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