When I left Canada I figured we were arriving in South Africa so close to Easter that I'd better be prepared. I really wasn't sure to what degree, if at all, South African's celebrated Easter so I packed the baskets and grass in the air shipment which was scheduled to arrive within 2 days of our arrival and I packed the egg dying kits in the suitcases to take with us.
When we arrived, Easter items were all over the place. A good percentage of South Africa is Christian so Easter is celebrated here too.
My first hurdle occurred the day after we arrived when I was told the air shipment would not be arriving within 2 days as I had been told in Canada, but instead possibly before Easter (8 days after arrival) if we got all the paperwork in immediately.
No problem, we'd get started dying eggs instead. That was easier said than done. I love the fact that here in PE we don't need to search for free range eggs and pay higher prices like we did in Canada. Essentially, all of the eggs here are free range and local. The problem is they aren't white. Every egg in every store was brown.
Now, eggs in Canada are stored in the refrigerator section. Not so here in PE. They are on shelves like non perishables. So, just as I was about to give up, in what felt like the millionth grocery store, DS #2 noticed a display of white eggs, at the front of the store. Terrific, I thought, they have white eggs just for dying right at the front of the store. We bought a pack of 6 and brought them home. The kids were all excited and so was I. Well, I should have read the package in the store. They looked like eggs. They came in a plastic egg container. They were stored like other eggs, they must be eggs. Alas, no. They were chocolate eggs in a white candy shell. Not so good for water based dyes.
I tried to find the wonderful stickers or shrink wrap that we used to use in Canada, to use on the brown eggs, but no such luck. My markers and paints were in the sea shipment and I really didn't want to buy something that I knew full well was in a container on the way to PE. So, no decorated eggs for Easter.
Then we found out that, no, the air shipment would not be arriving for Easter, all of the paperwork was not complete. The shipment had not even left Canada. So, no baskets or grass, or pots, or pans, or dishes for Easter. This was the day before Good Friday.
Thankfully, here in PE all the shops are open on public holidays, for a few hours at least, usually from 9:00am to 2:00 pm. The same hours as they are open on Sundays. So, out went dh on Friday (or maybe it was Saturday), let's just say the pickin's were pretty slim. So, we had a low key Easter here. I can't even recall what I cooked, but I know I did it in the one pot and one frying pan that the bosses wife so graciously loaned us from her kitchen. So our first Easter in PE was a quiet affair.
After Easter I tucked the egg dying kits away and when the air shipment arrived, the baskets and grass were put with them. I had forgotten until the sea shipment arrived that I had packed the Polish easter eggs, and a few that the kids had decorated in previous years, though I remember debating if it was really necessary. Maybe next year we'll take out the dying kits and dye the brown eggs anyway.
The moral of the story is, if you are moving to places unknown quadruple check with the moving company on both sides of the move as to how long it will take you to get your stuff. I only double checked and just on the home side, not the destination side. It would have changed a lot about how and what I had packed and when I let them take it out of my possession.
Next Post - Winter in Port Elizabeth
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