Welcome back to the longest packing blog ever! If you missed them, here's part one and part two.
In this post, I'll share about the rest of the miscellaneous stuff that I brought.
-Bible: I brought a small ESV Bible my mom gave me as a gift. While it would be nice at times to have my study Bible, the thing is massive, and this one is much lighter and easier to carry.
–Leatherman tool: I haven't used it to it's full capabilities, but I've used some of the knives. It's a handy thing. Make sure you keep it in your big pack. One of my squadmates got his confiscated in the Beijing airport because he had it in his daypack.
-Computer: I brought my MacBook I've had for the past 5 years. It's still operating great, but it's a little heavy. It's worth it for writing blogs, editing pictures and videos, and watching movies. In a perfect world with lots of money in my bank account, I would've gotten a MacBook Air, but I'll happily lug my heavy baby around. If you're not into photography/videography, you should be fine with an iPad and external keyboard.
-iPod touch: I have not joined the iPhone bandwagon yet, but most of my squadmates have. An iPhone or iPod touch is great for listening to music, storing useful apps like translators or currency converters, taking pictures to post to Instagram, playing games on travel days, etc. Just be sure to get a really protective case! Mine only covers the back of my iPod, and I cracked the screen badly in Thailand, got it fixed in Cambodia, and then cracked it again in Japan.
-Nook: I'm a HUGE bookworm, and normally my convictions about actual books being far superior to ebooks would keep me from buying one. But my grandma gave me this one when she upgraded, and I've been SO thankful for it! I have a ton of books on it, and it's so nice to be able to read, which is one of my favorite hobbies!
-Hard drive: I got one that's one terabyte, so it has a ton of storage space. I back up all my pictures and videos constantly! I also have a lot of movies, songs, and ebooks on there. Things get passed around the squad, and you'll want some storage space to put things on! Nothing passes a long travel day like a movie!
-Extra contacts: I prefer contacts to glasses, so I wanted to make sure I had some extra!
-First Aid kit: Not necessary, because every team carries one provided by AIM, but it's nice to have painkillers and extra gauze and things. I enjoy taking care of people, so it's nice to have and worth the extra space
-Collapsible bowl/spork and knife kit: I actually have used these, even though we haven't camped. They're handy to have!
-Nikon D5100 DSLR and extra zoom lens
-Extra camera battery
-Extra SD cards
-Nailclippers: GET THEM!
-Journal: I'm probably the worst journaler ever. I started out strong, journaling every day in China and Thailand, but it's dropped down to once or twice a month. It's still nice to have as a processing tool
-Staples' entire stock of pens: aka two whole packs of pens. I haven't lost one yet, which surprises me, but it's handy to have as many pens as possible, because usually those things disappear like cockroaches in the light
-Portable speaker: useful for praise and worship nights and movie nights
-Headphones: try to bring an extra pair. Racers go through these like nobody's business! I'm on pair three or four now
-Nalgene: SUPER important!
-Toothbrush/toothpaste: I brought a full-sized tube and three toothbrushes, and that was a good choice. I bought a new tube in Japan (month 5) and am planning to buy a new toothbrush to last me the rest of the Race (it's the end of month 8)
-Adapter: Extremely necessary! I brought a huge bulky one from Target, which has served me fairly well, but there's a lot of options out there
-Charles Schwab card: EXCELLENT choice. I highly recommend looking into this! They pay you back for any ATM fees, which is awesome when you're overseas withdrawing money a lot! They also have excellent customer service.
-My bank card from home, just in case
-Driver's license
-Passport/passport cover
-Extra US cash hidden throughout my luggage for emergencies
-Cards and notes from people back home
-Art journal
-Colored pencils
-Charcoal sticks
-Art pens
-Bananagrams (that's a necessity to nerds like me)
THINGS I FOUND TO BE UNNECESSARY:
-Sunscreen and bug spray: They only take up valuable space and weight in your pack. This usually falls under supplies for the team, so AIM will pay for a team bottle of either if it's necessary for ministry. Plus the countries you'll go to where you'll need things like this will sell these products, so there's no need to bring them from America
-Water filter: AIM provides one for every team. And our entire squad has yet to use any of them. We just buy bottled water that's already filtered, which is also covered by AIM.
-Malaria pills: I heard so many differing opinions on these. They're mad expensive to buy in the States when you need several months' worth, and there's no guarantee that your route will be the same, leaving you with extra bottles of pills. I would recommend getting one bottle to start the meds before you go into a country that requires the use of these, and then buy them in the country. They are so much cheaper there! And you could luck out like me and not need to take them for the entire Race! Even the countries that I would normally need to take the pills in we're visiting in the winter. So no mosquitoes!
I hope this blog has been helpful to all potential and future Racers out there! The bottom line is to bring what is comfortable and works for you! Some people are not artistic and would hate carting around the art supplies that I do, and that works for them. My pack fluctuates between 45-48 pounds, and my daypack is around 25ish, so I definitely get tired on travel days. But it's worth it to me. Do whatever's best for you. Read a lot of blogs, take advice, and then pack what you feel is necessary! Realize too that you WILL be able to find a lot of things you need overseas. Not everyone overseas lives in the boondocks or the 17th century. Usually you encounter at least one bigger city a month where you can restock stuff. And at the end of the day, only you can decide what you really want and need. Good luck!
