Moving to a developing country [Edited by MNHQ at OP's request]

[Whyareyoudoingthat]

Anyone done this? Would love to hear people's experiences(good or bad)

We have roots in North India and would like our kids to be familiar with that area and improve their language skills. It would help me too as I'm a born and bred Brit.

Kids are at an age where changing schools for up to a year or so wouldn't be too much of an issue. Overall I think positives would outweigh any negatives.

However am concerned about a few things:
Corruption!
Safety
Access to medical care
Clean water
Would still have to send kids to school-am thinking a local language school.

Thanks in advance.

Anyone?

I am currently sitting in a rickshaw in the highway in Mumbai.
I will post more when I am home.

I have been in Mumbai for 8 years and have been very happy although I am moving on in a couple of months.

I teach in an expensive international school, so get free schooling for my DD, housing, flights and medical insurance.

Would you be working?
Visas are not easy to get. For an employment visa you need to be sponsored by an employer and be earning quite a lot.
Without a parent with an employment visa, I doubt your children could get an entry or student visa and so may not get a school place.
If you have OCI cards that would be different.

Corruption - yes it is there but in my day to day life I don't see it.
If you look Indian and speak Hindi life will be easier.

Safety - I travel by rickshaw frequently and have very rarely felt I have been taken advantage of. I travel with my daughter in the evenings, I have never felt unsafe. I have colleagues who are also Expats and I have only heard of one incident. Mumbai does have a safer reputation than Delhi.

Medical care - if you can afford it, or it can afford insurance then no problem. My paediatrician and gynaecologist have both worked ( and trained?) in the UK.

Clean water - not an issue. Most flats will have an electric water filter.

School - the options are wide. They will go from expensive international schools to cheap local medium schools. I would recommend English medium as they would still learn local languages. Students I know in an English medium school here learnt - Marathi, Hindi and Sanskrit. In Mumbai two years of Marathi is compulsory in all schools.

I hope that helps. Let me know if you need anything else.

@marcopront thank you! That's really useful. If you don't mind can I ask yousome questions?

Really interested to hear how your daughter adapted-assuming she was born outside India? If she has been there for 8 years how does she feel about leaving? I have 2 DC so they are my main concern.

Do you remember how you felt when you first arrived? Was there a big culture shock? Have there been any màjor issues that were difficult to manage?

Look forward to hearing from you!

We lived in a developing country with our DC, on the other side of the world right enough.
Corruption, an annoying part of everyday life, like an unspoken tax.
Safety, we lived in a gated community, this was usual for better off locals. School had guards, this quickly just becomes normal life. The biggest danger was from roads though, so defensive driving became the norm.
If you can afford to pay the healthcare was very good and this seems to be a common experience with developing countries in the cities at least.
Our tap water wasn't drinkable and our garden water was unclean. The DC soon learned not to wash their teeth with tap water etc. All drinking water was imported into the house in large bottles.
All fruit and veg was washed in dilute bleach basically.
The DC went to a local language school which also had English as a second language. DC learned this language from scratch in six months.
So not the same area as you but similar issues. Locals in your area will have ways round all of these issues.

Sorry for the delay in replying real life got in the way of Mumsnet.

My daughter was nearly 4 when we arrived. This was the 4th country she had lived in.
I had visited Mumbai a few times before so knew what I was letting myself in for, so no real culture shock. DD was too young to know any different.

She is excited about moving, but she was fully involved in the decision to go and we will be closer to her Dad. I think she is also ready to go, there are some issues in school she wants to get away from.

@isthisspring from what you and marcopront say it seems people just adjust to the differences...makes me feel very positive about the move. Thank you.

@marcopront your dd sounds like a real globetrotter-somethig i dream about! good luck with your move, hope it all goes well.

I live in Brazil, so I think it's a far cry from India as clean water, heathcare and serious levels of poverty are not an issue for us, but it hasn't always been like that.

I've lived here on and off for 15 years, and started off in a big dangerous city, so I remember the days when the poverty was really bad and it was difficult to cope with on some days. You have to pass children on the streets when you are comfortable and fairly well off. It is never easy and I don't think you ever "get used to it".

I don't live in a city anymore, so that has taken a a load off in terms of cheating, safety, healthcare etc. With less people the hospitals are well funded and are able to cope with the population. We don't have any homelessnes, poverty and very little crime. There are poor people but they are not starving. I find going to the cities can be very stressful, although some are far better than others. The big cities in my state are not as bad as Rio de Janiero, I have actually seen more homeless people in London than our nearest big city. But I still feel tense and on edge to be always on my guard.

My children are at private schools though, but local schools with no English, bilingual schools are rare and very expensive. Normal private schools are good and becoming available to middle class and former working class people like public school teachers, policemen and firemen, so it's not elitist and unreal for my children.

The corruption is difficult to live with. Brazil is a nest of snakes with corruption, it filters right down. I joke and say I used to drive on the left of the road and now I drive on what's left of the roads. It can get really depressing to see what the population could have but that the money is going into the pockets of anyone who can get away with it. It makes me really angry.

I will say this though my children have a different outlook on life to my friend's children in the UK. New clothes, toys, shoes etc are not easy come and easy go. They know children who have 2 treasured toys and as a result are far less materialistic than they used to be. They rarely want things for Christmas and birthdays, they are happy if they get a pair of new shoes. We are far from poor but we've got used to living with less and buying what we need rather than what we want. They also work harder in school than they did the UK. They see how hard is for people who don't have the opportunities that they do and they appreciate that.

I feel that we live fuller lives here, I can't really describe that so well but I think anyone in the same boat will understand what I mean.