"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you....For I am the Lord, your God...." Isaiah 43:1-3

Monday 4 January 2010

what to bring, what to leave, what to forget....

I´ve decided to write this post for myself, because I want to remember what I needed, what was extra, and what was completly useless in africa. I might use this list when I´ll be packing next time, or some of you might use it etc. ... I just thought it would be handy to have a complete list of things needed to survive in rural africa :)

CARRY ON :
-aka the most important part of your luggage and the only one about which you can be sure that it will still be there at the end of the flight.

-passport, international vaccination papers, money etc. (usual stuff)
-antimalaria pills
-camera, camera charger, spare memory cards
-set of clean clothes
-cell phone + charger

hmmm that´s about it...this is all you´ll need in first few days/weeks, while they´ll be looking for your checked in bag which decided to make holiday in Cairo.
+ I tyed a blanket to the side of my backpack and the airlines didn´t have a problem with that so just try to stuff your carry on with as many items as you can, not just the bare necessities. You don't want to travel comfortably, for goodness sake you're traveling to africa!

CHECKED IN:
- aka the useless bag without which you´d be able to survive 8 to 10 days (depending on the speed with which they decide to search for it)

-clothes
take only the shirts and t-shirts which you want to leave there, because they will be probably destroyed by the end of your stay, and if not, then you´ll leave everything there anyway because people there could use them better than you.
-following numbers are based on prediction that you´ll travel fully dressed, with sock and everything...
-approx. 7 t-shirts
-2 or 3 shorts
-1 long pants
-2 long sleeved tops
-1hoodie
-2 pair of socks
-underwear
-water bottle (you might want to bring water purrifying tablets or something, but I didn´t use them after all, water was clean safe to drink in WWB )
-flipp-flopps /crocks
-stuff for the kids
-2 or 3 packs of baby wet wipes
-tissues
-toothbrush + toothpaste
-soap, shampoo
-medication: band-aids, Imodium AD, pain-killers, Strepsils (I didn´t use anything else)
-sleeping bag
-small pillow
-long PJs or just bottoms (I used clean T-shirt for sleeping)
-head torch, torch, batteries
-diary + pen/pencil

everything else is optional, and I didn´t need it while I was in WWB - I´m sure the conditions change from place to place but this is what I know about WWB :)

- I might have forgotten something, so feel free to ask, if you see something missing in here, I´ll be happy to add it there, or explain why it´s not listed.

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