answer:Welcome to Fluther! Your nervousness about the move is understandable. It’s general human nature to fear the unknown. You are doing the right thing by reaching out for information on what to expect. We do have at least one fellow Jelly, NaturallyMe, who lives in South Africa, but she hasn’t been on the Fluther site in several weeks. I’ll forward your question to her, and we can hope that she sees it. While I’ve never been to SA, like you, I am in the process of moving to another country and will be living a very different lifestyle. What has helped lessen the nervousness is learning as much as possible about the history, culture and current laws. The internet is chock-full if information on SA. It’s also helpful to watch videos (YouTube has quite a few) to garner information in an audio/visual aspect. Getting familiar with the culture is really helpful; I’d be lost in just about every conversation if I wasn’t remotely familiar with the British sports teams, pop culture celebrities, and the different words used. If you and your son start this education process together with your partner as your coach, it should help put you at ease. One final tip: make sure he explains all of the potential downsides as well. The more you are prepared for the possible worst, it won’t catch you off-guard. My guess is that you will find many wonderful things about SA that your partner never bothered to mention because he always took them for granted. Good luck in this new adventure! There are many who would jump at a chance like this.