I had to make a lot of tough decisions when I packed my bag. I'm going to a huge variety of countries, so unfortunately, I have to take a bunch of different clothes. I tried to pack as lightly as I could (two pairs of pants that both zip off into shorts, three t-shirts, one tank top, six pairs of socks, etc), and really, I don't think I have very many clothes with me. You can tell from my photos that I'm wearing the same clothes over and over.
But then there's everything else. My bag is mostly made up of stuff. I've got cosmetics like toothpaste and shampoo, sunscreen and soap. Then I have a few games, like cards and a dice game.
And most importantly, I have medical supplies. I brought probably more than I really need. On one hand, you could get most of what you'd need wherever you are in the world. But I'm staying in lots of small towns and I've seen that their pharmacies are not very stocked. Then there's the issue that when you're sick or injured, you might not feel or be able to go out and buy what you need. A good example of this happened last night for us.
You probably know that malaria is a disease that's carried by mosquitoes and is found in most countries in the southern hemisphere. It is really serious and many people die each year from it. So it's important to take medication when you go to infected countries. Almost my entire trip is spent in malaria zones, so I brought enough for a year - 365 pills! This is how much space the pills take up (and I've already used two months worth of pills!)
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| My Malaria Pills! |
Even if you're taking anti-malaria medication, you can still get malaria. But there is a better chance you'll survive, so it's worth it to carry these pills around. That means it's important to still protect yourself from mosquitoes. This is a bug coil:
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| The bug coils and metal stand. |
It detracts insects and can kill them. You light it like an incense and it slowly burns and smokes. This one has a little metal stand that you put it on. For humans, it's not the best to breathe in the smoke, but we've used them from time to time if we're in a place with a lot of mosquitoes.
So before going to sleep, I lit a coil. Since our bungalow was made almost entirely of dried bamboo, it seemed safest to leave it sitting on the concrete so we knew it wouldn't catch on fire. Throughout the night, it slowly burned 'til there was no coil left. At some point in the night, Mr. Elder got up in the dark. He headed to the bathroom and walked right over the metal stand for the coil! He got a huge cut in his foot, and was bleeding all over the bungalow. I had to wake up and help him. It was scary how much blood there was!
We soon came to our senses, and got him to sit down, elevate his foot, and put pressure on the cut. It turned out to not be that bad, it just bled a lot since it was in his foot. We cleaned it, bandaged it up, and he was ok. But I couldn't help but feel very lucky! It could have been a much worse cut. As it was, there would've been no way to go get medical supplies at 3:30 am and leave him bleeding all over the place! I was thankful we were prepared.
So even though it's heavy, I know that everything I'm carrying is important in some way. In case you're curious, altogether my bag weighs 19 kilograms. I think I'll come back with some bigger muscles!
On a lighter note, I'll tell you that I did not pack any make-up. I thought that would be a waste of space! As it turns out, I didn't need to! To protect their faces from the sun, Malagasy women (women from Madagascar) use avocado paste as a shield. Then they paint over it in designs to make it pretty, like make-up. I couldn't resist giving it a try!
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| My friend Caroline who did my make-up. |
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| Ready for the beach! |
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