Expat parenting in Colon, Panama with British expat Catherine
Tropical storms, mosquitoes, power cuts and gun-wielding teenagers, not exactly the makings of a tourist brochure, nor what immediately springs to mind when you think about the expat life.
Imagine being given a weeks notice that you are about to move your family from Europe to Central America, no one speaks a word in your native tongue, you are in fact living over an hour from the nearest capital city with a new baby to care for and no support network.
Catherine and her husband Ivo were thrown into this situation not long after their daughter Olivia was born in 2010 when his employer posted him to Colon, Panama. Catherine (C) shares their unique expatriate experience with Our Globetrotters (OG).
This post is part of our Global Parenting Interview Series
OG: What is your background and how did you end up in Panama?
C: I met my now-husband when we were both working in Dubai. I am originally from England and he is from Belgium. He was working for a large infrastructure company and when the global financial crisis hit in 2008, we had to leave Dubai in a hurry.
We had a very difficult 18-month posting in Romania where my first daughter was born so we were very pleased to be offered another posting, this time in Oman, but there was an unexpected change of plans last-minute and we were shifted instead to Panama with our four-month-old daughter.
OG: What were your first impressions on arriving?
C: The countryside was very beautiful, very green from all the rain but there was clearly a lot of poverty and crime. The houses were run down and it looked like a shantytown.