Life for Expats in non-Western areas of the world - AKA what's it like to be a Somalian pirate / Thai Lady-boy

[JoshPlz]

One of the security guys that flew with me a lot said something like "Angola is a nation built on the decaying corpse of civility" and I never stopped picking up that vibe the entire time.

Ominous and creepy as fuck. I love it.

 

[Buster O'Keefe]

I've never left North America

Seriously?

OK, you have cousin.

 

[Aumis Graham]

I'm a US citizen that moved to Africa for a bit to work as a bush pilot back in the mid 2000s. I was based out of J-burg but I'd fly as far up as Djibouti with some regularity and even had to make a pair of trips to the Mideast, but almost always on the Eastern half of the continent. It was pretty fucked up if I'm being honest. Africa is a true "Shithole" to borrow the chief executive's parlance. Some areas are nice, but they're all Sandals resorts, high priced Safari parks and a 3 block area where a cruise ship will pull in with European and Chinese tourists. I didn't mind Uganda or Djibouti as the rest though. Ugandans were almost always extremely nice people and were excited to meet an American. The folks in Djibouti were just super jazzed that the US and French presence kept Somali's from being an issue. In fact, Djibouti at the time I was out there with any regularity had a significant amount of French Legionaries and French Med/Nursing students. So there were some pretty good impromptu dance clubs set up under huge tents with a not-insignificant amount of cute French chicks that were just thrilled to see a man who didn't have a tropical disease and possessed all of their teeth.

Seriously though, Africa sucks

Sounds like a hell of an experience, tbqh. What made you even want to do that, the pay good or something? You secretly Lord of War or trying to start up the Rhodesian Revolution?

 

[Raging Capybara]

Brazil also surprised me with the number of weebs they had

Brazil is the reason why Dragon Ball still exists.

 

[TiggerNits]

Sounds like a hell of an experience, tbqh. What made you even want to do that, the pay good or something? You secretly Lord of War or trying to start up the Rhodesian Revolution?

A lot of factors, really. I had just gotten out of the Marines after a shitty injury that derailed my life plan that I had stayed with really well from the age of about 6 to 26, so it made me almost despondent and my marriage was spiraling because of it. I tried flying puddle jumper routes for UPS and some defense contracting and hated it, which made me a really grumpy asshole. So then a friend from college who's family owned the company (they were South African, thus the job) and he offered me a month to month flying job with them that paid almost 18k a month. I just sent the money home and slept in the plane most nights, so my then-wife was living really well in San Diego. When I figured I was ready to come back to the states, I was served divorce papers as I was getting through customs at Miami International.

 

[Raging Capybara]

A lot of factors, really. I had just gotten out of the Marines after a shitty injury that derailed my life plan that I had stayed with really well from the age of about 6 to 26, so it made me almost despondent and my marriage was spiraling because of it. I tried flying puddle jumper routes for UPS and some defense contracting and hated it, which made me a really grumpy asshole. So then a friend from college who's family owned the company (they were South African, thus the job) and he offered me a month to month flying job with them that paid almost 18k a month. I just sent the money home and slept in the plane most nights, so my then-wife was living really well in San Diego. When I figured I was ready to come back to the states, I was served divorce papers as I was getting through customs at Miami International.

Cuck.

 

[Aumis Graham]

A lot of factors, really. I had just gotten out of the Marines after a shitty injury that derailed my life plan that I had stayed with really well from the age of about 6 to 26, so it made me almost despondent and my marriage was spiraling because of it. I tried flying puddle jumper routes for UPS and some defense contracting and hated it, which made me a really grumpy asshole. So then a friend from college who's family owned the company (they were South African, thus the job) and he offered me a month to month flying job with them that paid almost 18k a month. I just sent the money home and slept in the plane most nights, so my then-wife was living really well in San Diego. When I figured I was ready to come back to the states, I was served divorce papers as I was getting through customs at Miami International.

Damn, rough how you made the mulah and she did that to you. Still, sounds like a hell of an interesting job, second only to being a boots on the ground mercenary in Africa.

 

[RadicalCentrist]

A lot of factors, really. I had just gotten out of the Marines after a shitty injury that derailed my life plan that I had stayed with really well from the age of about 6 to 26, so it made me almost despondent and my marriage was spiraling because of it. I tried flying puddle jumper routes for UPS and some defense contracting and hated it, which made me a really grumpy asshole. So then a friend from college who's family owned the company (they were South African, thus the job) and he offered me a month to month flying job with them that paid almost 18k a month. I just sent the money home and slept in the plane most nights, so my then-wife was living really well in San Diego. When I figured I was ready to come back to the states, I was served divorce papers as I was getting through customs at Miami International.

Lmao did you even know what you were getting into? Or were you one of those that thinks having a SO is a prerequisite for having a mil career?

 

[TiggerNits]

Lmao did you even know what you were getting into? Or were you one of those that thinks having a SO is a prerequisite for having a mil career?

Man, if I knew what the hell I was doing at 23 Id like to think I would have been the first man in the world to do so.

Edit: you'd be amazed though how many pilots get married in flight school to Florida State and UF chicks that play on various sports teams. It's like their athletic departments are designed to keep the junior officer corps of the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard in respectable pussy

 

[NoReturn]

Rezzing a dead thread.
Jersh is no longer in Ukraine for obvious reasons, other people have probably moved too.
What's the world like now? Who has successfully escaped their original country and how are you affording it?