Does it usually take over 16 days to send stuff from SA to US? Honest question, because I've gotten things from China within 5-10 days.
Definitely - small parcels from China are typically sent airmail, which is significantly faster. Surface mail is by boat, which means the vessel needs to get to its destination port and then you have the import cycle. As you've seen with the shipping options we offer, though, airmail is also prohibitively more expensive:)