Living and Traveling Abroad = Mail from Home Thrills

Living and Traveling Abroad =
Mail from Home Thrills

When you live and travel abroad,
exploring life as a digital nomad
family in a minimalist and

When you live and travel abroad, exploring life as a digital nomad family in a minimalist and travel lifestyle kind of way, snail mail is something that is extremely rare and adored. It is a bit like celebrating Christmas abroad, no matter what time of year it is.

Remember our first book bonanza mail when we were in Spain and Mozart has just turned six?

In an age like ours, which is not given to letter-writing, we forget
what an important part it used to play in people’s lives.  ~Anatole
Broyard

Recently, we got a bunch of care packages from home that my sweet 84 year old mother has been busy sending us at my request. You might remember from my travel and health  or organic food posts, that I brought a ton of supplements with me this time due to my recent health challenges. Well, I ran out and some things one just can’t get here, despite some good organic stores and cheap hospitals.

I’ve heard from several people ( unlike our winters in Spain) that sometimes mail and especially larger packages never arrive in Malaysia.  Thus, I made sure that all my packages were small as I didn’t want any of the expensive ones to land in customs or stolen.

What a wonderful thing is the mail, capable of conveying across continents a warm human hand-clasp.  ~Author Unknown

The joy for Ms. Mozart ( who got use to reading the newspaper with Grandma) is she gets to receive all kinds of goodies like comics, articles, stickers, little gifts and cards from her perky, golfing, traveling Grandmother that she misses. Another way to stay connected to family, despite being about 9000 miles apart. It also gives them something fun to discuss in email and on Skype web cam calls.

We have a small mailbox here, so at first we were just getting notices to pick the packages up at the main post office. This was a trek and half by bus for poor hubs, but worth the effort, as he gets lots of hugs and kisses upon return.  Lately, ( and perhaps a new mailman, we are not sure why) we have been finding them on our door to our apartment on a high floor. Yesterday, I got seven more packages, added to the 16 we have already received. Yea!!

So far they have all gotten here, so I am gaining more faith in the Malaysia mailing system. There are many advantage to our almost paperless, 3-laptop family world lifestyle and we can do almost everything via our laptops, but sometimes, good old fashion snail mail can be a blessing from home that comforts and meets needs.

Have you ever gotten a care package from home when you’ve been living at a distance? Or mailed a care package to loved ones abroad?