I got back from dropping off my kids to my mom about 5:00 on Tuesday, stopped by Target for some last minute items, and was home about 6:00. My plan was to pack our bags, do two loads of laundry, mop and vacuum and be in bed by 10:00. HA! I should say that I had been working on packing for a couple of weeks. I had been gathering the stuff we needed in a big pile in my guest room and it seemed like a pretty easy task to just put it in the suitcases. Well, it would have been if my pile wasn't much larger than the space I had. I also had been gathering donations, but didn't realize how long it was going to take to make everything fit and stay within the weight limit. Needless to say it took us until 2:30 am to make everything essential fit and eliminate stuff we didn't absolutely have to have, and my floors never did get done! I had to get up at 4:30 to make the plane, so it was a rough start. So, my advice is, if you are going to Ethiopia this year, start packing now! And I mean today! Not just gathering stuff, but making sure it fits!
I took four 18 gallon Rubbermaid totes, 2 carry-on suitcases, and two backpacks. I used 3 of the Rubbermaid totes for donations. We repacked and rearranged and reweighed these countless times to make everything fit. They were each exactly 50 lbs each, which is the limit. Thank you to everyone who was so generous in donating! I used the 4th tote and the 2 suitcases for all of our stuff and the stuff for the baby. Since I have heard many stories of luggage not showing up, I tried to pack the stuff we couldn't live without in the suitcases and stuff we could buy there if necessary in the tote (i.e. diapers, snacks). Our 4th tote weighed 48 lbs. I should say that carry-ons have a weight limit of 15 lbs and we exceeded that by probably more than double. They didn't check though, but we made sure that our suitcases didn't appear to be busting at the seams. I used my backpack diaper bag and just carried it on so I didn't need to pack a diaper bag in the suitcase. We checked the 4 totes and put the suitcases in the overhead compartment and we each had a backpack at our feet.
We left the three totes with donations in Ethiopia and checked one suitcase and the other tote that we used for soveniers on the way back.
Note: I printed 2 packing lists off the internet plus AAI's list and the list I use whenever we go out of town. I could have saved myself some time packing by consolidating these lists into one.
Note #2: In order to make everything fit, I had to pack extremely tightly. I put all of our get ready products, i.e. shampoo, hair gel, lotion, etc. into travel sized containers. I brought those baby cloths with the soap already in them for the baby. I love these and I always use them when I travel with my kids. (I only brought one per day, and I should have brought 3 per day, see below.) I bought a travel sized hair dryer off Amazon that works on 110 and 220 and I brought my small flat iron. There was no empty space in our bag. We packed the candy to hand out into the baby bottles and the inside of the hot pot, socks in our shoes, and rolled our clothes super tight.
To bring and not to bring
First off, I forgot 3 three things. My belt, bags to put dirty diapers in, and extra batteries for my camera. I realized on the way to the airport that in my haste to get out the door I had forgotten to put on my belt, but we were too late to turn around and go back to get it. My pants fell down the entire time I was in Ethiopia. Not devastating, but irritating. This is why you should get more than two hours of sleep the night before you leave, or better yet, lay out your clothes for the next day before you go to sleep. How I forgot the diaper bags is unexplainable. I had 4 lists of stuff to pack and they were on probably 3 of them. I also have probably 200 of them, but they were downstairs and I was packing upstairs and I kept thinking I would grab them next time I went down, but somehow they never made it. These are essential. Not only for dirty diapers, but also for dirty clothes. Our baby had some pretty serious digestive issues and nearly every time he had a dirty diaper we had to change his clothes. He also threw up (not spit up, threw up) once or twice a day, also necessitating a change of clothes and I really could have used these to put all his dirty clothes in. I did bring some extra Ziplocs which I used for this, but I didn't have enough for the whole trip so luckily Teri gave me some. I brought rechargeable batteries for my camera, but I wanted some extra "real" batteries, just in case. I bought some in the airport, but I never needed them. I just recharged my batteries every night and they lasted fine.
Stuff I should have left at home:
Food - I brought way to much food. We gave most of it away on the last day.
Stuff I am glad I brought:
Tide sink packets - We had the hotel do laundry for us, but when there isn't any electricity, there isn't any laundry, one time it took almost 3 days to get our clothes back.
The Hot Pot
Hot pot - we used this to warm bottles, although I don't think the bottles are usually warm in the orphanage. (They boil the water, add the formula, and let them cool to room temperature.) Room temperature formula seems gross to me, so I heated the water just a little. We used Playtex bottles with the liners, so we just needed to clean the nipples and rings. The Playtex bottle didn't look anything like the bottles in the orphanage, but our baby didn't care. To clean the nipples and rings, we washed them with water and dish soap and then boiled them in the hot pot. We boiled water for 5 minutes and then added the nipples and rings and boiled for another two minutes. This thing heats water ridiculously fast and I am glad I brought it. I bought it at Walmart for like $15. (Robin and Andrea, you can borrow mine if you want.) Just a note, the Hot Pot didn't work on 220v so we bought a dual (high wattage/low wattage) converter at Walmart. ($20, I think) The converter came with multiple European to US adapters which we used. Nearly all of our cameras, battery chargers, etc. worked on 220 as well as 110. Bring several adapters so that you can plug in multiple things at the same time.
Flash Light
Alarm clock - you can get a wake up call, but it may not be on time and they walk up to your room and knock on the door, rather than call. It's also nice to know what time it is when you wake up in the middle of the night with the baby.
Tissue - for the toilets
Hand Sanitizer
Clorox wipes - used on lots of things - airplane tray tables, etc.
Toys for the baby - Seth loves toys, loves to chew on them, hold them, look at them, everything about them. I was glad I brought a few to keep him entertained.
Lonely Planet's Ethiopia and Eritrea book - very helpful. I also wish I had bought and brought Lonely Planet's Ethiopian Amharic Phrasebook.
Note: I printed 2 packing lists off the internet plus AAI's list and the list I use whenever we go out of town. I could have saved myself some time packing by consolidating these lists into one.
Note #2: In order to make everything fit, I had to pack extremely tightly. I put all of our get ready products, i.e. shampoo, hair gel, lotion, etc. into travel sized containers. I brought those baby cloths with the soap already in them for the baby. I love these and I always use them when I travel with my kids. (I only brought one per day, and I should have brought 3 per day, see below.) I bought a travel sized hair dryer off Amazon that works on 110 and 220 and I brought my small flat iron. There was no empty space in our bag. We packed the candy to hand out into the baby bottles and the inside of the hot pot, socks in our shoes, and rolled our clothes super tight.
To bring and not to bring
First off, I forgot 3 three things. My belt, bags to put dirty diapers in, and extra batteries for my camera. I realized on the way to the airport that in my haste to get out the door I had forgotten to put on my belt, but we were too late to turn around and go back to get it. My pants fell down the entire time I was in Ethiopia. Not devastating, but irritating. This is why you should get more than two hours of sleep the night before you leave, or better yet, lay out your clothes for the next day before you go to sleep. How I forgot the diaper bags is unexplainable. I had 4 lists of stuff to pack and they were on probably 3 of them. I also have probably 200 of them, but they were downstairs and I was packing upstairs and I kept thinking I would grab them next time I went down, but somehow they never made it. These are essential. Not only for dirty diapers, but also for dirty clothes. Our baby had some pretty serious digestive issues and nearly every time he had a dirty diaper we had to change his clothes. He also threw up (not spit up, threw up) once or twice a day, also necessitating a change of clothes and I really could have used these to put all his dirty clothes in. I did bring some extra Ziplocs which I used for this, but I didn't have enough for the whole trip so luckily Teri gave me some. I brought rechargeable batteries for my camera, but I wanted some extra "real" batteries, just in case. I bought some in the airport, but I never needed them. I just recharged my batteries every night and they lasted fine.
Stuff I should have left at home:
Food - I brought way to much food. We gave most of it away on the last day.
Stuff I am glad I brought:
Tide sink packets - We had the hotel do laundry for us, but when there isn't any electricity, there isn't any laundry, one time it took almost 3 days to get our clothes back.
The Hot PotHot pot - we used this to warm bottles, although I don't think the bottles are usually warm in the orphanage. (They boil the water, add the formula, and let them cool to room temperature.) Room temperature formula seems gross to me, so I heated the water just a little. We used Playtex bottles with the liners, so we just needed to clean the nipples and rings. The Playtex bottle didn't look anything like the bottles in the orphanage, but our baby didn't care. To clean the nipples and rings, we washed them with water and dish soap and then boiled them in the hot pot. We boiled water for 5 minutes and then added the nipples and rings and boiled for another two minutes. This thing heats water ridiculously fast and I am glad I brought it. I bought it at Walmart for like $15. (Robin and Andrea, you can borrow mine if you want.) Just a note, the Hot Pot didn't work on 220v so we bought a dual (high wattage/low wattage) converter at Walmart. ($20, I think) The converter came with multiple European to US adapters which we used. Nearly all of our cameras, battery chargers, etc. worked on 220 as well as 110. Bring several adapters so that you can plug in multiple things at the same time.
Flash Light
Alarm clock - you can get a wake up call, but it may not be on time and they walk up to your room and knock on the door, rather than call. It's also nice to know what time it is when you wake up in the middle of the night with the baby.
Tissue - for the toilets
Hand Sanitizer
Clorox wipes - used on lots of things - airplane tray tables, etc.
Toys for the baby - Seth loves toys, loves to chew on them, hold them, look at them, everything about them. I was glad I brought a few to keep him entertained.
Lonely Planet's Ethiopia and Eritrea book - very helpful. I also wish I had bought and brought Lonely Planet's Ethiopian Amharic Phrasebook.
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