Your First 48 Hours on Expat Assignment

The plane wheels touch down and you look out the plane window at your new home but the craziness doesn’t let up at the airport. You’re trying to gather all your luggage and perhaps pets and children. Get a car or find your airport pickup and before you know it you’re at your new home. For us, we were taken to our single-family home in a compound. Drivers helped us unload our luggage (30ish bags...more to come on that in another blog post) and then before we knew it, it was just my husband and I looking at each other. Well, here we are in our new home across the world in Angola….now what?!

Nobody thinks about this part! You’ve spent the last several months thinking about and planning for this move. And the last 24 hours actually making the move. But now you need to take the next important steps that you probably hadn’t thought of yet.

Get a cell phone plan set up

Having a cell phone is obviously key for communication with your family with you on assignment (i.e. my husband), but also to let people know back home you made it alright (mom & dad). Also, you’ll want to have a way to communicate for safety reasons. You’ll typically have to go into a store to get setup for the first time. Make sure you take a copy of your passport and your actual passport with you. Since you don’t have a local government ID, you will probably need to give them a copy of your passport. Also, make sure you have local currency with you.

When we were in Angola, they did not accept overseas credit cards and we used cash for everything. (This also pertains to number 3!) It’s possible you will need to pay a deposit as well as the first months fees so bring plenty of cash! Finally, take your patience. As Americans, we tend to assume everyone speaks English. Well, this is not true and especially in a cell phone shop where the jobs are not highly skilled. Patience will be needed to get through your first big communication hurdle. Brace yourself, it will be difficult but you’ll feel so accomplished afterwards...like you can tackle anything in your new home.

Get your internet setup or at least requested

You’ll want to do this as early as possible after your arrival as it will likely take several days to several weeks to get a tech crew out to your home. In Angola, it took us 12 weeks of constant follow- up (in Portuguese) and having the internet company come out to our home and not finish the job before we finally had internet in our house. We ended up having our driver dig a hole for us in the yard to run internet cables from the cable box on the street and that got things going. Andrew was at work all day but I used my cell phone for the internet for those first few months. That experience was incredibly frustrating but that was just the way things were there; we learned more about the way things are done culturally the longer we lived there.

Buy some basic groceries and essentials

Obviously you need to eat and going out may not be an option depending on how remote your assignment is. I remember those first few trips to the stores in each location. You have to learn a new store and you quickly realize they don’t have anything you’re used to buying. I think in both locations we survived on eggs and pasta for the first week or two before I got my bearings and learned new meals that used local ingredients. Other than food, you’ll want to be sure you have other basics like toilet paper and toothpaste. If you’re moving with a company hopefully they had dishes ready for you at your home. If not, you’ll want to buy a bowl, plate and silverware to get you through the first week. You can buy a set or fancy dishes later on. Right now, only focus on the basics.

Relax

Once you have purchased basics for your home, internet and have your cell phone, you need to relax. That’s right, take a few days to a week to just relax in your new home. There will be plenty of time to go out and explore your new city. You need to rest from your big trip and time zone changes can do a number on your body.

During your week of rest, look back on how you had a dream in your heart to live overseas and you made it happen. You packed up your life in suitcases and now you’re sitting here in your new home. Relish your tenacity and hard work. Honor your feelings of nervousness and excitement. There will be challenges ahead but you’ve already done the hardest part - you took the risk.

Now that you’re all set up in your new country, be sure to learn what to do when living overseas gets hard.