What We Wished We Had/Hadn't Packed

My cousin Heather asked me, shortly after arriving in Uganda, what we didn’t pack, but wished we had, and what we had packed, but wished we hadn’t. It was too soon to tell at that point, but I thought about that question constantly while doing life there.

We packed so many school supplies that we either didn't need or could have easily purchased in Uganda, things like pens and pencils, crayons, highlighters, lined paper, worksheets and textbooks. When it comes right down to it, all of the basics can be covered just fine without all the bells and whistles, and the kids did great. (Or else that is just what their current teachers are telling us to make us feel better. It's okay. We'll take it!)

We ended up with more bug spray and sunscreen than we needed, but our night guard appreciated the bug spray, and we were able to pass on the sunscreen to several other ministries and missionaries.

I wish we had brought our own printer and ink instead of having to go to a shop to print things and make copies. When I sent our Ugandan friend, David, the price would be about half of the “mzungu price” that they charged us.

As far as food went, it was better to just forget about our American favorites and embrace what we had available, but tacos were a staple dinner and we did have extra packets of taco seasoning sent over in care packages. We ended up with a few ranch dressing packets, too, but those require sour cream, which was not available. Dave had to find a recipe to make sour cream using vinegar, cream, and milk and after letting it sit out for 24 hours, voilà, you have sour cream that you can then mix with ranch packets to make ranch dressing. Needless to say, we didn't do that much.

This is Central Market, where we bought all of our staple food items (rice, beans, fruits and vegetables) , tools, clothes, shoes, blankets, etc. There was a booth for just about everything. Most of the items were in used condition. This is where a good deal of the items we send to those less fortunate end up. Most items are from America and Europe. There are no prices on anything, but you can bet that whatever price they first offer is at least double what the actual value should be. 

There were many booths in the market where we could purchase tools, but they were not nearly as sturdy as the tools that we have in America, we wished we had brought a few more of those.

Also, shockingly, I wish we had brought some nicer clothes and my make-up. We were very conservative in the amount and type of clothes that we packed because…Africa. From the very first week though, I was caught off guard at missionary gatherings where all the women were still complimenting each other’s adorable new scarf from target or asking where they purchased their cute shoes. Evidently some missionaries have regular care packages sent over to keep them trendy.

While our style helped eliminate one more area where we would have been set apart from our Ugandan friends, even Ugandans spend a good deal of their salary to look nice on special occasions.

We did manage to scrape together something nice for most of the kids on Christmas...and those we couldn't find something nice for, we just hid in the back for pictures. :-)  What you also can't see here is Carter wearing basketball shorts with his button-down shirt.

Our home did have electricity, but no matter how nice the house is in Uganda, Umeme, the power company, could decide to turn the power off to all of town or certain sections with no explanation. We never invested in one, but some nights, we wished we had a large battery powered light to get us through dark shower times and bedtime stories.

We are so glad that we brought cereal containers with strong seals to keep the bugs out of our rice, flour and sugar. Our matchbox cars and magnetic trains took a good deal of the weight limit in our luggage, but the toys were so different than Ugandan toys, that many kids we had over LOVED them!

Cell phones are a necessity as there is no such thing as landlines in Uganda. You simply purchase a sim card, put it in your phone and buy airtime cards which give you a certain amount of minutes for phone calls. We had no idea which phones would work for us there, so we ended up with several extras donated to us that we were able to give away and provide a much needed lifeline to many of our friends. For someone in the village, a cell phone saves them having to walk many miles to ask a simple question or access a resource located in the center of town.

So, overall, we were happy with what we packed, especially since we had no idea what to expect. Even some of the things, like towels and bed sheets, which we could have purchased in Uganda, we were glad that we brought on our own for the simple fact that you need to negotiate the price for every single item you purchase. It is just exhausting and due to the color of our skin, we would still end up with a price double or triple what a Ugandan would pay.