From time to time someone in US or Europe will ask me what it´s like to live here and work full time. My only experience working in Colombia is as an English teacher. Perhaps some of the other members can tell about other lines of work here, or can expand on my English teacher comments.
I am pensionado but I also work as an English teacher, sometimes as a volunteer and sometimes for pay. Because I have a Colombian pensionado visa I am not supposed to have a job, but the economy is so flexible here nobody cares whether I´m legal or not.
As a volunteer English teacher I work as little or as much as I want. Sometimes I teach one hour a week, other times four hours per week. I teach in the grade school in my barrio with students 8 to 11 years old and in my house students 12 and up.
As an English tutor some of my adult students are attending university and need help with their required English courses. Others of my adult students are preparing for a vacation trip or to work in USA or other English speaking country.
The adult students pay me a stipend that amounts to about $5 hour. A side benefit of teaching English is to meet women, but I don´t do it primarily for that, it´s just an occasional side benefit.
More formal volunteer English teaching positions are available in Colombia for six month stints. The foundation arranges the work visa, arranges a place for the volunteer teacher to live - usually a furnished room, and pays a stipend ranging from 800,000 to 1,500,000 per month.
The paid volunteer pays own flight to and from Colombia. Sometimes the volunteer has to post a $400 bond to ensure they will actually arrive and teach for 6 months. The bond is returned along with a bonus for successfully completing the 6 months.
One place to see information about these paid volunteer six month programs is at HeartsForChange.com
Formal teaching positions are available, too. Sometimes there is a requirement to have a bachelor´s degree (in any subject) from an American or European college or university, but sometimes the degree is not a requirement.
These paid positions range in pay from 1,500,000 to 3,000,000 per month and the teacher pays their own transportation and lodging-meals.
From my experience you would be hard pressed to support yourself at 1,500,000 per month, unless you were renting a furnished room in a pueblo where the costs of living are pretty low. In the larger cities of Bogota, Medellin etc., I think you would need at least 2,000,000 or more per month, just to live a fairly simple lifestyle.
Personally I get by just fine on 1,500,000 a month, but I´m probably the exception since my lifestyle is simple and inexpensive. As a side note, I´ve met gringos here in Colombia who spend more for entertainment each month than I spend in total.
Other ways I can see to make a living here in Colombia have to do with online work such as writing books, or with importing or exporting, or maybe as a consultant to American or European companies looking for sales reps who will live here in Colombia.
I hope others will share their work stories here in Colombia.
Thanks in advance
