“We landed with two suitcases, a toddler, and no idea wherewe were going after the airport.”
In this powerful new episode of A Stranger, A Suitcase,and A Story, Anton and Ben sit down with Kaveer Soni, a Durban-born lawyer whose life has been a tapestry of faith, grit, heartbreak, and reinvention.
Kaveer's story begins in Durban, born into a Hindu household,yet his early years unfold inside a Jewish school, learning Hebrew before he could fully understand what it meant. Then came a Catholic school, Sunday mass, and a new religion called rugby. His childhood, filled with laughter and mischief, was also where his voice as a lawyer first emerged, not in court, butin the principal’s office, defending his friends.
Years later, a family holiday to the US would change everything. What started as a magical trip to Disney World became a decision to leave South Africa behind. But dreams abroad don’t always unfold as planned. Bureaucracy, uncertainty, and endless waiting forced his family back home, a move that taught him resilience before he even knew he’d need it again.
And then came Australia.
A country that promised clarity but delivered challenge after challenge. A new life in a tiny one-bedroom apartment in Sydney, a young family starting over from nothing, and the devastating loss of a pregnancy in their first year. It was a season of heartbreak and perseverance, the kind that tests the limits of love and faith.
But through it all, Kaveer's quiet determination never wavered. From sitting for new legal exams while his wife rebuilt her career, to opening Soni Legal from scratch with no network and no guarantees, he turned every setback into a stepping stone.
Today, nearly a decade later, Kaveer has built a thriving practice, a beautiful family, and a sense of belonging that was once only a dream. His story reminds us that “home” isn’t a place you find. It is something you build, one choice, one struggle, and one act of courage at a time.
🎧 Listen to Episode 15: The Long Road Homewith Kaveer Soni now on https://3spod.com orwherever you get your podcasts — Spotify, Apple, and more.
#AStrangerASuitcaseAndAStory#3SPod #Podcast#MigrationStories #Courage #Resilience #Belonging #HumanSpirit
The gun clicked against his temple—and didn’t fire. Ten years later, Munro packed a suitcase for Sydney.
In Episode 14 of A Stranger, A Suitcase, and A Story, Anton and Ben sit down with Munro Donen. He grew up in Houghton, Johannesburg, in a close, bookish home where neighbours popped in for tea—including Nelson Mandela, who’d later spot Munro across an airport cordon and ask, “How’s your father?” Life felt safe, contained—until it didn’t. A violent carjacking outside his parents’ gate pulled the floorboards up. Months later, a restaurant he’d just left was held up and friends were locked in a walk-in fridge.
Trauma didn’t have a name then; it does now. What it left behind was clarity.
Australia wasn’t an instant soft landing. Munro arrived with degrees, grit, and zero shortcuts. He learned the city by driving routes at night so he wouldn’t get lost the next day. He learned the language behind the language—how “you must” becomes “you might want to,” how a “marone” car is maroon, and how “looking for a park” isn’t a lawn picnic.
He found his lane in Sydney property, building a buyer’s-agent practice with an old-school South African service ethic in a market where open homes last 20 minutes and auctions move like lightning. He picked clients up, sat with them, listened—then showed colleagues why the long car ride matters.
There were knocks, too: tall-poppy moments, pay re-cut, KPIs that made no sense. So he started his own firm. Years on, he’s helped families make the biggest call of their lives and still treats every purchase like it has his name on the contract. And the country gave something back: the night he walked through Rushcutters Bay at 2 a.m., looked around, and realised—calmly, fully—“I feel safe.”
Now settled, Munro’s circle has widened again. He raises funds with the Wits Alumni in NSW, leans into Southern Crossings, and keeps a simple promise: if you’ve just arrived, message him for a coffee. Someone did that for him 27 years ago; he remembers their names.
🎧 Listen now at https://3spod.com
Or on your favourite channel: Apple, Spotify, YouTube. Because sometimes migration isn’t just lived, it’s written.
#AStrangerASuitcaseAndAStory #Episode14 #MunroDonon #JohannesburgToSydney #MigrationStories #Belonging #StartingOver #SafetyAndFreedom #BuyersAgent #WitsAlumni #SouthernCrossings #PayItForward #AndAndIdentity
What if the journey that changed your life wasn’t just about a new country, but about finding the courage to finally tell the truth?
You can’t outrun your past. It always finds a way into your suitcase.” – Tania Wilson
In Episode 13 of A Stranger, A Suitcase, and A Story, Anton and Ben sit down with Tania Wilson — author of The Secrets We Keep: Spilling the Beans, whose migration story stretches from a barefoot, rebellious childhood in Durban to three decades of reinvention in the United States
Tania’s memoir is raw and unflinching: tracing family tragedy, the silence that followed, and the radical relief of truth-telling
She opens up about leaving South Africa with “five suitcases and a trunk,” the heartbreak of saying goodbye to her parents, and the unexpected lessons of trying to fit in from mispronouncing La Jolla to brewing Amaretto coffee at 4:30 a.m.
But what makes her story unforgettable is how writing became her anchor. In retirement, Tania discovered a writing group that pushed her to finally bring decades of memories onto the page. Her book doesn’t just capture migration — it shows how honesty, resilience, and storytelling itself can heal across generations
This episode is about more than moving countries. It’s about grief, courage, belonging… and how one woman turned her immigrant story into a book that helps others find hope in their own.
🎧 Listen now at https://3spod.com
Or on your favourite channel: Apple, Spotify, YouTube. Because sometimes migration isn’t just lived, it’s written.
#MigrationStories #ImmigrantVoices #StrangerSuitcaseStory #PodcastCommunity #AuthorLife #TheSecretsWeKeep
“In my first month here, I told myself: just Look, Listen, and Learn.”
But what if the very skills that helped you survive back home… became the very edges you needed to soften to belong somewhere new?
In Episode 12 of A Stranger, A Suitcase, and A Story, Anton and Ben sit down with
Pierre De Villiers, whose journey has taken him from ironing school shorts in Durban, to boardrooms across the world, and finally to a new life in Australia.
Pierre’s story is one of contrasts: accountant-turned-HR leader, world traveler-turned-root builder, South African rugby fan raising Wallabies supporters. Through it all, he’s had to wrestle with the classic migrant’s question — how much of myself do I hold onto, and how much do I adapt?
He reveals the “Three L’s” that carried him through his toughest early years in Australia: Look, Listen, Learn. It’s advice that seems simple, but hides a lifetime of wisdom about patience, perspective, and the slow work of building trust in a new land.
This episode goes beyond career shifts and visas — it’s about identity, family scattered across continents, and the quiet courage of starting over when it would have been easier to stay put.
🎧 Listen now at https://3spod.com Or on your favourite channel: Apple, Spotify, YouTube.
Because sometimes migration isn’t just about moving countries. It’s about moving yourself.
#MigrationStories #ImmigrantVoices #StrangerSuitcaseStory #PodcastCommunity #Belonging #Identity
“Ali’s on the plane… and Chris Hani’s been assassinated.”
The tour Mark helped organise became a peace mission before the wheels hit the tarmac.
Back in Durban, Mark’s legal career was rising when 1993 rewrote the script. Muhammad Ali arrived; the country erupted. Overnight, logistics turned to triage: townships in flames, cathedral meetings, a balcony plea for calm. Ali’s humanity cut through—staying to sign every autograph, embracing miners underground, showing what dignity looks like under pressure.
Then a personal fork: asked to stand for public office, Mark couldn’t square his liberal convictions with the policy path on offer.
He chose Australia—and the long grind of re-qualifying, rebuilding networks, and learning the quiet nuances of how things get decided here. In time he led major deals across Asia, carried an “and-and” identity without apology, and poured energy into causes like the Australian Rhino Project—proof that “the right thing” can still be the hardest thing.
His takeaway for the 22-year-old with a suitcase: try. Keep your roots. Learn the local nuance. Hold your values.
#AStrangerASuitcaseAndAStory #MarkStanbridge #MuhammadAli #ChrisHani #SouthAfrica1994 #StartAgain #Australia #AndAnd #RuleOfLaw #RhinoConservation
In 1984 he nominated Nelson Mandela for Chancellor, when “terrorist” was still the word echoing down campus corridors.
Mark Stanbridge’s beginnings read like a paradox: a carefree Free State childhood and a country split by curfews and colour lines. Around a dinner table of books and debate, he formed a stubborn belief in the dignity of the individual—long before law school gave it language. At uni he chose principle over popularity, pushing back on ritual and rhetoric, and learning that values don’t announce themselves; they’re tested.
An exchange year to small-town NSW opened a window on another way of being, then he returned to South Africa with clearer eyes and a steadier compass.
This first episode is the making-of: family, teachers, and a divided society forging a liberal spine—setting up the question that will define everything that follows: do you stay and fight from the inside, or leave and begin again?
#AStrangerASuitcaseAndAStory #MarkStanbridge #Belonging #SouthAfrica #Bloemfontein #StudentActivism #MigrationStories #Identity #LiberalValues
“Immigration is not for sissies. If anyone tells you it’s easy, they’re lying.”
What do you do when life hands you a choice between comfort and calling?
For Ryan Walker, it meant leaving behind his beloved grandmother, a young daughter, and the familiar rhythms of Johannesburg to answer something bigger.
In this episode of A Stranger, A Suitcase, and A Story, Anton and Ben sit down with Ryan, an enterprise leader in Australia’s tech sector, to uncover how faith, grit, and “old school values” carried him through the hardest parts of migration.
Ryan opens up about the heartbreak of separation, the discipline forged by his grandparents, and the unexpected blessings that met him the moment he landed in Sydney.
It’s a conversation about the strength it takes to start over, the courage to hold onto your values, and the joy of discovering that home is not just where you arrive—it’s what you choose to build.
🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or at www.3spod.com.
#AStrangerASuitcaseAndAStory #3SPod #PodcastLife #StorytellingPodcast #RealStories
Everything around him had settled—but inside, he still feltlost.
He had the house.
His kids were thriving.
His wife had embraced the new life.
But John Chan couldn’t shake the feeling: “I was the only one who hadn’tarrived.”
In Episode 8 of A Stranger, A Suitcase & A Story,John shares the quiet but deeply personal journey of starting over—not just ina new country, but in his own sense of identity.
After a successful corporate career in South Africa, Johnmoved to Australia in search of a new life. On paper, it all made sense. Butbeneath the surface, he struggled with purpose, identity, and the weight ofinvisible expectations.
This isn’t a story about escape—it’s a story aboutrealignment.
He opens up about losing his professional self, navigatingthe disorienting middle space of migration, and slowly rediscovering meaningthrough entrepreneurship, contribution, and self-awareness.
Today, he helps others find their voice, not because healways had his, but because he knows what it’s like to lose it.
🎧 Episode 8 – NoRegret, Just Purpose
Now streaming on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and 3spod.com
#StrangerSuitcaseStory #Episode8 #JohnChan #QuietStrength#MigrationWithMeaning #Entrepreneurship #LifeInAustralia #IdentityAndBelonging#NoRegretJustPurpose #3spod
He arrived in Australia with no job, no backup plan, and noguarantee it would work.
But Francois Scheepers had already made the decision: “I’m going to make thiswork.”
In Episode 7 of A Stranger, A Suitcase & A Story,Francois Scheepers shares the raw, real journey of building a life from scratch in a place where no one knows you, and no one owes you anything.
He speaks openly about what it was like to arrive young,full of energy, but unsure of where (or how) he’d fit in. The accent gave him away. His directness rubbed some people the wrong way. And his confidence built in South Africa, had to be re-earned in a new context.
But through sport, service, and the hard work of self-reflection, Francois found belonging.
He learned that sometimes it’s not about having a perfectplan. It’s about staying open, showing up, and backing yourself when it mattersmost.
This episode is for anyone who’s had to start over beforethey felt ready, and chose growth anyway.
🎧 Episode 7 – No Plan B: Just Keep Going
Now streaming on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and 3spod.com
#StrangerSuitcaseStory #Episode7 #FrancoisScheepers#MigrationJourney #YoungAndBrave #LifeInAustralia #StartOverStories #NoPlanB#3spod
We packed up our lives into nine suitcases… and waited.And waited.
For four years, Kevin Horstmann and his family lived inlimbo, chasing a dream that seemed like it might never come.
Just when he was about to give up, something extraordinaryhappened.
In Episode 6 of A Stranger, a Suitcase and a Story,Kevin shares the deeply moving journey from uncertainty and heartbreak to finally feeling at home in Australia.
He talks about losing his father at five, living with hisgrandparents, forging his own path, and building a better life for his children, with honesty, humour, and incredible heart.
“This wasn’t my idea,” Donovan admits, yet the decision tomove across the world reshaped everything: his identity, his career, and hisfamily’s future.
This episode, on the podcast A Stranger, a suitcase and aStory, is about a man who didn’t plan tomigrate, but found something better than he imagined.
Donovan had built a life in South Africa: a career, a home,a community. Migration wasn’t his idea, it was his wife’s. But love, trust, and family meant stepping into the unknown, together.
What followed wasn’t easy. Uprooting. Rebuilding. Feelinglost in a place that was supposed to be a fresh start. But with time and a fewkey constants like family, faith, and even a familiar couch—Donovan found hisfooting.
And what started as resistance became resilience.
This is a story about letting go of certainty, leaning intochange, and discovering that starting over doesn’t mean losing yourself. It canmean finding more: more freedom, more safety, more space to breathe, and more moments that matter.
Most of all, Donovan reminds us:
Keep an open mind. Because sometimes, the life you didn’tplan becomes the one you were meant to live.
🎧 A Stranger, a Suitcase and a Story - Availablenow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
www.3spod.com
Backpacks, Bold Moves, and Belonging: Nicol &Mareli’s Journey to Australia
They left everything behind… not because they had to, butbecause they wanted to see what else was possible.
In this heartfelt and uplifting episode, Anton and Ben sitdown with Nicol and Mareli, a young South African couple who swapped corporatesuccess and ocean views in Cape Town for a backpack, six months of travel, anda bold move to Sydney.
Their story is one of intention, courage, and curiosity.They didn’t migrate because they had to. They did it because they choseto. What started as an adventure soon became a new life—and what they’vediscovered along the way will leave you rethinking what it means to start over.
They talk about adjusting to Australia’s culture, the powerof perspective, rebuilding from scratch, and what happens when you stop tryingto recreate your old life and start embracing your new one.
It’s not just a migration story, it’s a life philosophy.
From Resettling Doubts to Rebuilding Dreams: Afzal's Journey to Belonging. In this episode, Afzal Ali shares what it really feels like to leave a successful life behind and start over in a new country. He speaks candidly about growing up in a huge, tight-knit family in India, his early struggles studying in London, and why he ultimately chose Australia for a fresh start.
From food delivery jobs to job rejections, housing challenges to school enrollment battles, Afzal walks us through the highs andheavy lows of migration.
At his lowest, he almost gave up.
But with patience, faith, and resilience, his story took a powerful turn and today, he’s building a new life in Newcastle, Australia.
This is a story of hope, hardship, and the light at the endof the tunnel.
In this episode of A Stranger, A Suitcase & A Story, Anton and Ben continue their personal migration stories—sharing what happened after they arrived in Australia. From emotional goodbyes and missed funerals to flat batteries, rugby injuries, and shoe-stuffed suitcases, they reflect on the realities of starting over in a new country.
They unpack what it means to plant new roots while holding onto your past, how sport and community help build belonging, and what they miss most about South Africa. It's a heartfelt conversation about emotional baggage, resilience, and finding connection in unfamiliar places.
🎧 Whether you've migrated, are thinking about it, or simply want to hear honest, relatable stories—this episode is for you.
In this first episode of A Stranger, A Suitcase, and A Story, Anton and Ben share their personal journeys—before the suitcases were packed and the planes were boarded. They reflect on who they were back home in South Africa, the careers they had built, and the lives they lived before making the life-changing decision to migrate to Australia. It’s a conversation about identity, courage, and the emotional turning points that lead us to leave everything familiar behind.
This is where their suitcase stories begin.