What Changed Our Lives

About the Book

What Changed Our Lives: An Expat Adventure is written based on the real experiences of Rudolf Hartong, his wife, and their five children during their travelling and moving around as expatriates. They lived in seven countries over a period of twenty-four years. The book has therefore autobiographical elements in it. The aim of the work is for existing expatriate families to recognise themselves in the descriptions as well as – and more importantly – that it can be used as guidance by families who are making decisions with respect to moving around. The book is covering the period of making the decision as to whether or not to take a position abroad and making preparations in this respect. It mentions the difficult process of saying farewell, especially if young adults are involved. It covers the issue of making the right choice of school system. It looks at how the decision to move can bring extra bonding in a family and a change in their perceptions of the world and life in particular, which will make them citizens of the world. It contains real descriptions of events that Rudolf and his family experienced in moving through seven countries. Perhaps as the most important contribution, it provides, first-hand, the observations of the five children – positive and negative. It describes the exposure to culture shocks and the process of adaptation. The book ends covering the period of leaving an international school and making decisions as to where to continue to study and with the philosophical approach to life of parents when their children have left home. Rudolf Hartong has also published two other books: Human Resources in Crisis, published January 25, 2013, and General Management for Operational Managers, published May 23, 2013. Both books are published by AuthorHouse and cover his experiences in human resources and general management during his career of forty years.

About the Author

Rudolf Hartong was born in 1947. His education is in human resources, and he worked for forty years in human resources and general management positions – twenty-two in the former and eighteen in the latter. He worked in the Netherlands as a human resources professional until 1988. After that, for the following twenty-four years, he and his wife and their five children lived in seven different countries, where they encountered and experienced various cultures, religions, and situations that changed their lives. Having retired in 2012, he has written this book based on his and his family’s own experiences in the hope that it can help new expatriate families in their decisions and preparations for working abroad. Existing expatriate families will probably recognise the situations that he describes and realise that they are not alone. Rudolf and his wife currently reside in Switzerland. For comments and remarks, you may contact Rudolf via email: rudolfhartong@yahoo.com You can follow Rudolf on his blog: www.rudolfhartong.com