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Dear New Teacher,
No problem - happy to help with anything.
There are a few cars that are in nice shape being sold. Basically our mistake was to translate the age of a car into how well it will be doing. With the heat and dryness here, rubber wears out a lot faster. In the states, I drive a 1999 Honda Accord and it's in great shape. When anything goes wrong, the part is the same quality as original and the work is well done. Here, we drive a 2001 Peugeot and over the years, a lot of strange things have been done - like we just found out someone had changed out the dash board - odometer and all - at some point! So, here, a 2001 car is in a LOT worse shape then comparable cars in the states. The school gives you a loan up to $5000 for a car but expect to spend around 8-10,000 for a reasonable car. We paid $4000, which was about the right price. Turns out for $4000, you're buying crap.
So, you should be fine buying a car if it is much newer - 3-4 years old. Cars get old here fast, and they are more expensive for the same thing.
As for stuff, Marylene (in the business office) should be able to tell you the place you're moving into and how many bedrooms, bathrooms with showers, etc. If someone was already there, email them and they'll tell you what stuff is on the house. We took over a new house (it was a mistake and the school is not reusing it) but it had no curtain rods, no shower curtain rod, hand rails, kitchen cabinets, etc. From what I hear, the places for you guys are much nicer!
That said, the school did make sure the beds were made and there was cooking supplies and such in the kitchen - like you'd expect in an extended stay hotel. So you can count on some stuff as you either wait for your shipment to get here or start unpacking.
As for your list - any electronic thing that's not computer-like (tv, computer, dvd player - these just need the adaptor plug) will need the big (like 30 lbs) transformer to change the voltage. They're easy to find here and one big enough for a blender or slow cooker is about $50.00 Lots of people have these big transformers because they also smooth out the voltage spikes that happen frequently as the power goes out. (You'll have a generator on your place but they don't always work and anyhow, they're annoying to have running all night.) We opted to buy new appliances and that has generally worked out also.
For other things, like dog food and candles and spices and stuff, you can basically get anything you want here but there are three problems a) finding it and b) finding it of good quality c) finding good quality you can trust at a price you want to pay. I didn't realize this when I came but basically even the crappy stuff a dollar store sells in the states is relatively good quality compared to stuff here. There's a whole level of low-quality manufactured goods that we simply never see in the states. So, you gotta' search.
So, it's reasonable to try to ship everything you're gonna' want for the first month. Might seem a bit over the top, but we shipped soy milk, cereal (my wife wishes we had sent more then 20 boxes of her favorite cereal), pasta and sauce, spices, all kinds of soaps and shampoo (5 bottles - more of a year's suppl, mouth rinse, tooth paste, etc. It has been nice because as we slowly have run out of different staples, we now know where we can go get some more but in the beginning, it would have been a real scramble.
That said, we do have 2 kids, so we have less mental space for getting to know the city.
So, hopefully this answered some of your questions. I would say that when in doubt, ship it. Everything is basically a bit more expensive here, from like $1/box for cereal to $4/quart for oil changes for the car. So, since the school is paying for shipping, every box of pasta you send is money in your pocket!
Plus, things taste different - and generally not as good - as the food in the states. Except Mangos - they are really good here and a cheaper!
Also, on house help. Are you going to have someone in your house to help cook and clean? We have kids, so our helper, Madelene, is really a key part of us flourishing over here. We pay her $400/month (which is very good wages - we're basically the highest paying on the staff) and for this, she shops and cleans and cooks all our dinners and helps with the kids when we need. Well worth it. Not sure your thoughts on this but having a local in the house is both very helpful as well as adds greatly to the experience. She came at the recommendation of a family who was leaving.
Marc
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