I belong in this tribe of expat women Leaving South Africa (the last country in a long list that has included the Philippines, Namibia, Lesotho, Hong Kong and Nepal) and bound for expat retirement, I thought would be a doddle. We were going to settle down - though long past the normal age for doing so! And my sense of belonging should be rooted and complete. But it's not, and it's clear something big is missing. It has all to do with connectivity. I've discovered over the new years, that being a new face in an established neighborhood, arriving with a diverse history and different experiences, isn't really a benefit. I've become an enigma. To be embraced I need common values, shared beliefs and memories. Usually you find this in somewhere you've lived for a long time, but in Taichung that day I met women who didn't gasp when I told them our children had been to six schools on three different continents before the age of 12, who didn't think it was strange to live in a different country every few years, and who had common stories of trials, tribulations and joys of bringing up children in remote, out-of-the-way places. I spoke to people about Third Culture Kids and instead of asking if it was a new pop group, they nodded in agreement and discussed the merits and problems of children without roots. I listened to other people's achievements and rabbited on to women of various cultures who made me feel as if I'd known them all my life. There is a common throng of women who travel the world, many trailing behind their working spouses, offering support and encouragement, bringing up children, finding their own way through the newness of each location and coming out of the melting pot with values in common and stories about the places they've been. It's a tribe of women I once thought I could leave behind. But now I know it's the tribe of women to which I belong. Jo Castro writes a travel blog at www.zigazag.com or you can follow her on Twitter: @johannaAcastro