When you first get to a new post, the littlest things can make your day. Things like: finding just the right disposable heads for your husband’s razor (did that today), discovering a really great Indian restaurant (did that last weekend), or returning home from running errands and realizing that you didn’t drive on the wrong side of the street once (have yet to do that). On the other hand, the little disappointments–you try to shake those off (I can live without Lysol for 3 years, right?)
But when really bad news comes, it’s hard to shake that off. So here’s the news, both good and bad:
Bad news: Yesterday we learned that our 7900 lb. ground shipment that was sent in June from the port of Aqaba in Jordan–which we were told was awaiting customs at the port in Durban–is actually not our shipment. This was discovered when customs officials opened the containers and realized it wasn’t our stuff–though the paperwork said it was. Not sure what was in those containers; maybe 7900 lbs. of Lysol (a girl can hope). And furthermore, the State Department didn’t know where our shipment was. Upon hearing this news, the first image in my mind was of my children’s baby journals lying on the bottom of the ocean somewhere off the coast of Morocco. (I’m a writer, not a scrapbooker; hence, my children have baby journals rather than scrapbooks.)
Good news: By noon yesterday, the shipping company had located our shipment–not at the bottom of the ocean, but safe and sound on dry ground.
Bad news: Our shipment spent the past two months traveling to the US–not South Africa.
Bad news: It will probably take another 2-3 months for our stuff to get to us.
Taking deep breaths … trying to focus on the positive … don’t want to be one of those high maintenance diplomat wives … as long as my stuff is here by Thanksgiving … more deep breaths.
OK, I’m good now.
And so, in keeping with the vein of trying to stay positive, I learned my first word in Afrikaans–albeit, a rather strange word. The word is pikkewyn which means penguin. We live on Pikkewyn Ave. Who else in the world can say they live on Penguin Ave.? That alone is reason to stay positive for another 2-3 months.
Six Abroad 
Love, love hearing from you. You are a GREAT WRITER, who cares about scraps of paper.
We had a post when everything arrived on Thanksgiving Day. Just because. Our normal experience has been stuff arriving around Halloween though. Hoping we both get surprised with September UAB and HHE bliss. Do they know whose stuff it is in the crates?
No idea! Probably someone in the US who has absolutely no ties to South Africa. 😁