I hope you all will indulge me in this dilemma my wife and I are facing. FIrst the on topic part of the question. My wife and I are both international educators and have been offered positions at an elite private school in Mussoorie, India, for the next school year (it’s a two year contract). Here is the school’s website if curious: https://www.woodstockschool.in/
This place is pretty amazing and has a long storied history. It seems the place to have my Rivendell AllRounder and a mountain bike. I’d really miss a roadie style bike but there is a limit to how much we could take. Side question: I’m remembering reading a great book on touring in the himalayas written by a young woman but can’t seem to find it. Anybody remember the book I may be remembering? Anyway, which bike would you take to such a place? The tool should match the location right? I sure would miss my Della Santa though. Wondering if my fatter tired DS (it takes a 33 width tire) might be worth taking. The real dilemma is with the current state of the world, would you even take the job and go. We are in strangely unprecedented times. The alarmist is me feels like getting there when we currently are at a level “4” from the US State Dept and perhaps on the cusp of a global recession at best, and perhaps a full blown depression, makes this an incredibly tough move to even consider. The adventurer world educator in me thinks this is the opportunity of a lifetime. Woodstock school is mentioned in some international educator circles as the “dream school” to work at and a “unicorn school.” Tough to pass up. Staying here in Reno where my wife and I both hold jobs in the school district that are guaranteed/contract jobs with a pension plan (albeit a crappy district and a not great pension plan) is the safe option (maybe, who knows in these times). Or perhaps a remote village in India is the safer move? It’s a different perspective on life and benefits in terms of the job as well. For example, even though the pay is much less, the benefits include free housing and all utilities on campus, annual flights for the whole family back to the US, free healthcare/insurance (there is a 24 hour clinic on campus), meals are substantially subsidized, our littlest child would get a nanny and both our kids would get free tuition at the same IB school. Essentially this means that anywhere from ⅓ to ½ of our pay could be saved every year which amounts to more than we can save now living in the United States on American teacher salaries because we are generally so poorly paid in this country. The school is it’s own hillside enclave of about 200 acres as you can see on the website, and Mussoorie, where it is located is a touristy town of around 5,000 people. Not far from Rishikesh if that is helpful for the Beatles fans out there. I realize for many people the idea of moving to a village in India seems crazy even in ideal times. These are not ideal times. But what an opportunity. I’m grappling with it. Any thoughts, advice, suggestions, from this wise lot as we contemplate and sift through the pros/cons of doing this? Your wise words and thoughts are most appreciated, Addison (In Reno for the time being) Addison Wilhite, M.A. Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology <http://www.washoeschools.net/aact> *“Blazing the Trail to College and Career Success”* Portfolio and Blog <http://addisonwilhite.com> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CAKO_jM%3DpbOBEBCzEAzbWrFhgd5FEnf9s2HnncU58tS67X5W-FQ%40mail.gmail.com.
