Getting ready to move to a foreign country can be tricky; at least, it was when we learned we were moving to Ecuador. Some countries where Foreign Service officers are assigned allow food shipments (consumables allowances) and some don’t. Ecuador didn't. You know, when we found out we were going to Ecuador, I didn't even know where in the world it was; I didn't know anything about it all other than the fact that it was Spanish-speaking. When my mother pointed out that Ecuador means "equator," I was scared to death of the heat. But, you know, it's not nearly as hot as South Louisiana is in the summer; in fact, it's not even on the same spectrum of hot.
Ecuador doesn't allow us to ship "consumables," so I had no idea what in the world to bring with us. One good program that the State Department has is a sponsorship program. You get assigned a sponsor, a member at post, who helps you prepare for the move and is there to welcome you when you arrive at the airport. My family and I had really amazing sponsors, and they gave us pretty good information on what we should stock up on before the move. It's weird to try and plan two years of your life ahead of time; no list can help you do that. She started off by saying that paper products were really expensive and often pretty inferior to those we were used to. I, always wanting to "be prepared" for anything, took that to heart.
We and I went to the local target in Falls Church, VA, where we were living and bought $250 worth of toilet paper and paper towels. No, that's not a typo. Have you ever seen $250 worth of generically-priced toilet paper? We filled three carts worth of TP and rolled out of there, receiving looks from passersby that I cannot even describe. Our Envoy was so full of toilet paper that I don't think we could have squeezed a tic tac in there. We made several trips to Target and Walmart in the final weeks before we left. I was determined to stock up on baby wipes, diapers, lady products, makeup, soaps, and clothes for the next two years. My God, was our apartment ever full.
You never know what to expect to find in a foreign grocery store. I took the availability of my favorite products for granted to say the least. Before I moved away, I was what I call a "box cook," meaning that pretty much everything I cooked came from a box. I didn't use any fresh ingredients in my meals back then (which probably explains all the baby weight I gained and couldn't lose lol). I do want to say that Ecuador has TONS of American products and brands that I was familiar with; they also have tons of other products that I wish I could have taken away with me. See, when you are posted to a country that doesn't have a consumables allowance like Ecuador and now Canada, you actually have to either give away or throw away your entire food supply; i.e., empty your pantry. It sucks. Most moving companies will ship spices, but it ends there. When we were leaving Washington, we brought the contents of our pantry to a local food bank; so at least some good did come of it. The expense is another thing entirely.
When we got to Ecuador, our sponsors had bought us a bunch of groceries and put them in the house for us. The next day, they took us to the local supermarket to start the long and tiring process of building a stocked pantry again. I was both amazed and disappointed in the grocery stores there. The prices on produce are incredible. I wish that I had been as healthy eater then as I am now, because that is the place to go for produce. You can grow anything in Ecuador, and that's the truth. The same amount of produce that I buy now and costs me a minimum of $200/month would have been about $30 there—no joke. The disappointment was in the lack of baby food and products I used the most in the States but didn't realize. Now, there is baby food in Ecuador, but it's about 99% fruit purees. Now, our first son was a year old when we moved; but being a first-time mother, my biggest fear was that he would choke; so he was still on baby food. I look back at my stupidity and at how much money we wasted on baby food, and I still get hot under the collar. I started him on canned green beans and such when we moved, and that worked great—that is, until they stopped carrying canned green beans. My God, you never knew what you would find when you went to the grocery store. It took me about nine months to realize that if you found something you liked, you better buy every single available can/box/bag they had because, chances were, that it wouldn't be there the next time. I think that NOT hoarding when we finally left Ecuador was the hardest habit of mine to break.
I ended up going back and forth to the States several times while we were in Ecuador, and I ended up shipping untold numbers of things like: Cool Ranch Doritos, Honey Nut Cheerios, Goldfish crackers, baby wipes, taco seasoning mix, meat seasonings, vegetable purees, canned green beans, etc. We were able to get a layette shipment sent to Ecuador once we had the baby—a one-time 250 lb, free shipment of baby items. We weren't supposed to be able to ship any kind of liquids (like baby food), but I hid it in boxes lol. I used every ounce they gave me and then shipped about 200 lbs more.
Baby formula is something else that you don't really think of when you're moving. There was of course baby formula in Ecuador, but it was double the price and half the amount one would get in the States. So I started ordering it from Target in boxes of six. Oh, and let me tell you how fun it is trying to ship 6-12 cans of white powder through the diplomatic pouch lol. Yeah, they don't like that and they especially do not like it when you make jokes about the fact that you're shipping 6-12 cans of white powder to them…
You never think about the fact that you need 10 bottles of baby Tylenol, teething gel, and Ibuprofen when you're packing for two years either. I mean, you don't realize how many products you take for granted because they're always there and usually available 24 hours a day, every day. That just isn't so in other parts of the world. I think we all take a lot of things for granted when we've been in the U.S. for extended lengths of time.
One of those is the fact that there is literally a gas station on every corner. Even here in Canada, where it's as "first world" as it gets, there are nowhere near as many gas stations as in the U.S. my husband and I have coasted in on fumes more times than I can count because you'll literally have 30-mile stretches of interstate without a gas station. It things like this that make living in the Foreign Service a never-ending adventure.
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