Adventures of an Expat in South Africa
What you ship and don't ship to South Africa depends on how much space you have in your container. If this is a corporate relocation, most likely your employer will provide a 40 foot shipping container, which can fit a lot of your household goods, if not all of them. Here are suggestions of what you to consider when packing up your household for South Africa.
My previous post, 19 Things to Put on your Shopping List for South Africa, proved quite popular. Everyone jumped in and had another item they wanted to add to my list, particularly in the food department. Every nationality feels quite strongly about their particular foods. So I thought I'd give you Part Two featuring all those essential reader additions.
You've gotten the job offer in South Africa. You've gotten scared by and then gotten over the crime statistics. You've researched schools and neighborhoods. Your visa is in the works, and you've scheduled to have your household goods packed and shipped. The container arrives a month from now. This means it's high time you went (online) shopping to load up on a few items!
This frequently gets me into hot water with Noisette, who is rather the opposite. He likes to get started so early on things that we often have to climb over mountains of clothes in our bedroom that he has piled in neat stacks two weeks prior to an upcoming travel date.
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The other day I posted my Ultimate Expat Moving Checklist on Facebook. A blog post, I must say, that I’ve worked very hard for, if only to be able to use it myself one day should we ever ...
I recently saw the following question on an expat forum:
“Hello all! I’ve been in South Africa for 3 weeks and expect to work here for approximately 18 months on assignment. My husband will be joining me from the US in 1 month. The most difficult decision regards our dog…do we bring ...
The following is a guest post by Barbara Bruhwiler.
Baby steps. Teeny tiny baby steps. That’s what they always recommend in self-help books. “As long as you move in the right direction, it doesn’t matter how fast you move” is one of the mantras in this field.
Well, ...
You would think that we had moved enough in our lives that when the news was dropped that we were moving again, I could have just whipped out a moving checklist from my files and bingo, all I needed to do was start checking off items.
But sadly I had no such list.
Well, to take that back, I do have ...
So I’ve finally had to confront the inevitable reality of our family soon leaving South Africa when faced with the necessity of canceling a whole bunch of services. Which, you’ll remember, I so painstakingly signed up for almost three years ago. It was like reliving those early days in ...
*** UPDATE: There is a newer version of this blog post: 19 Things to Put on Your Shopping List for South Africa. ***
Prospective expats have asked me what they should buy before moving here, and it is an excellent question. Some things are just too expensive in South Africa, some are impossible to ...