Alan Reeve

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Travelling the World

1993 – 2001
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My life travelling around the world Teaching English as a Foreign Language.

After some soul searching on what my next move should be, it was a question of back to basics again, tapping into my strengths, remembering the Career Analysts advice, so a career change into Teaching English as a Foreign Language seemed like the best path forward. Backpacking around the world as a “TEFLer”, looking for a country to finally retire in was the perfect lifestyle for me at that stage in my life.

My set of criteria was that it must be a warm country, a country not embroiled in a war, a country that would offer me full employment teaching English, a country with no visa issues with my British passport, a reasonably stable country politically, an affordable country and a welcoming country wanting to attract foreign investment. How difficult could that be?

Travelling around the world with the energy of a young man, a salary sufficient enough to live on and a chance to explore each country that I wanted to, seemed to be a great recipe for an exciting lifestyle. So, all that was required was my British passport, my banking career with qualifications behind me and a backpack. I could throw a dart at a world map and go wherever it landed, the world once again was my oyster.

I signed up for the standard one-month CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) course with Multi Lingua, Guildford, UK in January 1993, they were all a great bunch of people.

As part of this plan, the British Government publishes a list of countries where you can retire in and have your UK pension paid to you each month index linked. There are 22 countries currently on the list, most of them in Europe but there are only a few “warm” countries, Israel happens to be one of them, it seemed like a great place to start! CELTA certificate under my belt, my first stop was to go and experience life on a kibbutz in Israel as a volunteer, I worked in the gardens, the fish ponds, the kitchen and with the chickens and cows – a fantastic experience.

Volunteers came from all over the world and the typical conversation would be as follows:

The first question: Where are you from?

My answer: Mombasa in Kenya

The conversation continues:

Really? But you aren’t black!

Correct, my British parents were living in Kenya when I was born so I am a White African

Which part of South Africa do you come from?

None, Kenya is in East Africa, nothing to do with South Africa except we share the continent of Africa which has a North, West, South and East side.

Oh!

Having discussions with both Jews and Arabs, it gave me an incredible insight into why there will always be a level of conflict in this part of the world. Both sides will always fight over exactly the same piece of the pie, no one will give even an inch. There is no way I would want to retire in that environment, tick it off the list and move on.

Next stop was Turkey where I worked as a night receptionist in a hostel and teaching at Dilko English language school during the day. Exhausting times but it gave me a taste of what life was like as a “TEFLer”. Turkey had a lot to offer but once again did not satisfy enough aspects of my criteria.

Bospherus, Black Sea, Istanbul, Turkey

I then had a taste of how the TEFL market operated, I applied for a job in Santander in Spain and on arrival I was told that the job was no longer was available, so straight back to the UK and time to tap into the vast network of global language schools Multi Lingua had at their disposal.

Within days I had secured a job in Mexico and so in January 1994 off I went to work for Centro Escolar El Encino, Aguascalientes, Mexico teaching children between the ages of 6-18. I would be in Mexico till May 1995 and visit 32 cities throughout Mexico. The highlights of this posting were learning about the bullfighting culture on Sundays, hiking in the Copper Canyon where I stumbled across “Elephant Rock”, Puerto Escondido summer camp, Acapulco divers, a visa run to Cuba, swimming with the sea lions at La Paz, visits to the Mayan ruins (Palenque, Uxmal and Chicken Itza), climbing Paricutin volcano, the flying Papantla Indians (Los Voladores) and the Veracruz carnival.

The post-mortem for Mexico was very positive as it ticked a lot of my criteria boxes, however, I had a niggling feeling deep inside of me that this country just wasn’t for me. At the time I had no idea what was “bothering” me, years later after seeing the country descend into chaos with the powerful drug cartels stamping their influence everywhere, I said my silent prayers and thanked my God for his guidance.

After finishing up in Mexico, I flew back to the UK to further my TEFL career by obtaining a Certificate in ESP – Business English (English for Specific Purposes) through The English Language Centre in London. With my new qualification added into my CV, I flew to Costa Rica in July 1995 to take up a posting with Instituto Britanico, San Jose, Costa Rica where I taught General and Business English at all levels to adults. My CV caught the eye of the “powers-to-be” who managed to secure a contract with the Costa Rican Government working on a Geo-Thermal project with Costa Rican Electricity (I.C.E.) where I participated in the design and implementation of an on-site training program. I would work 10 days on and 10 days off up in the mountains of Miravalles and did visa runs to Panama and Nicaragua until June 1996

Costa Rica had potential and alongside most of the other Central American countries and the Caribbean, it was and still is the playground for the Americans. That in itself, is fine, however, the retirement packages on offer did not suit my budget.

Next stop was Chile from July 1996 until June 1997 working for English Language Services, Santiago, Chile, teaching General and Business English. Once again, my CV convinced the CEO of Kodak Chile that I would be an extremely suitable person to design and teach an ESP course to his personal assistant and his executives in four different departments of the company.

Chile is one of the longest countries in the world (North to South), it stretches all the way from the Atacama desert in the North to the Chilean fiords and the San Rafael glacier in the South and has everything in between, beaches, mountains, lakes and rivers, I travelled the length and breadth of this country and loved every minute of it

There were a couple of things that “concerned” me with Chile. The first one was the history, particularly the Allende/Pinochet era, many of my students were part of that “lost generation”, not in the literal sense, but many of them had never had any formal education and therefore teaching someone a foreign language without any formal education is quite a challenge (I would meet a similar issue in Equatorial Guniea in later years). The second one was that I had also done some research into the “earthquake risks” and felt that one day the whole country could very easily be flattened, a few years later this country did experience some very difficult times. Another silent prayer giving thanks.

After I left Chile, I decided to take some time out and visit Scandinavia (Finland, Sweden and Norway) during their summer months. Lapland in Finland and Nortcape in Norway (the northernmost part of Europe) are truly remarkable places to visit especially during the months of the “midnight sun.”

Back on the road again and I flew from London via Singapore in August 1997, this time to take up a position with the Indonesia/Australia Language Foundation, Jakarta, Indonesia, teaching General and Business English at Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced levels for companies and banks. I was called upon to design and teach ESP courses for Citibank currency traders and the Standard Chartered custodial services department.

Singapore – what a remarkable story. Here lies absolute proof that the efforts of Lee Kuan Yew, who transformed Singapore after their independence in 1965 from a developing country, riddled with crime and problems, to a first world country by 1992 (within 30 years, just one generation) is the only one single shining example of what every country who gained independence from their colonial rulers should be able to do.

Critics will focus on a million excuses as to why every single country in the world who had colonial rulers in the past are doomed forever. The argument today blaming the “Evils of Colonialism”, “The Desperate Plight of Africa”, “Apartheid” and “The Poor African” is an old broken record that has no place in society in the 21st Century.

It is time for those countries to admit their current rulers are corrupt, stand on their own two feet, hold themselves accountable, employ a “Lee Kuan Yew” business model, follow it, drag themselves out of poverty and crime and transform their countries into first world countries and stop begging for money from the international community and/or seeking economic privilege by turning up at the borders of wealthier countries who have made the effort not to be poor.

The saddest part of all of this is the “White African Voice” which has remained silent and in the shadows for fear of being accused of “Colonialism”, “Racism”, “Discrimination”, “White Privilege” and “Political Incorrectness” could be the very people who could make a difference with their knowledge, expertise, love of their “homeland” and the fact that they really do care about the countries they were born in. Singapore is the only airport in the world where your check in luggage is cleared quicker than immigration and is waiting for you and not vice-versa. Now that is efficiency!

Unfortunately, Singapore is not one of the 22 countries with reciprocal arrangements with the UK, so a non-starter for me to retire there from my perspective.

Life in Jakarta was vibrant and with the 1,000 islands just a short boat trip out of Jakarta to get away at weekends made for a nice work/leisure balanced lifestyle. Bali, Lombok, the Gili islands and Krakatau were all very special places to visit in the area.

I was to work in Jakarta until the 1998 May riots when I had to flee Jakarta and hide out in the Ujung Kulon national park on the west side of Java island. Waking up in Jakarta with tanks blocking each end of the street I lived in, meant I needed to contact the British Embassy for help and advice. The Americans and the Europeans had evacuation plans for all their citizens, the British advice was to do what I thought best! After some deliberation and discussion with my local contacts, I decided under the cover of darkness and hiding under luggage and blankets in a van driven by local guides to drive down to the national park and wait it out. I took my radio to keep in touch with developments and spent my days with my local friends. It wasn’t until July 1998 that I finally managed to get out of Indonesia safety and fly back to England.

The time had come again for me to advance my career a little further and take some time out after my potential major brush with death. I contacted the English Language Centre, London, UK and completed and passed my Diploma in TEFL (DELTA). This qualification set me up for my first managerial post in the TEFL industry. In Oct 1998 I was employed by the British Council, Douala, Cameroon to be the lead instructor for a project in Equatorial Guinea for Mobil (MEGI) where I set up, administered and taught English to oil workers, liaised with 5 separate contractors and line-managed initially 2 teachers. Further qualifications followed, I became a fully qualified examiner in FCE (First Certificate in English), CPE (Certificate in Proficiency of English) and IELTS (International English Language Testing System) through the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

I would stay in this position until June 2000

Christmas 1998 – I went on holiday to Perth, Australia stopping off in South Africa to catch up with friends.

I reached a milestone in 1999, my 40th birthday, and I spent quite a bit of that year travelling to Chad, Nigeria, USA, Namibia and Sao Tome

In June 2000 the now merged ExxonMobil contract with the British Council was not going to be renewed so that meant it was time to look for my next move. My immediate ExxonMobil boss called me in and asked me if I would like to work as a contractor for ExxonMobil, this would be a huge promotion both financially and in terms of responsibility with an added bonus of rotation work (I month on and 1 month off) working with a “back-to-back”. This was an offer I certainly could not turn down and so in July 2000 I took up my new post, working for Flour as contractors to ExxonMobil, as their Training Coordinator within the Training Department of ExxonMobil in Equatorial Guinea. My scope of work included managing Budgets, Ministry Presentations, Overseas Scholarship Programs, Testing, Management Reporting, Quality Control of the Department. I developed and implemented individual job plans for all national employees and major contractors of Exxon. This gave me an opportunity to do more travelling in my month off, I visited Hong Kong, South Africa and China in 2000. I would stay in this post until March 2005.

In 2001 I moved my “home city” to Hong Kong and so every month off I flew from Equatorial Guinea to Hong Kong return flight paid for and a great opportunity to amass quite a few frequent flier miles. I lived on Lantau Island in a little village called Mui Wo in a flat overlooking the sea. A perfect place and time to begin my studies for an online Master’s degree in ELT Management (English Language Teaching) through the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK and continue my travelling to China beach in Vietnam, Christchurch in New Zealand and to swim with humpbacks in Tonga in 2001. Swimming with the humpback whales ranks right up there as one of the most exhilarating interactions I have had over the years with wildlife in their own environment.

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