Next month my wife and I are moving ourselves and our two kids to Tbilisi in the country of Georgia for around 20 months.

Folks here know that country has been in the news a bit lately, with last weekend's front page NYT Travel section article on its wine industry as a growing tourist attraction the only more upbeat contrast to reports about the ongoing tensions with the Russians.

We will, we understand, have good internet access. So, knock on wood, I will not have to go through tpmcafe withdrawal as part of the transition. :<)

My wife will be directing a health care project there. I am taking a leave of absence from my job and will be meeting with people about job opportunities during our first couple of months there while being focused mainly on helping get us settled in.

One of the areas my wife has identified as an area she thinks I could find work in is what the US development community refers to as "democracy and governance" work, part of which includes "democracy promotion." It can involve activities such as election monitoring (hmmmm...), as one example.

I've never been in the country, I know little about it, I don't speak the language, and I've never done that sort of work before. So, I tell friends and family members, from a US standpoint I should be considered ideally qualified. :<)

There is also the pesky detail that as a soon-to-be US expat I feel I have no standing and no business "promoting democracy" in any country other than my own, which isn't doing especially well in this department.

Fortunately there may be possibilities in some other areas, including doing some writing for the English language newspaper in Tbilisi.

I will be bringing along my copy of The Ugly American, and plan to read it early in my stay there. I've only seen the movie.

Apart from these minor matters, though, I'm optimistic that everything will work out just fine on the job front. :<)

This will be my first time living abroad. (I am 47.) It could be interesting to be on the outside looking in at what is going on in the US.