Colombia and South America through the eyes of an engineer
A lot of people have recently been looking for work abroad, naively believing that there they will be given more. Many are looking for happiness in South America. At least I often write in a personal such questions. As a result, this chaotic post was born, designed to lift the veil of secrecy over the Inca homeland and the socialist revolutions that do not fade away in the key of labor emigration for people of engineering specialties.
Che Square at UNAL National University, May Day.
Disclaimer: the Colombians below will be presented in a rather negative light. I want to clarify in advance (it turned out that not everyone understands this by default), that this is a generalized image and, of course, there are good and smart people among them, like everywhere else. But they are so small that they can not affect the overall vector. The Colombians themselves love to repeat the parable: “When the Lord created Colombia, the Devil appeared to him and said that you created a very beautiful land. And then the Lord populated it with Colombians. ”
Since October 2010, I am somehow connected with Colombia in terms of professional activity. Traveled half of the continent, including by car. And although in recent years I have been working more and more with the states, South America does not let go and continues to love. I will write about Colombia, but to a sufficient degree of approximation accuracy, all this can be extended to any Latin American country. Somewhere better, somewhere worse. The general rule - the more seasonality is developed, the more intelligent people are. The closer to the equator, the people are pofigistic for everything.
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And this is a hotel in Cartagena, next to which everyone takes pictures .
How did you get? By chance. Year since 2004 I was engaged in drones (development of control systems). Now this will surprise no one, but at Expo 2006, in Moscow, serious uncles almost laughed when I said that the UAV could be built for less than $ 1000 ... The wild time was ...
I had ( and have ) a hamster, where I laid out my developments, + a bunch of publications in the internet and scientific publications. And ... they came to me.
In mid-2009, a man wrote and suggested promoting a topic in South America (SA). Then I refused, because before the defense of the candidate’s floor, half a year remained and I didn’t want to throw this thing at the finish. Then there was a correspondence and a period of calm. Meanwhile, the defense was postponed for half a year and I already forgot how suddenly ... 2 weeks before the defense, he called and said that there was a vacancy in a friendly company where you could get a job (you need a visa, but you won’t give her work) , but you need to decide now. Having estimated that the paperwork will not take less than a month, I agreed, letting out at the same time both protection and document collection. The idea of ​​living for 2 years in South Africa seemed like an adventure and a good change of scenery after 3 years of graduate school. I did not dream of any super-prospects for emigration.
KGB bar in Cartagena.
Protection was not difficult, because there was a good job, patents, 4 times higher than the norm of publications, and in general I am a young man. And now, a week after the defense, having paid the secretary for the preparation of my documents in VAK and agreed with friends to take them to Moscow, I got on a plane to Bogota (the company bought the tickets). Not direct, of course, but with a transfer in Paris. Looking ahead, I will say that citizens of the Russian Federation do not need a tourist visa to Colombia and most of the countries of South Africa. The stamp is put in Bogota for 90 days, if you leave the country anywhere and come back - again 90 days. Many do just that, leaving for Ecuador or Peru for a couple of days. But according to global rules, more than six months in the country can not be a tourist. There are people who have been living in two or three countries for years, moving around for 3 months to / from here.
Flight 20 hours, 14 of them continuously over the ocean, it is not in Sochi on the bus. This is tin. Experienced flyers even have an internal secret manual how to survive in such conditions. For example, taking with you slippers, for sitting 14 hours in the shoes you do not wish anyone, or how to dissolve the flight attendants on extra buns, burning in the microwave to ashes. Do not forget that the plane is very dry air, and breathe it for 2 hours! = 14 hours. You need to have artificial tears in a bubble and drip them all you can reach. And never fly economy Lufthansa!
In Bogota, met, taken to a removable house, where they settled with other Russian specialists. The guys turned out to be working guys, funny, even too much ... And I eloquently laid out the diversity of impressions of those two months on EmiHappens .
I survived and the contract was given to me, it remains to return for my wife and to issue a work visa like TP4. There were no special problems with the visa. All papers were collected by the Moscow office, I was abroad, 200 km from my city to Moscow. One day I went to the Embassy of Colombia, told me why I was going, I got a visa for all passports. Generally, if you have a contract and permission from the Colombian Ministry of Labor, the embassy puts the visa without any problems. The problem is to get this permission. If you are going to just fly into the country and find a job, nothing will come of it.
In-1 in the country quota for foreigners for companies. It was 1: 7, now, like, 1: 3. That is, at least X local should work for one foreigner.
Second, the Ministry of Labor needs to be convinced that you have no analogue in the country. Special papers and certificates will help here. The fact that you are an engineer, masterfully own php and play the accordion is not interesting to anyone. Their engineers have nowhere to go, in the country 25% of unemployment. The fact that this engineer can reinstall the Windows as much as possible, doesn’t know how to learn from the disk, but doesn’t know how to learn from a flash drive, doesn't care. Russian certificates will help Russian equipment with which you will work. Usually the Russians are here, these are gasmas - drillers, petrochemists, etc. True, now 2/3 of the staff has been reduced, moreover. I got into a company that exploits Russian helicopters MI, because I had a profile education of an aviation engineer, a metrologist certificate and a couple of candy wrappers that the Colombians did not have. Looking ahead, if you decide to go here, get a candy wrapper representative of a certain company, the learned keeper of the standard, etc. With these candy wrappers to get a visa is much easier than with a Ph.D. (here - doctoral) degree. And the employer, if he is interested in you, will write that, without this, the candy wrapper cannot do this work at all. The wife also receives the visa of the beneficiary, which can not work, but can have a business. Usually wives translate here, work as guides for Russian-speaking tourists or even as sales agents for Russian companies.
Generally, education in Colombia, this is gut.
In-1 there is no single system. Each school and university teach how to come up with.
In-2 more or less intelligent uni 4, one of them is a free one. The rest is complete alles kaput. For example, I recently read a program of an industrial engineer of one such university . If you drop the tinsel - they learn to write for android. 5 years of learning to write for android !!! And this is an engineering degree. And for this you have to pay $ 60k.
I would not care if it were not for two facts. The first is a child born in Bogota. Learning it is necessary, but nowhere. The second - with these inhenero have to work every day. Colombians, they are stubborn as sheep. Plus, in high school, where you pay $ 60k for a full course, nobody will tell you that a university is Mr.. For 5 years you will be hammered in that your education is steeper than MIT, and in general Colombia is the center of the universe. And there is no one to break the horns, the rest is even worse. As a result, herds of lamer engineers, confident of their genius.
Not all, of course. There are those who studied abroad, there are just sensible children, without education (there is no money for him), but quite well romping and, which is also rare, willing to learn. I know those too.
In general, the attitude to the technique of the majority, like a banana. In the sense that today one has grown, tomorrow the second will grow. So the technique is unknown from where it is taken, it is unknown where it goes. Break everything here with pleasure, especially when not his own. In my experience there was a case when FOUR drills burned in a row (zero!), Shoving them into a 220 volt socket (in Colombia, a 110V network, and it was in a country with 220V, where people and equipment from Colombia were brought). The fifth was burned in front of me, showing how the previous 4 burned.
If something burns or breaks, the Colombian is never to blame. Always blame someone else. Usually - mal diseño (poor design, poor quality development). Offer to do it yourself - is meaningless.
The import tax on any import ranges from 26 to 40 percent, which makes any physical production in the country unprofitable. I got to know this very well, because In my business, 80% of production - autopilot and fuselage - require the purchase of components and raw materials from abroad. Gray schemes are flourishing, but with small volumes they are not profitable.
Thus, Colombia, a country of controversy. On the one hand, here the field is not plowed in terms of technology. The banking system is at the level of our 93rd year, the Internet is in the bud and no one really knows what it is for and how to use it. Colombian sites are non-indexable flash squalor with music, screams, all the colors of the rainbow, and almost always - without the slightest hint of exactly what the company does, what its address and hours of work. And on the other hand, no one understands these problems and, therefore, does not try to solve them.
By the way, opening hours are the main secret of any Colombian company. You will never find them on websites, doors, business cards, etc.
In English, almost no one speaks and any interview goes in Spanish. Finding a job here for a good specialist from the street is very difficult, because existing offers, by activity and salary, are being pulled to graduate from not the best vocational school. For example, an engineer, this is $ 830-1200, which, taking into account the costs in Bogota (the capital), gives the RFP level of the Russian hinterland.
In general, many local and Spanish do not really know. Until now, the country is full of illiterate. The usual correspondence in social programs comes with a bunch of errors. Sometimes it seems that the letters cause horror in them. My housekeeper regularly washes floors with bleach or shampoo. To the question “don't you see what is written on the bank?” There is no answer, only deep thoughtfulness.
You can understand the UA (in terms of bringing new technologies and / or goods) by reading O'Henry's “kings and cabbages,” or rather the chapter “Shoes”. Here everything is exactly the same and for 100 years nothing has changed.
Colombians are very rarely interested in the outside world (which provides them with such a high percentage of happiness in opinion polls). Moreover, within the country too. A common theme in social programs is from Russian girls who married Colombians, this is where and how to issue marriage documents. Husbands stupidly do not know and do not even know how to find out. And so, these girls, with zero knowledge of the language, understand themselves. I somehow had to arrange documents for taxes, so the lawyer of our large company recommended me to contact ... Russian employees. The same immigrants like me. And yet, yes, unlike a lawyer, they knew what to carry and where.
Another nasty feature - they are trying to look businesslike and modern in your eyes. When you discuss business or promising topics, you will find a warm response and a desire to cooperate with each other. If you believe it, you lose a lot of money and time. For your new colleagues will forget about what you said on the way to the bus, but remain proud of yourself that you did not drop the image in the eyes of a foreigner. This topic is well opened my friend.
And I will sign that if something happens, the Colombian will lie to his eyes, bring a bunch of “witnesses” and get out as soon as he can, if he is pressed. Especially if you pressed a foreigner. This applies to accidents, work disputes, etc. And even if you take him out to clean water and publicly prove that he nakosyachil and then blatantly lied to all, he will shrug his shoulders, say “sorry” and go on his way. And no one will punish him, will not reprimand and will not cease to be friends, and the victim himself will not suffer the torment of humiliation. This is the norm (s) in Colombia, and the word "conscience" in Spanish is not. It terribly enrages and leads to bad comparisons.
Colombia is a teenage country, and all the same features peculiar to it: maximalism, overestimation of oneself, non-recognition of authority, etc.
Of course, there is a pull. Here it is called Roska - carving. By dews you can get anywhere, without it - almost nowhere. As one friend said, "Colombia, this is the Russian Federation, only in color and with special effects."
But we digress. I will tell you about the life of a person whom these problems did not affect, he didn’t look for work, but theydonated him as a gift , planned his own business and his projects, and for ZP is among the top 5% of the country’s population.
Upon arrival you make out the sedul. Local ID card looks like auto rights. There are types of CE - a foreigner, CR - a resident, CC - a citizen. CR is given only after 5 years, here you are not states and not even Zurich . With her, you can change your employer and she for 5 years, and according to CE you have to leave the country 30 days after the dismissal and she will have a maximum of 2 years. For citizenship it is necessary to take the exam and those who pass, they say that well, what for him. For sedul you need your passport and blood test. Basically determine the group that is entered in all your documents. When I arrived, they checked for AIDS / Hepatitis, but then it was canceled. Then, already with a saddle, you make out a bank account, medical insurance. Without sedula in the country almost nothing to do.
Medicine is only paid and very expensive. Repair of the knee after a bruise, still on a stormy test, cost me $ 300 (medical consultation + x-ray + injection into the joint, which I did not need, + pills). By the way, it did not help, and already in the Russian Federation, a simple Soviet traumatologist in the clinic for Colombian X-rays found microwaves and assigned me a knee in 5 minutes and for free. Actually, medicine here is a direct consequence of education, which is abruptly mixed up on the American standard - we will prescribe to him everything that is, something will definitely help. Hospitals here almost do not give. If only on the day you go to the doctor. So well with the temperature and snot to work. Considering that Colombians do not like to wash their hands at all (at home they wear outdoor shoes, they also lie on the bed, for which purpose in hotels there is a special tablecloth on the bottom of the bed), you will be sick all the time, like in a kindergarten. One sneezed and rushed. When a child appears, you will find that the therapist and the pediatrician are usually sitting in the same wing, and the babies are waiting in line with the influenza workers. Do I need to explain that any trip to the pediatrician ends with the flu? And I have never seen the processing of medical facilities, except for the cleaning lady with a mop. About the existence of quartz lamps here do not know at all.
By the way, try to call the USA America under Latinos, he will be offended and say “we are also America, and they are the estado of unidos”.
First settled in the same fun house as before. True, he and his wife were no longer so merry ... After half a year they asked him and we went to look for an apartment. The car was already, because I planned to stay in the country for no more than 2 years (the term of the contract) and during this time I will drive around the maximum. Here we are by car and went to inspect the areas and look for rental ads in the windows. Under Russian rights, you can drive half a year, but almost no one knows about this and people drive for years. But there is a risk of running into a policeman who knows ...
Local rights get no problem. It is necessary to pass a physical examination in any authorized clinic, theory and practice. Medical examination passed easily, though not without a joke. The vision test table was not with letters, but with pictures. The stars are there, the giraffe ... And I have not a word in Spanish! In general, everything is exactly as in Pearl Harbor, he explained to the girl on her fingers. I drew something in a piece of paper. Rolled.
The theory and practice are handed out exactly as in the Russian Federation, but having taught experience with giraffes, I preferred the right to buy than to understand a Spanish-language ticket. Fortunately, at that time the experience was already more than 10 years in the Russian Federation, and the Colombian rules are 2 times easier. By the way, the printed version of the SDA appeared here in 2004. Before that, they were not there at all; there was a list of fines. Rights are worth about 700 dollars. It is not necessary to study at a school for delivery, so you meet in the city with a representative of a driving school, fill out a form according to a sample, put jackdaws, pay 700 bucks and in a week you get right to the police.
By the way, if you register a new car, the choice of the number is the official paid service. It should be a column, drive in the desired number, it shows the series where it is, if everything suits, you put 5 bucks in a column and fix it for yourself. He will squeeze you out. The second point is the number on the car for life. When changing the owner does not change. If you lose, they give out a duplicate, a slightly different look.
He took the car on credit, because in-1 there was not so much money right away, in-2 it was planning to buy a house, and it’s more profitable to take it on credit at the construction stage (dolevka) than to buy for a share. A loan for an apartment without a credit history will not give. It was for the sake of this story that a car loan was taken with an overpayment of 50% and a size of 5 wages. Credit is given without problems on CE, but you need a guarantor. It is difficult to find such a hero, but I was lucky again, they were invited by the person who invited me. By the way, loans here, as a rule, are fixed. That is, they immediately say to you that you will overpay X%. And that's all. You pay monthly (amount +%) / months. You can close the loan at any time without fines. It's comfortable. As for the apartments, dolevka here is considered safe. First build very quickly. The house is on 9 floors with finishing, it is 2-3 months from digging the pit. At-2 there is a co-insurance. Thus, people fly extremely rarely. Then you can rent an apartment and pay off the loan. After 10 years you get an apartment for free, plus its price increases by 3-4 times, if you choose the area correctly.One problem - simple frame houses here are no more than 50 years old (I will not argue, the realtor told me this), then they are supposed to be demolished. No compensation is provided. Again, earthquakes ...
They found the apartment easily, hit the moment of the dollar appreciation, and many moved out. And here everything comes ...
In general, the only good news that awaits you at the rental stage is that apartments with windows to the green courtyard are the cheapest. Colombians love the windows to the street. To the diesel exhaust right out the window, to bibikat around the clock, etc. Sometimes you look at the window and it is not clear, it is tinted, or it is a layer of soot (windows in Colombia are never washed). And all the vents wide open - ventilate.
In general, Bogota is a terrible city in terms of ecology. Colombians, they are like children. And as any children try to copy adults. To the best of your understanding. Green parks and bike paths “like in Europe” are mixed with fully diesel public transport, the fundamental absence of road vacuum cleaners and a sprinkler, the lack of euro emission standards. Due to this, you can often see trucks of the 30s (!!!) built and on the move. Well and the cyclists filtering dense city smog, deliver.
And further, some disappointments. At-1 apartment is always empty. Only plumbing and stove. And that, just because the kitchens are built-in and not carried away. Bulbs - no. This is very cool when a realtor comes to a meeting with a light bulb to show the rooms. Refrigerator, washer - either. Everything will have to buy.
Our cottage at the time of entry
In-2, in order to get a rental, you have to pass an examination in a special agency, where you need to send a bunch of personal documents, including a salary certificate and a printout from the bank for the last month about spending, as well as the same set of 2 guarantors (aha, again the guarantors), or the obligation to pay a three-month deposit for an unforeseen. Sometimes it takes up to six months. This deposit is extremely rarely returned. Consider you gave it. I was lucky, I found two guarantors and there was no deposit.
The examination procedure takes a week, after which the agency gives a verdict - will you master this lease or not. We thought it would be like in the Russian Federation - let's see a hut, hit our hands and drive in tomorrow, but no, we were fond of 2 weeks. Surprisingly, the landlord waited for us. Later, I found out that foreigners are fond of discipline, because locals love not to pay for 3 months and bear the brains (for example, if they are children in a family, then they are not allowed to be evicted). Plus, the realtor, in the meantime, asked my RFP and he clearly liked the answer. Colombians love to rent end-to-end and it is worth a little wave of the dollar, the city is replete with announcements of SE ARRIENDA. And when your RFP is 10 times the rent, the probability of such an event is minimal. So you will shoot, blatantly lie about the RFP. And you will wait as much as necessary.
At prices, it all depends on the extrate. Estrato, this is a class of housing. From 0 to 6. 0, this is a box from the TV, 6 - what we see in the series. Normal estrata, where Russian man is normal, it is 3-4. Estrato determines only the area and neighbors, as well as how much you will pay for a communal flat. The quality of housing does not change AT ALL. In any estrata there will be a frame house with white walls and bullets protruding from the walls. Laminate - a sign of oligarchy and refinement. Usually the floor tiles throughout the apartment. There is no heating at all. Floor to ceiling windows. In one glass. The walls are a brick lying on the edge, from which it is very dumb to lean against them. Bathrooms: 2-3 in the apartment, with showers. No baths. Hot water is not everywhere. If you are lucky, there will be a common gas column in the apartment. No luck - local flow-through heater, beating with current.No luck at all - nothing will happen. Colombians wash with cold water, even in Bogota, where there is +8.
The cost of communal is calculated from extrate. 0 does not pay anything, 6 pays for all at zero. 3-4 pay about the real price. I live in 4 estrato and, in total, with the Internet and administration, it turns out about $ 500. And another $ 550 rent. In estrato 3, everything is about 30% cheaper. It's nice that the repair is on the owner. We burst the sink, changed for free (for us).
The administration is an additional charge to the management company. In Colombia, 2 types of housing - Kasa and Konhunto. Casa - detached house on 1-2 floors. Separately - loudly said, because they are stuck together with common walls and form whole streets, but here it is considered a separate house.
An array of cas.
Konhunto, this is a few high-rises in the general fence with security. The administration is only in the conchunto and the administration fee goes to the RFP protection and maintenance of the territory. However, it's nice that you can go barefoot into the porch, because there is a tile and wash it 2 times a week, and in the yard the gardener constantly digs in flowerbeds. In the underground parking and at the entrance there are sockets with free electricity, if suddenly you decide to vacuum your horse. But ... 75 bucks you pay for it.
Typical courtyard konhunto, estrato 4
Typical courtyard konhunto, estrato 3
You don't pay in cash, but your security and territory are on you. Another plus konhunto - security at the entrance takes all correspondence and parcels for you when you are not. And if the master should come to change something, you can leave the keys and the guard will make sure that the master does not grab anything. You come home from work, and the sink is already new :) Any house, whether casa or conhunto, has a parking lot. At least 1 place in the apartment. In the conchues, usually underground, in the cashier - the usual garage on the first floor.
The combination of kasa and konkhunto is that there is NO ventilation in PRINCIPLE in them. At all.And this is in the country with the highest humidity in the world. Very soon, your bathroom will become overgrown with black mold, which causes the strongest allergies. But there are no anti-forest products, and nobody knows what it is. If the mold and struggle, then with alcohol or vinegar, which is not very effective. I, as an engineer, made a death-lamp from a DRL bat and then explained to my neighbor for a long time what a wonderful miracle it was.
Apartments here are multi-room, but the rooms are usually small. Remind multi-room Khrushchev. Rooms - at least 2, plus a living room, plus a kitchen. There are at least two bathrooms, there may be 5 in cash. I still have a room for a servant with an independent bathroom. The maid is also there. This service is not expensive. If a person comes, then one visit costs 15-25 dollars, depending on the footage of the house. During the visit, the worker is washing the entire apartment, ironing clothes, washing dishes, can cook something, or simply peel the vegetables before cooking. If the worker lives in the house, her salary is $ 300, + social package (pension and medical insurance) $ 150. But they also perform the role of a nanny, and walk with children, and sometimes relieve the owner of stress ... In Colombians, this is accepted, the benefit is that the workers, mostly girls, are young, rural, strong. And it breaks the pattern of Russian guys,girl whose "stays the evening" in the master's house. About how many happy relationships fell apart because of this ... In general, Colombia is increasingly falling off to the model of la vida moderna with a separate family budget. In all seriousness, if it is time to leave, and the wife is unable to pay for the ticket and the hotel, the husband flies alone. Not earned! And how many Russian fools who rushed for macho from a distant Caribbean country from the dullness of the regime often got acquainted through the Internet (!!!) and then squeaked in groups of social networks that instead of a Mercedes and credit cards they got two children and a loan. I really know a millionaire with two factories, whose Russian wife works for $ 500 dollars in another company. Add here also the fact that to live and love each other to the grave here goes out of fashion more and more, 3-4 times then every husband / wife changes, the girls pretty soon remain on the sidelines.With children and credit, yeah.
Absolutely everything in Colombia - from rent to the Internet - is done under a contract. The minimum contract period is a year. It is impossible to complete earlier only by paying the rest of the months. After a year, you can complete the contract in any month. There are no trial periods. Connect the Internet for a month and pozitit fail. Ineta without television no. The question, is it possible without TV, causes a shock and sincere misunderstanding of the agent, how can one live without TV? It is ridiculous, if you do not have a TV at home, they refuse to connect the Internet. We have to lie that there is a TV, and installers say that it will be soon. I promise.They very much apologize that without a TV they cannot check the quality of 99 music and 1 news channels and, if anything, the call will be charged. I sincerely regret, let a tear for persuasiveness.
In small cities, everything is easier. For example, in a village on the coast, you can rent a $ 200 Kasu, including the entire communal apartment, the Internet and without guarantors, and on a foreign passport. May ask for a pledge. So, if you want to experience the coast of the Caribbean Sea, this is quite an option. Just be prepared to surround you 2 times a month on a schedule.
Personal security in Colombia is normal. No worse than the working areas of the Russian Federation and clearly better than those horrors that draws mass media. We must be able to behave. In-1 in no case be allowed to be mistaken for a gringo (a US citizen, for tank crews). This is the most fierce HRC, especially in the villages. What Americans are, they know well, and thanks to them, they have lost enough land . I advise you to watch the movie "motorcyclist diaries" on this occasion.
Russians are loved and frightened here (Russian emotionality in communication + rude language in the eyes of Colombians look aggressive, and the lack of the habit of smiling to everyone they meet and continually asking "how are you" with your colleagues aggravates). Ratio from neutral to positive. You can clearly see the moment when you are no longer mistaken for gringos and they start to be mistaken for Russian. To do this, do not try to speak with local English. Anyway, no one will understand. In the case of straining, Russian mat helps a lot. Shocking and disorienting. For them, the Russian language, as for us Kazakh, is a complete HYRGYR. Plus a bunch of sounds that are not in Spanish: V, W, E. In general, they get scared. Although I came across those who answered after a portion of swears: “I don't understand English!”.
In-2 you can not expose yourself white lord. The subhuman complex, carefully formed by the Spaniards and fed by gringos, is local to the blood and when a visiting person behaves this way, hot blood boils. Fraught. In general, in Colombia, labor nationalism and national filters are very strong. They smile at you exactly until the moment when you have crossed a path to someone. Other things being equal, choose local. At the head of a foreigner will not take.
B-3 is not necessary to demonstrate your knowledge and skills. Envy here - the main feeling, and the Colombians, like any children, beat on the sly. No one will ever tell you in person, no one will come to you to understand for music in 2 nights. Silently roll the application, or snitch, or otherwise podgadjat, and will continue to smile and shake hands. Getting the enemies here is easy, and identifying them is difficult.
But if you have a bunch of Colombian homies, there is nothing to fear, they don’t offend their own. Once, in Florida, there was a case when I on the street collided with two tattooed Latinos and they tried to hit me. The answer in Spanish with a Bogotan accent drastically changed the temperature of the meeting, which ended with a hot barbecue on one of the roofs of the favell with beer and reggaeton. When I shared my impressions with Americans at the university, those eyes were twitching. They say that in that area somehow the fire has stopped. And no one else saw her. Has resolved.
In general, to live in Florida, English is not needed.
The cost of food in Colombia is not higher than the average Russian in Bogota and significantly lower in small cities. Our family spends less than $ 500 a month. At the same time there is almost no canned food, everything is fresh. You should not flatter yourself, tropical lands do not give more than three harvests, so all vegetables are grown on chemistry. There are farms who grow clean products and where the land allows it. Such farms need to catch and negotiate. They bring products to Bogota and supply, as a rule, several shops. Usually, when ordering from $ 100 will be brought to you. In the case of 2-3 families to collect such an order is quite realistic. The same with meat. And in the supermarkets, well-known plastic tomatoes and white liquid meat are sold. In general, there was a professor at an agricultural university who published the content of nitrates in vegetables in the internet.Exceeding the maximum permissible concentration there was up to 30 times. He then fell down the staircase CAM and was killed. The principle is the same as everywhere else - the farther from the capital, the cheaper and better-quality food. The exception is native fruits that grow themselves. Mango, oranges - everything costs a penny. Prikolko see along the roads of grandmothers, trading not potatoes and mushrooms, and mango. 5 dollars for a full package of mango.
Net bag of oranges, from which the suspension of the car is pressed to the level of ara-priors, and from which then you press juice for 3 months and you crush them - $ 3.
And mango is often planted along the roads, for spreading, and when mangopad begins, the whole road is covered with a thick layer of orange fibers. The smell is inexpressible (pleasant).
The real plus of Colombia is the climate. He is here any. Depends on the height above sea level. You can go sledging on the Sierra Nevada in the morning and spend the evening lying in the Caribbean waves of Santa Marta. Bogota, this is Moscow's eternal September. The altitude of 1500-1700m is our Russian summer, with cool nights and warm days, dandelions and clover. An altitude of 600-1000 is the Crimean-Krasnodar summer with heat and pleasant hot nights. Height 0 can only be carried by the sea. Deliver you Krishna to get to the flat part away from the sea. Mosquitoes and cockroaches with a finger are available in all trim levels.
Now about work. Work in Colombia is not a wolf, it will not run away into the forest.
The life cycle here is subordinate to the sun, and the sun rises at 6 and sets at 6. Always. The working day starts at 7-8 and ends at 4-5. Sleep bed hours at 8-9 in the evening. From here, by the way, the myth of Colombia, that de is so dangerous here that after 8 you will not meet anyone on the street. So, all the hours arrive at 7.30 and morning coffee begins. Hours to 9. Then sluggish work with a discussion of football and wives. Then lunch. Then sleep. Then again, football and wives. And so, the day ended. Labor productivity tends to zero. Professionalism has long been in the field of negative numbers. For example, our main mechanic Leonardo, nicknamed "not finished," does not know how to read the drawings ... And the welders brew aluminum with copper rods. And this is all against the background of a fairly good equipment production. Not a problem to find a 3D printer in Bogota, a laser cutting machine of any power, welding, soldering,gluing, etc. The secret of success is simple - the more automated the machine is and the more carefully you prepare the files yourself, the better the result. If there are manual stages of work, the detail will almost certainly be locked up. If you do not kick, your order will be done for years. Always say the date of delivery of interest on 25 before the real, so there is a chance that they will not be late by much.
With programming and circuitry full pipets. Basically, it is an assembly from modules with aliexpress. Although there is a radio market . Modern components can only be bought in the states, with an expensive delivery and import tax of 26%. I order the boards either in Oregon or from China. When you say to the engineer that he himself developed and soldered the board, they start to consider him a yank and a dreamer. However, this is not important, because for Colombia, I almost do not develop (except for ready-made devices and equipment, well, drones, of course).
In comparison with the Russian Federation and, especially, Germany, there is a strong contrast in control over time. No one stands above you and does not consider smoke breaks. You can not appear all day at work and will not even notice. Of course, for a foreigner in Colombia, there are 2 models of work - a guest worker and a white man. If you have fallen into the role of a white man, then you are a consultant here, pointing with your finger, signing papers. Work is not dusty, free time shaft, you can do your projects, the work does not interfere. What I needed. But the guest worker, this is the one who drive. You will plow full time, and the result of your labor will be appropriated by all. For this, foreigners and take. The fact that for a Russian is a normal mode of operation, for a Colombian is a heroic work without sparing himself. If you are talking about programming or admin - you will pull the whole project,while the others are kicking the ceiling. If you are in the scientific field, you will include in the publication a bunch of local professors, so that your article will be admitted to print at all. Alas, their defense and clannishness are worse than our Caucasus. At the same time, the salary of a migrant worker is usually around 2,500,000 pesos, which is at the usual rate of $ 1,250 (now $ 833). A foreign language teacher receives around 1500.000 pesos. The worker can receive 4 million pesos, which at the current rate of $ 1,400. You can even get $ 2,000, but rent and the cost of living in Bogota will devour most of it. Going for a salary to Colombia is definitely not worth it. But the salary of the “white man” can be anyone, depending on how much the employer needs you. I know Russians with a salary of $ 10k per month.so that your article is generally allowed to print. Alas, their defense and clannishness are worse than our Caucasus. At the same time, the salary of a migrant worker is usually around 2,500,000 pesos, which is at the usual rate of $ 1,250 (now $ 833). A foreign language teacher receives around 1500.000 pesos. The worker can receive 4 million pesos, which at the current rate of $ 1,400. You can even get $ 2,000, but rent and the cost of living in Bogota will devour most of it. Going for a salary to Colombia is definitely not worth it. But the salary of the “white man” can be anyone, depending on how much the employer needs you. I know Russians with a salary of $ 10k per month.so that your article is generally allowed to print. Alas, their defense and clannishness are worse than our Caucasus. At the same time, the salary of a migrant worker is usually around 2,500,000 pesos, which is at the usual rate of $ 1,250 (now $ 833). A foreign language teacher receives around 1500.000 pesos. The worker can receive 4 million pesos, which at the current rate of $ 1,400. You can even get $ 2,000, but rent and the cost of living in Bogota will devour most of it. Going for a salary to Colombia is definitely not worth it. But the salary of the “white man” can be anyone, depending on how much the employer needs you. I know Russians with a salary of $ 10k per month.The worker can receive 4 million pesos, which at the current rate of $ 1,400. You can even get $ 2,000, but rent and the cost of living in Bogota will devour most of it. Going for a salary to Colombia is definitely not worth it. But the salary of the “white man” can be anyone, depending on how much the employer needs you. I know Russians with a salary of $ 10k per month.The worker can receive 4 million pesos, which at the current rate of $ 1,400. You can even get $ 2,000, but rent and the cost of living in Bogota will devour most of it. Going for a salary to Colombia is definitely not worth it. But the salary of the “white man” can be anyone, depending on how much the employer needs you. I know Russians with a salary of $ 10k per month.
Generally, if you are going to another country and you do not have a clear and unambiguous plan to stay in it forever, your whole life will be subject to the rule “as cheap as possible”. Indeed, why buy a leather sofa for $ 5k, if, perhaps, in 2-4 years you will leave here? Why buy an expensive bed, furniture, appliances? Everything that surrounds you will be the cheapest and the nastiest. And this will eventually reach. And selling used furniture and things in Bogota for normal money is almost not realistic. A friend sold all the furniture from the apartment + equipment for $ 500. This is another minus of living abroad - if you save money at home, you buy a good thing, and then it serves for many years, and you know it in advance, then you just throw money at temporary things, which you will then throw.
About taxes. There are two typical tax regimes - simplificado (simple) and commune (general). At Simplifikado taxes for you the employer pays. You just get the RFP on the card. But if you managed to earn more than $ 40k a year, you famously fall into the commune, which means that you now pay all the taxes yourself. For this, a checkbook is started, and you submit checks to the employer every month, as well as a receipt for payment of medical insurance for this month (it is impossible to work without medical insurance). Once in 2 months you go to the fed-up accountant and he draws up a report for you, all via the Internet. If you started an electronic signature, then you don’t even need to print a printout, all declarations are submitted online. Every 4 months you pay taxes. The system prints the invoice with a long barcode, you go to any bank and pay.Gosusulugi here accepts any bank and the tariff is the same. It's comfortable.You can pay online, via the local PSE system, but it’s so buggy that I don’t use it anymore. Plus, the bank physically sculpts a hologram with a transaction number on the invoice, which sometimes helps in resolving disputes with the tax, the base of which flies with enviable regularity. In general, the income tax is 16% here (varies from the salary level), but it can be worn on the commune because You are returned a tax on the purchase of non-food items. Checks for such goods can be bought from Simplifikado for half the tax, and recruit it to compensate for the lion's share of their taxes. The point is zamorochnoe and it would be better not to engage them at all
Medical insurance, by the way, is calculated by the percentage of the RFP. You need to earn the minimum wage to have insurance at all. The minimum wage is about $ 300. And yet half the country receive the minimum wage. I pay for insurance about $ 120 for the whole family on the simplest terms. This is considered a lot. Good insurance, which operates abroad, and which includes all sorts of exotic diseases and even ambulance services (!!!) will cost me $ 300-400 a month. Foreigners usually pay insurance themselves. The advantage of this is that you yourself are free to choose a service provider. Companies usually put the workers on the cheapest insurance, where the quality of service is at the level of the provincial Soviet polyclinic.
Banks, it's kapets. Take a percentage for everything. For a transfer within the bank, for a transfer to your own credit account within the bank, for cash withdrawals. Moreover, if you have more than $ 4k in your account, commissions increase dramatically, plus a state tax appears. Coupled with import tax of 26-40%, this should have aimed the Colombian economy high, but something did not work out ... In general, according to the Ministry of Finance, the outflow of capital from Colombia is 4 times the inflow, and I believe that. Internal cards are not suitable for payment on the Internet, you need to get a credit card. And they will give you a credit card only after a year of owning the account. Considering that in Colombia, a bunch of familiar goods (tea, buckwheat, black bread, large-sized clothes, children's toys, except for phycherprayz) are not available, a credit card is a vital thing. But the internal dollar rate of the bank is usuallya dozen percent above the market, + percent for quotas ... In general, and here the bank will take its own. But nowhere to go.
Mail works well. Goods from China are delivered regularly. Airmail in the month, EMC - days 12. If the parcel is cheaper than $ 100 and lighter than 2 kg, there is no tax. If more - tax 40%. Wellcome.
Fort "San Felipe", Cartagena.
Generally, Colombians are good people. If you do not cross their interests. Friendly, polite, ready to help. They ask, where are you from, and where is Russia, and do you have a sea? And we immediately have the sea and the ocean, we are cool! You are a funny monkey for them from the north and like all children they play with you. If you play along, you can live in the villages for months for free, entertaining the population. Bogota is tougher, like any capital, but even here you can play on interest. True, pretty soon they will begin to woo, or even directly ask to make a baby. If the eyes are bright, and the growth is big - you are the perfect man / woman. Ojos claros mi amor! And sex for Colombian women is like drinking coffee. And the model of life is to give birth at the age of 16, then at the age of 20 from another, then at 25 from the third, then at 60 to shoot the husband for cheating on his 75 year old girlfriend and going under house arrest.No one bothers marriage and love to the grave. Such an attitude to life - to live now. A light-eyed tall son or daughter, it's fun.
UPD .They asked about education here.
Russian and Ukrainian diplomas in Colombia recognize. About RB not in the know. And even medically. The procedure is not complicated; you can collect documents, translate, submit from May 2015 online .
Here is the manual .
Price - about a million pesos for one diploma. Now it is about 300 dollars. Diplomas are all convaled. You can not recognize only the master, you need to recognize the previous one too.
The procedure takes about six months. Surprisingly, the main problems are experienced by the holders of diplomas of top universities, and the provincials fly by more easily.
According to the result, you get a resolution on 2 pages, where it is written that your diploma “xxxxx” is recognized as corresponding to the degree “uuuuu” and the specialty “zzzz”. And that's all.And nothing else. But this wrapper is equivalent to a local diploma. The wrapper has a number and the employer can check its legality online.
Summarizing the whole sheet of this confused speech, we can say the following.
1. If you are not invited, it does not make sense to go looking for work. Without a language, without a clear plan - you will lose time and money.
2. If you can still find a job, taking into account life in the country, taxes, the need to buy furniture, there will be no gain from the Russian Federation. In addition, there is a purely Colombian overruns - my friend, a high-class aviation engineer, could not get a job at the factory for the production of diapers, because ... an aviation engineer. In the Colombian understanding, it is a person who is trained to turn one nut on an airplane, and in a certain way. It is quite obvious that he will not understand the pamper pipeline, because he was not taught this.
3. If you are invited, see ZP. Less than $ 2k in Bogota does not make sense. Good to have $ 4k. If there is a family and a child to be taught, think very well. A good education is very expensive.
4. As a place of life freelancer, this is a good country. Skillfully alternating with Ecuador and Peru, one can live indefinitely, having only a passport of the Russian Federation. Citizens of Belarus and Ukraine, alas, do not shine - we need a visa.
5. In Colombia itself there is no place for a foreign developer, although the development market is almost empty, and demand exceeds supply, the quality of which is lower than the baseboard. No, you will find a job, but to sit at such an RFP in the office, for an amateur ... However, some companies find agents who speak Russian and Spanish in Latin America and work on the market through them. Basically, this web programming, banking, marketing. This option is quite appropriate.
6. Colombia, a good jump ground for moving to the USA or working with the USA, if such plans exist. There are many gringos, easy connections, easy and cheap to fly to the states. Easier to get an American visa.
7. There is any climate in Colombia, and if you receive money from outside, finding a city is not difficult for you.
But in general, in Colombia to live cool, man!
Che Square at UNAL National University, May Day.
Disclaimer: the Colombians below will be presented in a rather negative light. I want to clarify in advance (it turned out that not everyone understands this by default), that this is a generalized image and, of course, there are good and smart people among them, like everywhere else. But they are so small that they can not affect the overall vector. The Colombians themselves love to repeat the parable: “When the Lord created Colombia, the Devil appeared to him and said that you created a very beautiful land. And then the Lord populated it with Colombians. ”
Since October 2010, I am somehow connected with Colombia in terms of professional activity. Traveled half of the continent, including by car. And although in recent years I have been working more and more with the states, South America does not let go and continues to love. I will write about Colombia, but to a sufficient degree of approximation accuracy, all this can be extended to any Latin American country. Somewhere better, somewhere worse. The general rule - the more seasonality is developed, the more intelligent people are. The closer to the equator, the people are pofigistic for everything.
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And this is a hotel in Cartagena, next to which everyone takes pictures .
How did you get? By chance. Year since 2004 I was engaged in drones (development of control systems). Now this will surprise no one, but at Expo 2006, in Moscow, serious uncles almost laughed when I said that the UAV could be built for less than $ 1000 ... The wild time was ...
I had ( and have ) a hamster, where I laid out my developments, + a bunch of publications in the internet and scientific publications. And ... they came to me.
In mid-2009, a man wrote and suggested promoting a topic in South America (SA). Then I refused, because before the defense of the candidate’s floor, half a year remained and I didn’t want to throw this thing at the finish. Then there was a correspondence and a period of calm. Meanwhile, the defense was postponed for half a year and I already forgot how suddenly ... 2 weeks before the defense, he called and said that there was a vacancy in a friendly company where you could get a job (you need a visa, but you won’t give her work) , but you need to decide now. Having estimated that the paperwork will not take less than a month, I agreed, letting out at the same time both protection and document collection. The idea of ​​living for 2 years in South Africa seemed like an adventure and a good change of scenery after 3 years of graduate school. I did not dream of any super-prospects for emigration.
KGB bar in Cartagena.
Protection was not difficult, because there was a good job, patents, 4 times higher than the norm of publications, and in general I am a young man. And now, a week after the defense, having paid the secretary for the preparation of my documents in VAK and agreed with friends to take them to Moscow, I got on a plane to Bogota (the company bought the tickets). Not direct, of course, but with a transfer in Paris. Looking ahead, I will say that citizens of the Russian Federation do not need a tourist visa to Colombia and most of the countries of South Africa. The stamp is put in Bogota for 90 days, if you leave the country anywhere and come back - again 90 days. Many do just that, leaving for Ecuador or Peru for a couple of days. But according to global rules, more than six months in the country can not be a tourist. There are people who have been living in two or three countries for years, moving around for 3 months to / from here.
Flight 20 hours, 14 of them continuously over the ocean, it is not in Sochi on the bus. This is tin. Experienced flyers even have an internal secret manual how to survive in such conditions. For example, taking with you slippers, for sitting 14 hours in the shoes you do not wish anyone, or how to dissolve the flight attendants on extra buns, burning in the microwave to ashes. Do not forget that the plane is very dry air, and breathe it for 2 hours! = 14 hours. You need to have artificial tears in a bubble and drip them all you can reach. And never fly economy Lufthansa!
In Bogota, met, taken to a removable house, where they settled with other Russian specialists. The guys turned out to be working guys, funny, even too much ... And I eloquently laid out the diversity of impressions of those two months on EmiHappens .
I survived and the contract was given to me, it remains to return for my wife and to issue a work visa like TP4. There were no special problems with the visa. All papers were collected by the Moscow office, I was abroad, 200 km from my city to Moscow. One day I went to the Embassy of Colombia, told me why I was going, I got a visa for all passports. Generally, if you have a contract and permission from the Colombian Ministry of Labor, the embassy puts the visa without any problems. The problem is to get this permission. If you are going to just fly into the country and find a job, nothing will come of it.
In-1 in the country quota for foreigners for companies. It was 1: 7, now, like, 1: 3. That is, at least X local should work for one foreigner.
Second, the Ministry of Labor needs to be convinced that you have no analogue in the country. Special papers and certificates will help here. The fact that you are an engineer, masterfully own php and play the accordion is not interesting to anyone. Their engineers have nowhere to go, in the country 25% of unemployment. The fact that this engineer can reinstall the Windows as much as possible, doesn’t know how to learn from the disk, but doesn’t know how to learn from a flash drive, doesn't care. Russian certificates will help Russian equipment with which you will work. Usually the Russians are here, these are gasmas - drillers, petrochemists, etc. True, now 2/3 of the staff has been reduced, moreover. I got into a company that exploits Russian helicopters MI, because I had a profile education of an aviation engineer, a metrologist certificate and a couple of candy wrappers that the Colombians did not have. Looking ahead, if you decide to go here, get a candy wrapper representative of a certain company, the learned keeper of the standard, etc. With these candy wrappers to get a visa is much easier than with a Ph.D. (here - doctoral) degree. And the employer, if he is interested in you, will write that, without this, the candy wrapper cannot do this work at all. The wife also receives the visa of the beneficiary, which can not work, but can have a business. Usually wives translate here, work as guides for Russian-speaking tourists or even as sales agents for Russian companies.
Generally, education in Colombia, this is gut.
In-1 there is no single system. Each school and university teach how to come up with.
In-2 more or less intelligent uni 4, one of them is a free one. The rest is complete alles kaput. For example, I recently read a program of an industrial engineer of one such university . If you drop the tinsel - they learn to write for android. 5 years of learning to write for android !!! And this is an engineering degree. And for this you have to pay $ 60k.
I would not care if it were not for two facts. The first is a child born in Bogota. Learning it is necessary, but nowhere. The second - with these inhenero have to work every day. Colombians, they are stubborn as sheep. Plus, in high school, where you pay $ 60k for a full course, nobody will tell you that a university is Mr.. For 5 years you will be hammered in that your education is steeper than MIT, and in general Colombia is the center of the universe. And there is no one to break the horns, the rest is even worse. As a result, herds of lamer engineers, confident of their genius.
Not all, of course. There are those who studied abroad, there are just sensible children, without education (there is no money for him), but quite well romping and, which is also rare, willing to learn. I know those too.
In general, the attitude to the technique of the majority, like a banana. In the sense that today one has grown, tomorrow the second will grow. So the technique is unknown from where it is taken, it is unknown where it goes. Break everything here with pleasure, especially when not his own. In my experience there was a case when FOUR drills burned in a row (zero!), Shoving them into a 220 volt socket (in Colombia, a 110V network, and it was in a country with 220V, where people and equipment from Colombia were brought). The fifth was burned in front of me, showing how the previous 4 burned.
If something burns or breaks, the Colombian is never to blame. Always blame someone else. Usually - mal diseño (poor design, poor quality development). Offer to do it yourself - is meaningless.
The import tax on any import ranges from 26 to 40 percent, which makes any physical production in the country unprofitable. I got to know this very well, because In my business, 80% of production - autopilot and fuselage - require the purchase of components and raw materials from abroad. Gray schemes are flourishing, but with small volumes they are not profitable.
Thus, Colombia, a country of controversy. On the one hand, here the field is not plowed in terms of technology. The banking system is at the level of our 93rd year, the Internet is in the bud and no one really knows what it is for and how to use it. Colombian sites are non-indexable flash squalor with music, screams, all the colors of the rainbow, and almost always - without the slightest hint of exactly what the company does, what its address and hours of work. And on the other hand, no one understands these problems and, therefore, does not try to solve them.
By the way, opening hours are the main secret of any Colombian company. You will never find them on websites, doors, business cards, etc.
In English, almost no one speaks and any interview goes in Spanish. Finding a job here for a good specialist from the street is very difficult, because existing offers, by activity and salary, are being pulled to graduate from not the best vocational school. For example, an engineer, this is $ 830-1200, which, taking into account the costs in Bogota (the capital), gives the RFP level of the Russian hinterland.
In general, many local and Spanish do not really know. Until now, the country is full of illiterate. The usual correspondence in social programs comes with a bunch of errors. Sometimes it seems that the letters cause horror in them. My housekeeper regularly washes floors with bleach or shampoo. To the question “don't you see what is written on the bank?” There is no answer, only deep thoughtfulness.
You can understand the UA (in terms of bringing new technologies and / or goods) by reading O'Henry's “kings and cabbages,” or rather the chapter “Shoes”. Here everything is exactly the same and for 100 years nothing has changed.
Colombians are very rarely interested in the outside world (which provides them with such a high percentage of happiness in opinion polls). Moreover, within the country too. A common theme in social programs is from Russian girls who married Colombians, this is where and how to issue marriage documents. Husbands stupidly do not know and do not even know how to find out. And so, these girls, with zero knowledge of the language, understand themselves. I somehow had to arrange documents for taxes, so the lawyer of our large company recommended me to contact ... Russian employees. The same immigrants like me. And yet, yes, unlike a lawyer, they knew what to carry and where.
Another nasty feature - they are trying to look businesslike and modern in your eyes. When you discuss business or promising topics, you will find a warm response and a desire to cooperate with each other. If you believe it, you lose a lot of money and time. For your new colleagues will forget about what you said on the way to the bus, but remain proud of yourself that you did not drop the image in the eyes of a foreigner. This topic is well opened my friend.
And I will sign that if something happens, the Colombian will lie to his eyes, bring a bunch of “witnesses” and get out as soon as he can, if he is pressed. Especially if you pressed a foreigner. This applies to accidents, work disputes, etc. And even if you take him out to clean water and publicly prove that he nakosyachil and then blatantly lied to all, he will shrug his shoulders, say “sorry” and go on his way. And no one will punish him, will not reprimand and will not cease to be friends, and the victim himself will not suffer the torment of humiliation. This is the norm (s) in Colombia, and the word "conscience" in Spanish is not. It terribly enrages and leads to bad comparisons.
Colombia is a teenage country, and all the same features peculiar to it: maximalism, overestimation of oneself, non-recognition of authority, etc.
Of course, there is a pull. Here it is called Roska - carving. By dews you can get anywhere, without it - almost nowhere. As one friend said, "Colombia, this is the Russian Federation, only in color and with special effects."
But we digress. I will tell you about the life of a person whom these problems did not affect, he didn’t look for work, but they
Upon arrival you make out the sedul. Local ID card looks like auto rights. There are types of CE - a foreigner, CR - a resident, CC - a citizen. CR is given only after 5 years, here you are not states and not even Zurich . With her, you can change your employer and she for 5 years, and according to CE you have to leave the country 30 days after the dismissal and she will have a maximum of 2 years. For citizenship it is necessary to take the exam and those who pass, they say that well, what for him. For sedul you need your passport and blood test. Basically determine the group that is entered in all your documents. When I arrived, they checked for AIDS / Hepatitis, but then it was canceled. Then, already with a saddle, you make out a bank account, medical insurance. Without sedula in the country almost nothing to do.
Medicine is only paid and very expensive. Repair of the knee after a bruise, still on a stormy test, cost me $ 300 (medical consultation + x-ray + injection into the joint, which I did not need, + pills). By the way, it did not help, and already in the Russian Federation, a simple Soviet traumatologist in the clinic for Colombian X-rays found microwaves and assigned me a knee in 5 minutes and for free. Actually, medicine here is a direct consequence of education, which is abruptly mixed up on the American standard - we will prescribe to him everything that is, something will definitely help. Hospitals here almost do not give. If only on the day you go to the doctor. So well with the temperature and snot to work. Considering that Colombians do not like to wash their hands at all (at home they wear outdoor shoes, they also lie on the bed, for which purpose in hotels there is a special tablecloth on the bottom of the bed), you will be sick all the time, like in a kindergarten. One sneezed and rushed. When a child appears, you will find that the therapist and the pediatrician are usually sitting in the same wing, and the babies are waiting in line with the influenza workers. Do I need to explain that any trip to the pediatrician ends with the flu? And I have never seen the processing of medical facilities, except for the cleaning lady with a mop. About the existence of quartz lamps here do not know at all.
By the way, try to call the USA America under Latinos, he will be offended and say “we are also America, and they are the estado of unidos”.
First settled in the same fun house as before. True, he and his wife were no longer so merry ... After half a year they asked him and we went to look for an apartment. The car was already, because I planned to stay in the country for no more than 2 years (the term of the contract) and during this time I will drive around the maximum. Here we are by car and went to inspect the areas and look for rental ads in the windows. Under Russian rights, you can drive half a year, but almost no one knows about this and people drive for years. But there is a risk of running into a policeman who knows ...
Local rights get no problem. It is necessary to pass a physical examination in any authorized clinic, theory and practice. Medical examination passed easily, though not without a joke. The vision test table was not with letters, but with pictures. The stars are there, the giraffe ... And I have not a word in Spanish! In general, everything is exactly as in Pearl Harbor, he explained to the girl on her fingers. I drew something in a piece of paper. Rolled.
The theory and practice are handed out exactly as in the Russian Federation, but having taught experience with giraffes, I preferred the right to buy than to understand a Spanish-language ticket. Fortunately, at that time the experience was already more than 10 years in the Russian Federation, and the Colombian rules are 2 times easier. By the way, the printed version of the SDA appeared here in 2004. Before that, they were not there at all; there was a list of fines. Rights are worth about 700 dollars. It is not necessary to study at a school for delivery, so you meet in the city with a representative of a driving school, fill out a form according to a sample, put jackdaws, pay 700 bucks and in a week you get right to the police.
By the way, if you register a new car, the choice of the number is the official paid service. It should be a column, drive in the desired number, it shows the series where it is, if everything suits, you put 5 bucks in a column and fix it for yourself. He will squeeze you out. The second point is the number on the car for life. When changing the owner does not change. If you lose, they give out a duplicate, a slightly different look.
He took the car on credit, because in-1 there was not so much money right away, in-2 it was planning to buy a house, and it’s more profitable to take it on credit at the construction stage (dolevka) than to buy for a share. A loan for an apartment without a credit history will not give. It was for the sake of this story that a car loan was taken with an overpayment of 50% and a size of 5 wages. Credit is given without problems on CE, but you need a guarantor. It is difficult to find such a hero, but I was lucky again, they were invited by the person who invited me. By the way, loans here, as a rule, are fixed. That is, they immediately say to you that you will overpay X%. And that's all. You pay monthly (amount +%) / months. You can close the loan at any time without fines. It's comfortable. As for the apartments, dolevka here is considered safe. First build very quickly. The house is on 9 floors with finishing, it is 2-3 months from digging the pit. At-2 there is a co-insurance. Thus, people fly extremely rarely. Then you can rent an apartment and pay off the loan. After 10 years you get an apartment for free, plus its price increases by 3-4 times, if you choose the area correctly.One problem - simple frame houses here are no more than 50 years old (I will not argue, the realtor told me this), then they are supposed to be demolished. No compensation is provided. Again, earthquakes ...
They found the apartment easily, hit the moment of the dollar appreciation, and many moved out. And here everything comes ...
In general, the only good news that awaits you at the rental stage is that apartments with windows to the green courtyard are the cheapest. Colombians love the windows to the street. To the diesel exhaust right out the window, to bibikat around the clock, etc. Sometimes you look at the window and it is not clear, it is tinted, or it is a layer of soot (windows in Colombia are never washed). And all the vents wide open - ventilate.
In general, Bogota is a terrible city in terms of ecology. Colombians, they are like children. And as any children try to copy adults. To the best of your understanding. Green parks and bike paths “like in Europe” are mixed with fully diesel public transport, the fundamental absence of road vacuum cleaners and a sprinkler, the lack of euro emission standards. Due to this, you can often see trucks of the 30s (!!!) built and on the move. Well and the cyclists filtering dense city smog, deliver.
And further, some disappointments. At-1 apartment is always empty. Only plumbing and stove. And that, just because the kitchens are built-in and not carried away. Bulbs - no. This is very cool when a realtor comes to a meeting with a light bulb to show the rooms. Refrigerator, washer - either. Everything will have to buy.
Our cottage at the time of entry
In-2, in order to get a rental, you have to pass an examination in a special agency, where you need to send a bunch of personal documents, including a salary certificate and a printout from the bank for the last month about spending, as well as the same set of 2 guarantors (aha, again the guarantors), or the obligation to pay a three-month deposit for an unforeseen. Sometimes it takes up to six months. This deposit is extremely rarely returned. Consider you gave it. I was lucky, I found two guarantors and there was no deposit.
The examination procedure takes a week, after which the agency gives a verdict - will you master this lease or not. We thought it would be like in the Russian Federation - let's see a hut, hit our hands and drive in tomorrow, but no, we were fond of 2 weeks. Surprisingly, the landlord waited for us. Later, I found out that foreigners are fond of discipline, because locals love not to pay for 3 months and bear the brains (for example, if they are children in a family, then they are not allowed to be evicted). Plus, the realtor, in the meantime, asked my RFP and he clearly liked the answer. Colombians love to rent end-to-end and it is worth a little wave of the dollar, the city is replete with announcements of SE ARRIENDA. And when your RFP is 10 times the rent, the probability of such an event is minimal. So you will shoot, blatantly lie about the RFP. And you will wait as much as necessary.
At prices, it all depends on the extrate. Estrato, this is a class of housing. From 0 to 6. 0, this is a box from the TV, 6 - what we see in the series. Normal estrata, where Russian man is normal, it is 3-4. Estrato determines only the area and neighbors, as well as how much you will pay for a communal flat. The quality of housing does not change AT ALL. In any estrata there will be a frame house with white walls and bullets protruding from the walls. Laminate - a sign of oligarchy and refinement. Usually the floor tiles throughout the apartment. There is no heating at all. Floor to ceiling windows. In one glass. The walls are a brick lying on the edge, from which it is very dumb to lean against them. Bathrooms: 2-3 in the apartment, with showers. No baths. Hot water is not everywhere. If you are lucky, there will be a common gas column in the apartment. No luck - local flow-through heater, beating with current.No luck at all - nothing will happen. Colombians wash with cold water, even in Bogota, where there is +8.
The cost of communal is calculated from extrate. 0 does not pay anything, 6 pays for all at zero. 3-4 pay about the real price. I live in 4 estrato and, in total, with the Internet and administration, it turns out about $ 500. And another $ 550 rent. In estrato 3, everything is about 30% cheaper. It's nice that the repair is on the owner. We burst the sink, changed for free (for us).
The administration is an additional charge to the management company. In Colombia, 2 types of housing - Kasa and Konhunto. Casa - detached house on 1-2 floors. Separately - loudly said, because they are stuck together with common walls and form whole streets, but here it is considered a separate house.
An array of cas.
Konhunto, this is a few high-rises in the general fence with security. The administration is only in the conchunto and the administration fee goes to the RFP protection and maintenance of the territory. However, it's nice that you can go barefoot into the porch, because there is a tile and wash it 2 times a week, and in the yard the gardener constantly digs in flowerbeds. In the underground parking and at the entrance there are sockets with free electricity, if suddenly you decide to vacuum your horse. But ... 75 bucks you pay for it.
Typical courtyard konhunto, estrato 4
Typical courtyard konhunto, estrato 3
You don't pay in cash, but your security and territory are on you. Another plus konhunto - security at the entrance takes all correspondence and parcels for you when you are not. And if the master should come to change something, you can leave the keys and the guard will make sure that the master does not grab anything. You come home from work, and the sink is already new :) Any house, whether casa or conhunto, has a parking lot. At least 1 place in the apartment. In the conchues, usually underground, in the cashier - the usual garage on the first floor.
The combination of kasa and konkhunto is that there is NO ventilation in PRINCIPLE in them. At all.And this is in the country with the highest humidity in the world. Very soon, your bathroom will become overgrown with black mold, which causes the strongest allergies. But there are no anti-forest products, and nobody knows what it is. If the mold and struggle, then with alcohol or vinegar, which is not very effective. I, as an engineer, made a death-lamp from a DRL bat and then explained to my neighbor for a long time what a wonderful miracle it was.
Apartments here are multi-room, but the rooms are usually small. Remind multi-room Khrushchev. Rooms - at least 2, plus a living room, plus a kitchen. There are at least two bathrooms, there may be 5 in cash. I still have a room for a servant with an independent bathroom. The maid is also there. This service is not expensive. If a person comes, then one visit costs 15-25 dollars, depending on the footage of the house. During the visit, the worker is washing the entire apartment, ironing clothes, washing dishes, can cook something, or simply peel the vegetables before cooking. If the worker lives in the house, her salary is $ 300, + social package (pension and medical insurance) $ 150. But they also perform the role of a nanny, and walk with children, and sometimes relieve the owner of stress ... In Colombians, this is accepted, the benefit is that the workers, mostly girls, are young, rural, strong. And it breaks the pattern of Russian guys,girl whose "stays the evening" in the master's house. About how many happy relationships fell apart because of this ... In general, Colombia is increasingly falling off to the model of la vida moderna with a separate family budget. In all seriousness, if it is time to leave, and the wife is unable to pay for the ticket and the hotel, the husband flies alone. Not earned! And how many Russian fools who rushed for macho from a distant Caribbean country from the dullness of the regime often got acquainted through the Internet (!!!) and then squeaked in groups of social networks that instead of a Mercedes and credit cards they got two children and a loan. I really know a millionaire with two factories, whose Russian wife works for $ 500 dollars in another company. Add here also the fact that to live and love each other to the grave here goes out of fashion more and more, 3-4 times then every husband / wife changes, the girls pretty soon remain on the sidelines.With children and credit, yeah.
Absolutely everything in Colombia - from rent to the Internet - is done under a contract. The minimum contract period is a year. It is impossible to complete earlier only by paying the rest of the months. After a year, you can complete the contract in any month. There are no trial periods. Connect the Internet for a month and pozitit fail. Ineta without television no. The question, is it possible without TV, causes a shock and sincere misunderstanding of the agent, how can one live without TV? It is ridiculous, if you do not have a TV at home, they refuse to connect the Internet. We have to lie that there is a TV, and installers say that it will be soon. I promise.They very much apologize that without a TV they cannot check the quality of 99 music and 1 news channels and, if anything, the call will be charged. I sincerely regret, let a tear for persuasiveness.
In small cities, everything is easier. For example, in a village on the coast, you can rent a $ 200 Kasu, including the entire communal apartment, the Internet and without guarantors, and on a foreign passport. May ask for a pledge. So, if you want to experience the coast of the Caribbean Sea, this is quite an option. Just be prepared to surround you 2 times a month on a schedule.
Personal security in Colombia is normal. No worse than the working areas of the Russian Federation and clearly better than those horrors that draws mass media. We must be able to behave. In-1 in no case be allowed to be mistaken for a gringo (a US citizen, for tank crews). This is the most fierce HRC, especially in the villages. What Americans are, they know well, and thanks to them, they have lost enough land . I advise you to watch the movie "motorcyclist diaries" on this occasion.
Russians are loved and frightened here (Russian emotionality in communication + rude language in the eyes of Colombians look aggressive, and the lack of the habit of smiling to everyone they meet and continually asking "how are you" with your colleagues aggravates). Ratio from neutral to positive. You can clearly see the moment when you are no longer mistaken for gringos and they start to be mistaken for Russian. To do this, do not try to speak with local English. Anyway, no one will understand. In the case of straining, Russian mat helps a lot. Shocking and disorienting. For them, the Russian language, as for us Kazakh, is a complete HYRGYR. Plus a bunch of sounds that are not in Spanish: V, W, E. In general, they get scared. Although I came across those who answered after a portion of swears: “I don't understand English!”.
In-2 you can not expose yourself white lord. The subhuman complex, carefully formed by the Spaniards and fed by gringos, is local to the blood and when a visiting person behaves this way, hot blood boils. Fraught. In general, in Colombia, labor nationalism and national filters are very strong. They smile at you exactly until the moment when you have crossed a path to someone. Other things being equal, choose local. At the head of a foreigner will not take.
B-3 is not necessary to demonstrate your knowledge and skills. Envy here - the main feeling, and the Colombians, like any children, beat on the sly. No one will ever tell you in person, no one will come to you to understand for music in 2 nights. Silently roll the application, or snitch, or otherwise podgadjat, and will continue to smile and shake hands. Getting the enemies here is easy, and identifying them is difficult.
But if you have a bunch of Colombian homies, there is nothing to fear, they don’t offend their own. Once, in Florida, there was a case when I on the street collided with two tattooed Latinos and they tried to hit me. The answer in Spanish with a Bogotan accent drastically changed the temperature of the meeting, which ended with a hot barbecue on one of the roofs of the favell with beer and reggaeton. When I shared my impressions with Americans at the university, those eyes were twitching. They say that in that area somehow the fire has stopped. And no one else saw her. Has resolved.
In general, to live in Florida, English is not needed.
The cost of food in Colombia is not higher than the average Russian in Bogota and significantly lower in small cities. Our family spends less than $ 500 a month. At the same time there is almost no canned food, everything is fresh. You should not flatter yourself, tropical lands do not give more than three harvests, so all vegetables are grown on chemistry. There are farms who grow clean products and where the land allows it. Such farms need to catch and negotiate. They bring products to Bogota and supply, as a rule, several shops. Usually, when ordering from $ 100 will be brought to you. In the case of 2-3 families to collect such an order is quite realistic. The same with meat. And in the supermarkets, well-known plastic tomatoes and white liquid meat are sold. In general, there was a professor at an agricultural university who published the content of nitrates in vegetables in the internet.Exceeding the maximum permissible concentration there was up to 30 times. He then fell down the staircase CAM and was killed. The principle is the same as everywhere else - the farther from the capital, the cheaper and better-quality food. The exception is native fruits that grow themselves. Mango, oranges - everything costs a penny. Prikolko see along the roads of grandmothers, trading not potatoes and mushrooms, and mango. 5 dollars for a full package of mango.
Net bag of oranges, from which the suspension of the car is pressed to the level of ara-priors, and from which then you press juice for 3 months and you crush them - $ 3.
And mango is often planted along the roads, for spreading, and when mangopad begins, the whole road is covered with a thick layer of orange fibers. The smell is inexpressible (pleasant).
The real plus of Colombia is the climate. He is here any. Depends on the height above sea level. You can go sledging on the Sierra Nevada in the morning and spend the evening lying in the Caribbean waves of Santa Marta. Bogota, this is Moscow's eternal September. The altitude of 1500-1700m is our Russian summer, with cool nights and warm days, dandelions and clover. An altitude of 600-1000 is the Crimean-Krasnodar summer with heat and pleasant hot nights. Height 0 can only be carried by the sea. Deliver you Krishna to get to the flat part away from the sea. Mosquitoes and cockroaches with a finger are available in all trim levels.
Now about work. Work in Colombia is not a wolf, it will not run away into the forest.
The life cycle here is subordinate to the sun, and the sun rises at 6 and sets at 6. Always. The working day starts at 7-8 and ends at 4-5. Sleep bed hours at 8-9 in the evening. From here, by the way, the myth of Colombia, that de is so dangerous here that after 8 you will not meet anyone on the street. So, all the hours arrive at 7.30 and morning coffee begins. Hours to 9. Then sluggish work with a discussion of football and wives. Then lunch. Then sleep. Then again, football and wives. And so, the day ended. Labor productivity tends to zero. Professionalism has long been in the field of negative numbers. For example, our main mechanic Leonardo, nicknamed "not finished," does not know how to read the drawings ... And the welders brew aluminum with copper rods. And this is all against the background of a fairly good equipment production. Not a problem to find a 3D printer in Bogota, a laser cutting machine of any power, welding, soldering,gluing, etc. The secret of success is simple - the more automated the machine is and the more carefully you prepare the files yourself, the better the result. If there are manual stages of work, the detail will almost certainly be locked up. If you do not kick, your order will be done for years. Always say the date of delivery of interest on 25 before the real, so there is a chance that they will not be late by much.
With programming and circuitry full pipets. Basically, it is an assembly from modules with aliexpress. Although there is a radio market . Modern components can only be bought in the states, with an expensive delivery and import tax of 26%. I order the boards either in Oregon or from China. When you say to the engineer that he himself developed and soldered the board, they start to consider him a yank and a dreamer. However, this is not important, because for Colombia, I almost do not develop (except for ready-made devices and equipment, well, drones, of course).
In comparison with the Russian Federation and, especially, Germany, there is a strong contrast in control over time. No one stands above you and does not consider smoke breaks. You can not appear all day at work and will not even notice. Of course, for a foreigner in Colombia, there are 2 models of work - a guest worker and a white man. If you have fallen into the role of a white man, then you are a consultant here, pointing with your finger, signing papers. Work is not dusty, free time shaft, you can do your projects, the work does not interfere. What I needed. But the guest worker, this is the one who drive. You will plow full time, and the result of your labor will be appropriated by all. For this, foreigners and take. The fact that for a Russian is a normal mode of operation, for a Colombian is a heroic work without sparing himself. If you are talking about programming or admin - you will pull the whole project,while the others are kicking the ceiling. If you are in the scientific field, you will include in the publication a bunch of local professors, so that your article will be admitted to print at all. Alas, their defense and clannishness are worse than our Caucasus. At the same time, the salary of a migrant worker is usually around 2,500,000 pesos, which is at the usual rate of $ 1,250 (now $ 833). A foreign language teacher receives around 1500.000 pesos. The worker can receive 4 million pesos, which at the current rate of $ 1,400. You can even get $ 2,000, but rent and the cost of living in Bogota will devour most of it. Going for a salary to Colombia is definitely not worth it. But the salary of the “white man” can be anyone, depending on how much the employer needs you. I know Russians with a salary of $ 10k per month.so that your article is generally allowed to print. Alas, their defense and clannishness are worse than our Caucasus. At the same time, the salary of a migrant worker is usually around 2,500,000 pesos, which is at the usual rate of $ 1,250 (now $ 833). A foreign language teacher receives around 1500.000 pesos. The worker can receive 4 million pesos, which at the current rate of $ 1,400. You can even get $ 2,000, but rent and the cost of living in Bogota will devour most of it. Going for a salary to Colombia is definitely not worth it. But the salary of the “white man” can be anyone, depending on how much the employer needs you. I know Russians with a salary of $ 10k per month.so that your article is generally allowed to print. Alas, their defense and clannishness are worse than our Caucasus. At the same time, the salary of a migrant worker is usually around 2,500,000 pesos, which is at the usual rate of $ 1,250 (now $ 833). A foreign language teacher receives around 1500.000 pesos. The worker can receive 4 million pesos, which at the current rate of $ 1,400. You can even get $ 2,000, but rent and the cost of living in Bogota will devour most of it. Going for a salary to Colombia is definitely not worth it. But the salary of the “white man” can be anyone, depending on how much the employer needs you. I know Russians with a salary of $ 10k per month.The worker can receive 4 million pesos, which at the current rate of $ 1,400. You can even get $ 2,000, but rent and the cost of living in Bogota will devour most of it. Going for a salary to Colombia is definitely not worth it. But the salary of the “white man” can be anyone, depending on how much the employer needs you. I know Russians with a salary of $ 10k per month.The worker can receive 4 million pesos, which at the current rate of $ 1,400. You can even get $ 2,000, but rent and the cost of living in Bogota will devour most of it. Going for a salary to Colombia is definitely not worth it. But the salary of the “white man” can be anyone, depending on how much the employer needs you. I know Russians with a salary of $ 10k per month.
Generally, if you are going to another country and you do not have a clear and unambiguous plan to stay in it forever, your whole life will be subject to the rule “as cheap as possible”. Indeed, why buy a leather sofa for $ 5k, if, perhaps, in 2-4 years you will leave here? Why buy an expensive bed, furniture, appliances? Everything that surrounds you will be the cheapest and the nastiest. And this will eventually reach. And selling used furniture and things in Bogota for normal money is almost not realistic. A friend sold all the furniture from the apartment + equipment for $ 500. This is another minus of living abroad - if you save money at home, you buy a good thing, and then it serves for many years, and you know it in advance, then you just throw money at temporary things, which you will then throw.
About taxes. There are two typical tax regimes - simplificado (simple) and commune (general). At Simplifikado taxes for you the employer pays. You just get the RFP on the card. But if you managed to earn more than $ 40k a year, you famously fall into the commune, which means that you now pay all the taxes yourself. For this, a checkbook is started, and you submit checks to the employer every month, as well as a receipt for payment of medical insurance for this month (it is impossible to work without medical insurance). Once in 2 months you go to the fed-up accountant and he draws up a report for you, all via the Internet. If you started an electronic signature, then you don’t even need to print a printout, all declarations are submitted online. Every 4 months you pay taxes. The system prints the invoice with a long barcode, you go to any bank and pay.Gosusulugi here accepts any bank and the tariff is the same. It's comfortable.You can pay online, via the local PSE system, but it’s so buggy that I don’t use it anymore. Plus, the bank physically sculpts a hologram with a transaction number on the invoice, which sometimes helps in resolving disputes with the tax, the base of which flies with enviable regularity. In general, the income tax is 16% here (varies from the salary level), but it can be worn on the commune because You are returned a tax on the purchase of non-food items. Checks for such goods can be bought from Simplifikado for half the tax, and recruit it to compensate for the lion's share of their taxes. The point is zamorochnoe and it would be better not to engage them at all
Medical insurance, by the way, is calculated by the percentage of the RFP. You need to earn the minimum wage to have insurance at all. The minimum wage is about $ 300. And yet half the country receive the minimum wage. I pay for insurance about $ 120 for the whole family on the simplest terms. This is considered a lot. Good insurance, which operates abroad, and which includes all sorts of exotic diseases and even ambulance services (!!!) will cost me $ 300-400 a month. Foreigners usually pay insurance themselves. The advantage of this is that you yourself are free to choose a service provider. Companies usually put the workers on the cheapest insurance, where the quality of service is at the level of the provincial Soviet polyclinic.
Banks, it's kapets. Take a percentage for everything. For a transfer within the bank, for a transfer to your own credit account within the bank, for cash withdrawals. Moreover, if you have more than $ 4k in your account, commissions increase dramatically, plus a state tax appears. Coupled with import tax of 26-40%, this should have aimed the Colombian economy high, but something did not work out ... In general, according to the Ministry of Finance, the outflow of capital from Colombia is 4 times the inflow, and I believe that. Internal cards are not suitable for payment on the Internet, you need to get a credit card. And they will give you a credit card only after a year of owning the account. Considering that in Colombia, a bunch of familiar goods (tea, buckwheat, black bread, large-sized clothes, children's toys, except for phycherprayz) are not available, a credit card is a vital thing. But the internal dollar rate of the bank is usuallya dozen percent above the market, + percent for quotas ... In general, and here the bank will take its own. But nowhere to go.
Mail works well. Goods from China are delivered regularly. Airmail in the month, EMC - days 12. If the parcel is cheaper than $ 100 and lighter than 2 kg, there is no tax. If more - tax 40%. Wellcome.
Fort "San Felipe", Cartagena.
Generally, Colombians are good people. If you do not cross their interests. Friendly, polite, ready to help. They ask, where are you from, and where is Russia, and do you have a sea? And we immediately have the sea and the ocean, we are cool! You are a funny monkey for them from the north and like all children they play with you. If you play along, you can live in the villages for months for free, entertaining the population. Bogota is tougher, like any capital, but even here you can play on interest. True, pretty soon they will begin to woo, or even directly ask to make a baby. If the eyes are bright, and the growth is big - you are the perfect man / woman. Ojos claros mi amor! And sex for Colombian women is like drinking coffee. And the model of life is to give birth at the age of 16, then at the age of 20 from another, then at 25 from the third, then at 60 to shoot the husband for cheating on his 75 year old girlfriend and going under house arrest.No one bothers marriage and love to the grave. Such an attitude to life - to live now. A light-eyed tall son or daughter, it's fun.
UPD .They asked about education here.
Russian and Ukrainian diplomas in Colombia recognize. About RB not in the know. And even medically. The procedure is not complicated; you can collect documents, translate, submit from May 2015 online .
Here is the manual .
Price - about a million pesos for one diploma. Now it is about 300 dollars. Diplomas are all convaled. You can not recognize only the master, you need to recognize the previous one too.
The procedure takes about six months. Surprisingly, the main problems are experienced by the holders of diplomas of top universities, and the provincials fly by more easily.
According to the result, you get a resolution on 2 pages, where it is written that your diploma “xxxxx” is recognized as corresponding to the degree “uuuuu” and the specialty “zzzz”. And that's all.And nothing else. But this wrapper is equivalent to a local diploma. The wrapper has a number and the employer can check its legality online.
Summarizing the whole sheet of this confused speech, we can say the following.
1. If you are not invited, it does not make sense to go looking for work. Without a language, without a clear plan - you will lose time and money.
2. If you can still find a job, taking into account life in the country, taxes, the need to buy furniture, there will be no gain from the Russian Federation. In addition, there is a purely Colombian overruns - my friend, a high-class aviation engineer, could not get a job at the factory for the production of diapers, because ... an aviation engineer. In the Colombian understanding, it is a person who is trained to turn one nut on an airplane, and in a certain way. It is quite obvious that he will not understand the pamper pipeline, because he was not taught this.
3. If you are invited, see ZP. Less than $ 2k in Bogota does not make sense. Good to have $ 4k. If there is a family and a child to be taught, think very well. A good education is very expensive.
4. As a place of life freelancer, this is a good country. Skillfully alternating with Ecuador and Peru, one can live indefinitely, having only a passport of the Russian Federation. Citizens of Belarus and Ukraine, alas, do not shine - we need a visa.
5. In Colombia itself there is no place for a foreign developer, although the development market is almost empty, and demand exceeds supply, the quality of which is lower than the baseboard. No, you will find a job, but to sit at such an RFP in the office, for an amateur ... However, some companies find agents who speak Russian and Spanish in Latin America and work on the market through them. Basically, this web programming, banking, marketing. This option is quite appropriate.
6. Colombia, a good jump ground for moving to the USA or working with the USA, if such plans exist. There are many gringos, easy connections, easy and cheap to fly to the states. Easier to get an American visa.
7. There is any climate in Colombia, and if you receive money from outside, finding a city is not difficult for you.
But in general, in Colombia to live cool, man!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/367053/
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