Some things...

We are moving out of the country. Out. Of. The. Country. In a few Months. That could almost be said as well "in a few WEEKS".

Seriously. Seriously? Seriously!!

We have been preparing for this for over 7 years. It seems unbelievable that it could take seven years. But then I stop and remember who the Lord is working with, and marvel that it has only been that long!

The point of this post is to record a few of the obscure things I think are essentials to have packed into suitcases when moving a family across the globe to a third world country.

True, we are going with the primary goal of serving The Lord Jesus Christ. Proclaiming his goodness and the Good News is priority one. Bringing others to saving knowledge available through Jesus in order that they will praise the eternal King... point One.

But I will be living there, and there are some things that this to-the-core westerner seems to believe- at this juncture- are essential. I want to document it while it is fresh. Partly to have it on record, and partly to be able to refer back to it once I really learn what is essential! I am sure I will look back and laugh at a few of these things!!

1. Mosquito nets.

For fairly obvious reasons, I should think. Some tell me only those who are tourists use them, and to use them while living there gets "old" and overkill. I get it. Also they are pretty warm as the air doesn't flow well through them. Maybe a little over kill is better than mosquito kill! We shall see!

2. Manual food processor.

Electricity will be spotty at best, so the more non-electric things the better. I have no idea if it even works well, but I know it doesn't need electricity!

3. Solar lights.

Electricity not so reliable.... Sunshine Very! Zambia is one of the African countries between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn. That being the case... sun is very strong for several of the 12 sunshine hours every day.

Every. Day.

Being a native Rochestarian I suffer from vitamin D deficiency due to the lack of sunshine in our town. My home town makes a pretty good showing on the list of the top cloudiest cities in the country.

I believe my transition to a third world culture will  be helped because I will at last have the positive medicinal  effects of sunshine!!

All that being said, solar powered anything is ideal!!

So solar lights for indoors and out, as well as a solar charger for the cell phone. Would be nice to have had the ability to make a solar panel for the house. One can dream!





4. Dual Voltage hair straightener.

I wont even elaborate. Although I will say I have the same hair straightener my friend had when she traveled to Zambia last year. Lets just say she had the advantage of returning to the states after a few weeks to take advantage of the four year guarantee on the device. 

And her hair grew back nicely after being fried off. After all it was only a small patch of hair. Not too noticeable. While I will have it, I may not use it too much!! 

5. A 5 Gallon bucket... No photo. No Explanation. Enough said. 

6. A Solar Cooker.

Just imagine that is me in the picture!! This is a relatively new discovery for my intellectual files. I had prior to yesterday never heard of them! Either I have lived under a rock my whole life, or in relative civilization. Although many campers and other "green" people have been using them forever. They are like a crock pot type oven.  Pretty amazing! And they can be made very simply, portable or stationary. Pretty excited to bring some of the materials needed to make one, and then to try it out! There are entire recipe books dedicated to this type of cooking!! Who knew!

I will add that the need for these things were not aided in any way by a certain website that begins with a letter P. Seriously!

So there is the list for now. If I end up with more then I will add them. This is "for the record" after all.