The months before leaving is such an exciting and kinda scary time. I remember reading a lot of blogs about what Zambia is like and what to pack. I’m surprised that I read so many blogs because I’m a bit of a procrastinator. I think I was hoping that if I read enough someone else would magically do the packing for me. Maybe Dumbledore would appear in the middle of the night and cast a packing spell. I realize that fantasying about an old man appearing in your room is a little weird, but I have packing. So here is another list that hopefully will give you some things to chew on.

First I will say that you can find a lot of things in country, so don’t freak out about missing anything. There are stores that a very similar to ones back home. There is Game that is like a Walmart, your standard grocery stores, book stores, makeup stores, whatever you need. Majority of these are in Lusaka. During PST you’ll have a chance to go into Lusaka, but it’s about a couple weeks to a month into training. So make sure to bring enough towelettes to last that long.

I will say even though you can find most things in country they don’t have the whole range of brand selection that is in the US, especially when it comes to specialty brands. So if you like a specific brand make sure to get enough for at least PST and if you have an awesome friends/family back home they can always send you more in care package. The one thing that is almost impossible to find is stick deodorant. They have roll on and spray deodorant here and that’s about it. Also, good quality q-tips are also difficult to find, so if you’re like me, and have a weird q-tip obsession bring a Costco pack.

Even though the selection here is not as good, you do get used to it. Like any drunken night you’re standards drop pretty fast. However it is nice to pack one or two things of “luxury”. I packed this fancy lotion my mom got me for Christmas, I’m happy I did because every time I use it feels a little like home.

Cloths

For cloths, try not and stress too much about this. Don’t go out to REI and spend $1000 on the latest outdoor cloths, save that money for traveling around Africa. Try and bring cloths you have or go to places like goodwill to get cheap outdoor cloths. Sirra trading post is also a good site.

I would say to make sure to bring enough cloths and undies to last you 5 days to a week. You are so busy during PST you only have Sunday’s to wash your cloths. For RAP there are times when you are digging fish ponds and getting in the ponds to harvest, so it’s nice to have enough cloths to last you through these weeks.

The cloths should be business casual. And a couple work cloths that can get dirty. I can only talk about my experience with the RAP training team (LIFE and RAP are trained in separate sites and are too faraway to interact durn PST). The RAP trainers can be picky about what you wear. If you wear a nice tee shirt and a nice pair of jeans or slacks you should be fine. They did lecture some guys about wearing shorts (even though they were nice shorts), they would get after females about wearing sleeveless shirts, and oversized shirts with leggings were a no go. I would always just have a button down shirt in my bag and put it on like a cardigan if anything was said to me about my outfit.

I would bring shorts and/or basketball shorts. You’ll wear shorts when you’re on vacation or around the prov house and shorts for women can be hard to find here because it’s not in the culture to wear cloths above the knee. Basketball shorts or yoga pants that go to the knee and flair out are nice to have. You can wear them around your living compound, around the village even. I have a pair of black capris yoga pants that flared out and wore them during PST and nothing was ever said to me. I wear them when harvesting fish ponds because they dry fast and they are so comfortable.

Leggings and tight workout pants to the knees are not a bad idea to bring. If you’re wearing a dress or skirt when you’re biking they often hike up you’re leg. Even though I wear short shorts in America, because of the culture here I have become self conscious about wearing things too high above my knees. Also, at this point my thighs are so white I’m afraid I’ll blinding people if I bike past with thigh showing. Plus you can wear the leggings under skirts/shorts/dresses that don’t go to the knees and it will make them village appropriate. I wear the knee length leggings under shorter dresses all the time.

Once you are posted to your permanent site you’ll have more flexibility in what you can wear. Plus you’ll have more opportunities to get cloths at DAPP (like a goodwill) and from PCVs that are going home.

You’ll come into Zambia during the rainy season, so make sure you bring a good rain jacket. I brought one that had armpit zips, I love it because it makes biking not so hot.

For shoes tevas/chacos are the most common thing volunteers wear. Flip flops are nice to walk around the compound with, but you can find them in country. If you like to run bring a pair of running shoes. Good pair of running shoes can be hard to find in Zambia.

Weight

Unfortunately loosing weight in Zambia is not a given. Usually people who have extra lb’s loose them. Women have a harder time loosing weight. I gained a lot of weight before coming to country. I was eating all the ice cream I could find, even eating it for breakfast (I can do that I’m an adult), thinking I’ll loose weight in Africa. I am just starting to loose weight now, nine months in. This is only because now I have started to work out, trust me it was a real depressing day when I decided that I would have to start working out even though I was biking everywhere. So make sure you bring cloths that fit and try and contain yourself before coming to country.

Food

The main food here is called nshima. Zambians eat it breakfast lunch and dinner. They eat it with a relish (a side dish). The relishes can very from, leafy greens, to beans, to groundnuts. I will say things are usually over cooked with a lot of oil and salt.

During PST your host family will cook all you’re meals for you, so you’ll be eating very Zambian meals during PST. Majority of the host families have had volunteers before so they are used to Americans. The Peace Corps teaches them about proper nutrition and cooking so you should be getting enough food and some variety.

Once you’re posted to you’re permanent site you can cook for yourself. Some volunteers eat lunch or dinner with their host families where others do not. It’s up to you and you’re host family.

Because you don’t have electricity and food storage can be an issue a lot of volunteers eat foods that can be easily stored. Like rice, soya, peanut butter, oatmeal, and pasta. For me lack of variety can be a difficult aspect of service. There are spices that can be found in the grocery stores, they are not bad, the most common brand is a South African brand. You can find hot sauces in country. The American brand you can find is Tabasco. If you have a favorite spice bring it, I brought Jonny’s Seasoning Salt, others brought Old Bay. If you know you’ll have awesome friends or family sending care packages, save room in your bag and have it sent in a care package.

Majority of the foods not the healthiest, think pure white type of rice. You can find some whole grain noodles. Like in America the healthy foods are more expensive, which can be hard on a peace corps budget. Things like cliff bars and healthy snack foods are really hard to find.

Bring packs of crystal light or those condensed flavor bottles you can squirt into your water is nice to have. Mostly because at some point you’ll be pooping yourself nonstop and will have to drink ORS to rehydrate. ORS isn’t the best tasting stuff, so these flavor packs help.

You can find cooking utensils, knifes pots and pans in Lusaka, so no need to bring them. There are can openers as well, but they are not the best quality. You will get “moving in allowance” when you are posted to your site to help you buy all these things.

They do have tea and coffee in country. There are options but depending on how much you drink, can add up on a PC budget. Being from Washington State I’m a coffee snob, not the biggest fan of the coffee here. Tea and coffee can be a great care package gift if you find you don’t like the options here. You can find glass French presses here. Sometimes they break. I definitely don’t recommend bringing a glass French press, there is a good chance it will break along the way. I brought a stainless steel press that is insulated, I love it, it keeps my second cup of coffee nice and warm in the cold season.

Outdoor Gear

You’ll want to bring a sleeping bag. I have used my sleeping bag way more than I thought I would have. Going to kids camps, random camping trips, spending the night at other volunteers places and an extra layer during cold season. The one thing I personally would have spent more money on is getting a sleeping bag that compacts really small. Space in your pack can become valuable especially if you’ll be away from home for a while and want to bring goods from the boma back with you.

Tent, I didn’t bring one and I have managed. I have borrowed ones that the house has or slept with volunteers who have a tent. If you want to bring one and have room, go for it. Don’t worry if you can’t bring one, there should be extras you can borrow at the prov house.

Hammock, I didn’t bring one, the previous volunteer left one for me. It is set up in my house and I love it. Like the tent, I feel if you have the packing room and money for it and want it, then bring it.

Solar showers. I got one for $5-10 on Amazon. I never used it during PST because your host family heats up your bathing water for you. The volunteer before me made a bucket system that is almost like an indoor shower. So I gave mine to another volunteer before I ever got to use it. The people who have them love them. Heating up bath water every day is a pain, so it would be nice to have something that heats the water for you. Other volunteers don’t mind taking a cold bucket bath. If you’re a person that values a shower bring one.

Washers. There are a couple volunteers who brought these bags that have little scrubbers in them. They fill the bag up with water, soap and their cloths. Then they roll the bag back and forth and it cleans the cloths. The people who have this like it. I don’t know how much it is, or the brand. I bought a $5 plastic washboard from Amazon and am so happy I did. Washing your cloths by hand is really tough on your hands and the washboard helps a lot. For the love of your hands I would bring some type of washing aid.

I have one of those Luci blow up solar lamps. I like it. It’s nice to have something I can pack in my bag that doesn’t take up much space for when I go camping. This definitely isn’t a must bring, but if someone want to get you a gift it can be a nice one.

Lifestraw or a filter water bottle. I have one and only use it when I’m traveling around country, it’s convenient but not a must. PC gives you a filter for your water. They also give you iodine tablets you can put in your water when traveling. It’s another one of those items that make a nice gift.

Packs. If you don’t have a travel/hiking pack I would get one. It’s not as important during PST but once you’re at your permanent site you’ll most likely have to walk or bike out of your site to get anywhere, doing this with a suitcase, the struggle is real.

Rain covers. The rainy season is about half the year. So getting rain covers for your packs is important. You can get smaller rain covers for your backpack. Dry packs for you’re electronics is also nice.

Technology

Solars. There is lots of different opinions on solars. Peace Corps gives you a lamp that is called Sun King that you can charge a phone off of. Anything bigger you’ll need a different solar. I got a foldable three panel solar from Dragon X. It was a lot cheaper than the other popular options, it charges the power bank I bought separately pretty quickly. I’m totally happy with it. There are solar options in country. There are plenty of volunteers that get a big solar setup when they get posted to their permanent site. Those solars are strong enough to power laptops.

Power banks, this is a good idea to charge you’re phone and any electronics you have. This is good for when you have 14 hour bus rides from your site to Lusaka, or anytime during the rainy season. If you’re bringing you’re laptop you’ll probably have to get a solar set up. I have a iPad mini, iPhone, and a older kindle, my power bank that’s 20000 mAh size works fine and can charge all three. Make sure you do a little research and your power bank can charge you’re things.

Electronics, if you don’t bring your laptop it’s a good idea to bring something like a tablet, kindle, iPad that can download pdf’s and write up papers/ do editing. This isn’t an essential but it come in nice for blogs, applying for PC committees, and doing research. I have downloaded PDFs to my docs app for offline reading to help me with research for village projects. There is a lot of information out there from HIV to village micro loans, if you download them at the prov house you can continue your work in the village. There are volunteers who wish they would have brought their laptop. My laptop was a total A-hole and decided to take a swim before I left. I decided I didn’t want to spend the money to buy a laptop when I had an iPad mini. I still wouldn’t buy a laptop, but if you have one it’s not a bad idea to bring it. With my docs app I’m able to do all the important stuff, plus Apple has a PowerPoint app and movie making app. I have a SunDisk thumb drive that is dual ended and can be used in both the lightning port and the USB port. It’s called the iXpand Drive it comes in a variety of GB and prices. If you’re only bringing an iPad I would suggest getting it, it really helps free up space and it’s nice to transfer stuff from the house computers to my iPad. Plus if anyone has movies you can copy them onto your drive. External hard drives comes in handy if you want to get movies, books shows from other volunteers.

Phones. Majority of volunteers just brought the phone they had in the States. PC will help you get a SIM card cut to fit into your smartphone. Make sure you have it unlocked. PC gave us a brick phone when we got into country, but majority of people just had the SIM card cut and put it into their android/iPhone. You won’t have a monthly data plan for your phone, what you’ll do is buy “talk time” then convert that to data. It is kinda like a pay as you go type phone. Reception varies where you are in country. Being a RAP/LIFE Volunteer you’re more likely to be deeper in the bush. Majority of us have E (extended, think 2G) reception. It should be enough to send out WhatsApp messages, maybe an email, but probably not enough to surf the internet. Saying that, there are some volunteers who have good service and can load videos, I’m not one of them, sometime I’ll go a whole day without service. Sometimes it’s really annoying, but you’ll be surprised at what you can adapt to. I will say make sure to download all the apps you’ll use before coming to country. PC might not be able to get your SIM card cut until a couple weeks into training, you won’t have wifi at your training center, and downloading apps take up a lot of data. Phone and data services are slowly improving in Zambia, when we first came to country there was only 3G now there is 4G in the Lusaka area. If you decided to not bring a phone to country there are android options for around $120 USD. Some places in Lusaka sell iPhones but it’s not as common. It probably will be 3-4 weeks before you have the option of getting a smartphone in country (at least it was for us).

Headphones, an extra pair of headphones is good, peoples get lost or ruined. If you like music a Bluetooth speaker is also good. They do sell them in country, I got one at Game and like it. Full disclosure, I’m not picky about these things.

Extra USB cables are a plus too!

Medical

PC will give you a pretty good medical kit when you get into country. So don’t worry about band aids or things like that.

The sunscreen they provide is 30 spf, however you can ask for higher. The quality isn’t awesome but it works.

They tell you to bring 3 months of your medication. You’ll need to do this. I brought 5 months of my birth control and am happy I did because I was able to skip my period a couple times.

For lady products, PC does not provide anything. I use a Divacup and am happy with it. You can find tampons in country but they are more expensive, also you can only find the ones that don’t have applicators.

Try not and stress too much about packing, you can find a lot of things in country or have them sent to you. Don’t go out spending a crazy amount of money on things, especially cloths.

Make sure to bring things that make you feel comfortable and remind you of home, favorite shirt or dress, pictures of family, spices, beauty products (ladies definitely bring makeup), whatever makes you happy. I have my college flag hanging in my room. Go Cougs!

PST can be really intense, it can be difficult to be around 30+ people every day, and you are so busy learning the language and about your project. Try and take some time to yourself and be nice to your fellow PCVs. They really do become your supposed system throughout your service.

Enjoy the last of the American food. Craft beer is definitely something I miss.