An article about us at NaTemat.pl gave us lots of "likes" on facebook, quite a few new entries on the blog and 5 minutes of fame. We're happy that our statistics on blogspot jumped up. We hope that at least some of guests who came to our website after reading article by Ania Wittenberg will stay (yes, it's our vanity speaking, but also if we know that there's someone more than just friends and family reading, motivates us to writing - with all due respect to family and friends, grandmas will be happy seeing kids' pics every once in a while and friends will hear it all some day over a beer).
Comments under the article were a nice surprise, most of the readers was wishing us luck and complementing our courage. To our surprise we didn't notice any criticism towards our parental competences (like "are they crazy? irresponsible parents! how could they!", etc), or maybe we just didn't read them all. Or maybe a trailer is not seen as such a bad place to raise the kids:)
Those comments that were critical towards us and our journey were mostly about the money and said something like: "How can they afford it, they are probably filthy rich" and (with a hint of jelousy) "They are probably so rich that they never have to work again so they can travel". And those are the comments that we would like to reply to.
Yes, we were lucky enuogh that we happened to work on a contract in Libya for couple years, which allowed us to save some money. It doesn't mean we live in luxury. We searched for tickets to Chicago for a long time to find a good deal. We bought car and a trailer very cheap and we hope they won't fall apart half way through, and we hope we'll be able to sell them for a good price afterwards in 6 months time (are there readers who would like to follow our example? Car and trailer for sale, available as of July;). We have an apartment in Warsaw (and a mortgage too of course) which we rented out so it's not empty and so that someone pays the bills. Basic costs of living are similar no matter where we are, after all we have to eat and take a shower every once in a while.
The highest cost are those for entertainments - tickets to different places, but that's what we came here for, so we're not going to save on it (although we're not going to see every single theme park in Orlando area either, cause we would have to go home much sooner than we plan). Accomodation is pretty expensive here, but we hope to start using boondockerswelcome.com - couchsurfing for rv travelers, we already made arrangements for first free place. Plus there is fuel, the only cost that we cannot avoid, we can only look for the cheapest gas stations or discount programs, which we're doing.
In general we want to spend more or less as much as a new family car costs - something that most people is dreaming about and is aiming for. But we feel that it's not all about the money, not about how much it is and why we can afford it. Some time ago we read an article saying that most people who hate their job would not quit it even if they get another offer (we don't remember the source and the exact data, but we do remember that it was shocking to us). It looks that what we know is better than the unknown, no matter how bad is it. Respect your boss, the new one can be worse. We don't like the changes. We don't like the unknown.
We didn't have a choice. We had to quit our job in Libya. Going back to Tripoli with two small kids is just too risky right now. We could have stayed in Poland and look for some other job but we decided to take this trip. It wasn't an easy decision. We don't know what we will do after we go back, will we find any brilliant idea within next six months how to make living and give us satisfaction (or what will make us filthy rich - if you have any idea let us know!), but we knew that we have some money saved, kids are not in school yet so we have more time than just couple months of school vacation, and that we don't want to live our lives thinking only about work. When, if not now?
Yes, of course, money is important, but from what we can see, even those who have it very often wouldn't take 6 months off, they wouldn't even quit the job that they hate or thay makes their life or their families miserable. There's a scene in "Breaking Bad", Skyler takes Walt to the storage she rented to keep the money he earned making methamphetamine. She shows him huge stack of money. He asks how much there is, she says she lost track long time ago. "How much more you have to make to say it's enough?".
There's always a bigger house, a better car. Everyone makes a choice. We made a choice and we don't know where it'll take us. We don't have (unfortunately) a pocket size dollar printer and we know that nothing lasts forever, but we've decided to enjoy here and now, and we will worry about the future when it comes. And we hope you do too.
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