 in Nepal? Remember Lab times in lab school? I was one of your student? I was looking for you since 1988.”

14937051_10153924733201625_1765370125_n — Signor and his classmates at the Lab School near Kathmandu, where I taught as a Peace Corps volunteer. He is second from the left in the second row.

Of course I remembered the Lab Times, the wall newspaper I started at the school, but I didn’t remember Signor — one of several hundred students I had there and in Champa’s village, Ilam. Still, I wrote him back, and he responded quickly.

“Wow, I was looking for you since I came to US as a student back in 1989,” he replied, describing how he is now married, living in Maryland and working as a software engineer for the federal government.

“You used to tell a story of America and show us moon landing documentary and made me participate in play Snow White. That made me dream of America and came here. You do plant a seed on a boy who was 10 years old. Thanks for helping me. Please let me know when you visiting back to US.”

Coincidentally, I’d responded just a few days earlier to another unexpected message, this one from Australia. It was from the son of a friend of mine from Ilam.

Perhaps there were others, too. I don’t really know. Neither do most other Peace Corps volunteers who completed their service years ago.

15007801_10153924753216625_1540116291_o — Signor and his family today

Signor’s timing could hardly have been more auspicious. His was like a message in a bottle, washing ashore just when I needed to discover it.

It reminded me that no matter what happens in politics, we all have the power to make a difference in some lives, even if our impact is not revealed until years later, if ever. That remains true today for the nearly 7,000 other Peace Corps volunteers and trainees serving around the world, in more than 60 countries. As it has for more than 50 years, the Peace Corps touches lives every day, with strong bipartisan support from Republicans and Democrats alike.

That’s a fact worth treasuring at a moment when our country is struggling to heal after a bitter presidential campaign. Indeed, perhaps some of the lives that need touching right now are Americans who feel uncertain about the future.

I don’t mean the election’s results don’t matter. They do, profoundly, and I will be watching what happens along with everyone else. But as someone who is old enough to have lived through presidents from both parties who did both good and bad things, I choose to take the counsel of our current leader: The sun will still rise tomorrow. We can still find meaning in our own lives. We can still make the world a better place.

No matter whether we are abroad or back home, in the Peace Corps or among our neighbors, regardless of politics, we can all try to touch lives or, as Signor put it, to plant seeds.

Sometimes they will bloom. You never know.

Halloween, The Election and Home

November 2, 2016 djarmul 3 Comments

I awoke Monday morning to find my Facebook feed filled with adorable photos of children back home dressed up as monsters, princesses, cows and witches. My news feeds featured the latest polls about the presidential election.

Admiring the Facebook photo of my favorite Halloween cow (along with her twin sister).

When I talked with my Moldovan friends, though, few of them cared about Halloween or our election, just as they won’t care about Thanksgiving or the Super Bowl.

Most Moldovans are oblivious to the controversies involving Hillary Clinton’s e-mails or Donald Trump’s tax returns. If Sean Hannity and Megyn Kelly fight again on Fox News, well, who are they? What’s Fox News? Why should someone here care?

I’m humbled as an American to be reminded every day that most people around the world know or care little about many things we consider important. It’s one of the insights I treasure most as a Peace Corps volunteer. I’ve been given the gift of a new vantage point to view my country and its place in the world.

Did you know Moldova just had its own presidential election, which is now heading to a second round? Perhaps you actually paid attention to this because you know me. (Some of you even sent me stories about it.) But otherwise, would you have even glanced at this news, which people here are following closely?

What Champa and I are seeing here is like what we saw in Nepal when we spent time there a year ago. People live their own lives. They have their own country. They’re curious to talk with us about America, but then they go home and get ready for another day of work.

Champa’s partner teacher, Elena, in front wearing the black striped shirt, organized a fun Halloween play at their school.

This past Friday, Champa’s partner teacher organized a Halloween play at their school. It went great. Several other Peace Corps volunteers around Moldova also organized Halloween events, as did volunteers in other countries. Most of those events probably went well, too. Some of the kids who participated may remember Halloween for the rest of their lives. In small but immeasurable ways, our cultures grew closer together, all of which is wonderful.

Similarly, there’s no doubt millions of people around the world are paying close attention to the American election. They know it affects them, too. In general, they pay more attention to our country than we do to theirs. We are all more connected across nations than ever before.

Still, here in Moldova and around the world, most people will tuck their kids into bed tonight without thinking about Halloween, Donald Trump or all of the other things that loom so large in our American lives, sometimes even overwhelming us. They will sleep soundly just the same.

Personally, I have found it not only humbling but comforting to relearn this reality, which offers a different perspective on our own problems and obsessions. All of us, whether in the United States or someplace else live largely out of sight from one another. We share the world yet most of the world doesn’t care who will win the World Series tonight.