To The New Group

You are arriving in a little under a month. If you’re anything like me you will be really excited and then the night before you fly out you’ll be the equivalent of roughly one valium away from a nervous breakdown.  Please don’t be like me, that was completely uncalled for. This is not a conmplete packing list just a few things that I came across while getting ready. So my hints for reducing you stress are as follows:

Clothes

You only have limited space and weight limits, and you are probably worried about what to bring as far as clothes go. Ladies bring a few t-shirts, some lightweight travel pants, some long skirts, swimsuit and underwear.  Boys, same thing but you can skip the skirts.  You can and will buy clothes here I promise! If it comes down to leaving something out so you can bring a pressure cooker or whatever, leave out the clothes. A hat is nice to have and I do advise bringing a brand new package of underwear and just holding on to it. You’ll thank me in about a year.
Med kit
Don’t even bother with this one unless you have some sort of medication or batman band-aid (which is really cool) then that you should bring. The Peace Corps medical office is amazing. Dr. Max and Dr. John and Nurse Evelyn have absolutely everything you need. I brought medical stuff when I came and I haven’t touched it.  All I can suggest is maybe some ibuprofen and a handful of band aids to get you through home stay.  

Shoes

You hear all kinds of things on this one.  Bring tennis shoes, bring sandals, bring a hiking boot that stamps out waffle patterns in the mud, you know stuff like that.  I brought tennis shoes, hiking boots, and a pair of Tevas.  I live in my Tevas, ask anyone. I actually wore a pair out and had to get a new one.  If you hate wearing sandals in the States you probably will here too.  I think I can count on one hand the number of times I have worn my tennis shoes and I haven’t touched the hiking boots (sorry mom). Don’t worry about flip flops, Peace Corps gives you a pair, they’re not super nice or anything but they are great for the shower. So if you have a pair you can’t live without, bring it.
Games/Time killers

These you will want. I brought a deck of cards and a book of word search puzzles to country and I love them both. Other things we recommend are Uno, Apples to Apples and Bananagrams. Any kind of small puzzle game that can travel well is good to have.  You will have some down time in home stay and these are good to have.
Electronics

I brought a net book to country and an external hard drive and my ipod. Insure things before you leave!!!! I cannot stress this enough, Malawi is hard on electronics. I have had to replace each of these, thankfully they were covered so that helped a lot. If it mattered to you in the states it will matter to you here even more.  Having a computer is not a necessity but it is really nice and does help get stuff done. The external hard drive is good to have if you plan on keep yourself entertained. There are a ton of movies and tv shows floating around here but get a really good travel case. Bouncing around on a mini bus does nothing good for these things
US Dollars
I think the maximum you can put in the safe in Lilongwe is about 700 or 800. Do it if you can afford to.  Sometimes things come up and you need some extra cash.  Or if you are planning a trip somewhere it helps to be able to start off with USD, the Malawian Kwacha is worth nothing.

Lights/Batteries

Bring a good head lamp, odds are good it’ll be your main source of light for a very long time. With that in mind get rechargeable batteries for it. It does you no good to run out of batteries and have to wait for them to come from America. Get a headlamp that takes rechargables and get extra batteries so you are never stuck. 

Solar

I have a solar panel that hooks up to a motorcycles battery and I can charge stuff off of that, in theory. It worked for a while but I think something is wrong with the battery since it is cheap junk but it worked for a while.  A lot of people have a little solar charger that they stick in the sun all day and can charge their ipod or phone for a bit at night. That is a nice thing to have so bring one of those. I also have a small flashlight made by Coleman that has a solar panel and hand crank charger on it and I like it a lot.  If it has been a cloudy rainy day you can still charge it and read at night.
At the moment that is all I can think of. If you happen to come up with any questions just ask and I’ll do what I can to answer them.  Please remember, you’ll be ok! I had never been out of the States before coming here and I made it so you will too! Keep calm and keep breathing!

Also, don’t do all your packing the night before you leave. That won’t help you either.  Otherwise, I look forward to seeing you all for your week two of training!