PCV Packing Guide for Niger

NOTES TO FUTURE NIGER PCVs:
Niger is another world altogether, and if you are really willing to live here, you have already decided to go without some things we all take for granted in the states. But you don’t have to go caveman or do without your favorite things; thinking through your packing with some idea of what you can and cant get here might help you. So here is my own packing guide for you all.

General notes:
-do not bring any very special thing that cannot be lost or broken under any circumstances. It will break, Niger destroys everything.
-do bring the few things that you will go insane without. (watercolors? An old (not special) instrument? Your running shoes or yoga cards? Favorite nail polish, DVD, photos, pyjama pants?) whatever that little thing is that you recharge with in the states. I didn’t bring my violin and now have to have it brought from the states so that the doctor doesn’t have to Med-Sep me for mental health reasons.

Host family gift/ things to show your villagers:
I didn’t bring anything from america for my host family, but I gave them fruit from Niamey when I visited there. But things you might think about bringing to give or to show (to help explain america) would be: an atlas, definitely bring pictures of your family and friends, pictures of snow, I use blow up globe beach balls with my English club, coloring books and colored pencils or other small kids art supplies because kids don‘t have things to do art with here, a frisbee and if you see a kid’s book in the Paris airport in French you might pick that up. Uno cards are great or other small travel games-they play a game with regular cards like uno but they love the actual uno cards too and you can try teaching them other american games that don‘t require language.

Electronics:
In Niger, the hostels generally have electricity, refrigerators, Tvs, dvd/vhs players etc. If you are going to be an education or community development volunteer you’ll probably be in a bigger city and probably have electricity. If you’re going to be agriculture or health worker you might be in a very small village and might not (probably wont?) have electricity. Many volunteers with power at their house love to unwind by watching tv shows and movies and playing music in their house. Those without power still use their ipods till the battery runs out or have a solar charger. I find my small 10inch laptop indispensable in the bush and it‘s size is awesome for toting back and forth to Zinder on our god-awful bush taxis. Whatever your house has, as I said, your hostel will have electricity so if you aren’t sure about bringing a small set of speakers or an ipod or laptop base your decision on whether or not you want it to last longer than these 2 years (again, assume it will be useless when you come back) but you will more than likely use it here.

Camera:
This is the most important thing you will bring. You can either bring a great camera and take amazing photos and stress out about it getting broken and not let Nigeriens touch it. Or you can bring a crappy camera, imagine how amazing your pictures would be if you’d brought a good one and be happy that your villagers are soo happy to play (a little) with your camera and look at the photos you took of them and take a few for themselves. You decide.

Clothes:
Most volunteers buy Nigerien fabric and get clothes made here by the tailors, in fact a lot of us really like this part of the lifestyle here. However, most of the fabric is heavy and durable and not light and breezy. So you will want to pack several light breezy tshirts that cover the shoulder and tummy and that don’t show too much cleavage. For guys, definitely pack a dress shirt, although you can buy them here too, that’ll be an important part of your attire if you work at the doctor’s, schools, or mayor’s. For the bottom half, guys long pants and girls anything that covers the ankles. You can wear anything you want in your own concession so bring what you will want to wear when its 115 degrees out. Also, it gets cold enough here that you’ll need longsleeves to sleep in and a jacket for the day. Even if you plan to only wear sandals here, bring some closed toe shoes for vacation or going out in the big cities. If youre a filpflop person, only bring your starter pair, there are enough flipflops in Africa to shod the world. If you are like me and need more straps, you can invest as much as you want in your sandals, but they all look the same after 3 months. Also if sandals break you can usually get them repaired in your village. I’ve sewn my own expensive pair myself 3 times. As for sports attire, if you will use them, bring shoes and socks, and pants that will cover the knees and shirts that will go over the shoulders (guys and girls) **don’t over pack on clothes unless you just cant stand the idea of wearing what the locals wear. You can get anything made here for cheap!

Cooking:
If you’re a foodie and a chef, bring your favorite, uncommon gadget. Otherwise, you can get all your kichen needs in Niamey if not the regional capital or your own village.

Books:
Many of the hostels have a lot of books, especially the best sellers or older titles. Zinder’s library is the best so if you’re a bookworm, hope for hausa land. I brought a lot of books and am using the library a lot. I brought mostly books that are not typical genres; mostly art history, French language, fantasy and philosophy. The hostels have plenty of African related stuff. You cannot buy English language books that are of any interest to us anywhere in Niger, keep that in mind. A good book for everyone is a pocket French-English dictionary.

Stamps:
Bring stamps! You can send letters or small packages with people who are traveling to the states and who will drop your things at the post (and that cuts down costs a lot because its really expensive to send from Niger).

Bedding:
Bring at least one sheet, twin or queen, and one pillow case. 2 of each if you like to have nice clean ones all the time. If you are really rugged you could stuff your pillowcase with clothes, which is what I do when I travel to friends places. But if there is any possibility that you will want a pillow, bring it because you cant find them here (or at least I can’t even in my regional capital).

Toiletries:
Ladies, your villagers will remark about your lack of make-up if you are like me and too lazy to wear it on a daily basis. I keep my few bits of makeup in the hostel but my villagers think im an un-selfrespecting slob. Just fyi. Also, there are mirrors here but not the vanity mirror kinds. You wont want to see yourself like that after a few months here anyway, but if you need it you need it, and also your villagers’ reactions to a vanity mirror are precious. Everyone: if you have special brands of this and that, bring at least a few months supply of it (more if you don’t expect to have access to much beloved care packages). If you don’t give a rip about what brand you use, you can get anything you need here so just bring a month supply.

Food:
Food cravings (if you are in any way a foodie) will happen to you for the duration of your service. I brought my favorite brand of gum and a giant bag of pistachios with me, not knowing what I would be able to find here. The nuts lasted me 3 months of occasional munching. You can get a lot of little tasty snacky things here, but rarely are they very reminiscent of our favorite things back home. I would bring more snacks if I were packing again-- fewer clothes and more snacks. See below for list of things you can find here, so as to avoid.

Outdoors supply store items:
Man if you have the cash to burn before you come, go to the outdoors store and get a few nice things. People here who have them like their: bug huts, thermal sleeping bags for 30 degrees and above that roll up itty bitty, head lamps and solar chargers (Solio is the brand a lot of people have). I don’t have any of these, and haven’t really needed them, but it’s something to consider.

Misc:
Bring a roll of duct tape, you can buy it in Niamey but its useful to have a starter roll especially cuz it’s a little hard to find in Niamey and you wont have time during training. Also there are plenty of flashlights here but I like my hand crank flashlight from america (I brought two and the 1st got destroyed by my host family).

Items that you can find in Niger (don’t pack):
*Radios
*Sugary candies- I can even get off brand Worther’s Originals in my town, but nothing like jolly ranchers or tootsie pops or pixie sticks or pop rocks etcetc.
*Tootsie roll type candies
*Dove soap and Nivea lotion and some other random things
*Nutmeg (I found whole nuts in the market!), dried ginger root, basic hot spices (peppers, curry), thyme (dried in the Zinder grocery store), basil (some people grow it fresh as ‘medicine’), and in Niamey: dried basil, herbes de province, black pepper, and some other basic herbs.
*TP-no worries, you need never go native, and its also not too expensive.
*pop corn and lentils in Niamey only
*honey (my sub region is famous for it)
*PB-but the local made stuff might be hit or miss with you-I can’t stand it
*peanuts and candied almonds
*tuna
*some canned veggies
*Soccer balls


Items you cannot or at least are hard to find in Niger:
*Most brand name things
*Cinnamon and some other spices
*brown sugar (a care package item)
*herb seeds, flower seeds (most veggie seeds you can get here, but hey if you have a doubt or a brand you really like, a packet of seeds is a cheap and small thing)
*magnifying mirrors (vanity mirrors-that make your face bigger, not that you’ll want to see your self like that after a few months)
*those cute Japanese fold out fans, or other compact hand fans (they make large straw ones here that are for stoking the fire but also work to cool down, just aren’t portable)
*Nalgene’s. I recommend you bring two and then bring some wet wipes to stick down into it with a fork and wipe clean cuz bleach doesn’t clean it out.
*A variety of drink mixes although there are a few flavors here. Bring your favorites to start out and then see if you like the local stock.
*crackers of pretty much any sort unless I just need to look harder, not many potato chips either but they do have Pringles!
*cashews, walnuts, pistachios
*hair dodads, like elastics that are wrapped in thread
*(american) footballs and Frisbees
*board games, except for chess and checkers you can make your own set
*Waterguns/ balloons


A note on Care Packages:
If you are among the lucky who receive greatly anticipated packages from america, here are a few pointers.
To receive packages here, it will cost you about $2-3 which for 1-3 packages per month is not a lot at all on our stipends.
To send a package, it will cost you friends and family $40-70. Which is a lot in my book. For that reason I recommend that you tell your people who are wanting to send you things to wait until you have an idea of what you want to receive here, once you know what you can and cant get here. Also sending more in one larger “US Postal Flat Rate” box is usually more economic than sending a bunch of small ones or not using the flat rate-unless it’s a really light item or etcetc.
Other note: all chocolate and other meltable things will melt if sent between April and June and might melt between June and October. However, we still eat it.
Things that I or my friends have received and enjoyed that travel well:
*My favorite cookies, chips ahoy rainbow deluxe repackaged into a tupaware. *Fudge striped cookies *M&Ms (seasonally) *Parmasan cheese powder (seasonally) *Other cheese powders *Pistachios *Quinoa boxes *Tea/hot chocolate mix *books/sketch books/daily planners/diaries *drink mixes like Gatorade or crystal lite’s little packets and EmergenC and koolaid. *Turkey Jerky *brown sugar *special tuna flavors, and other seafood *wheat thins/et al crackers *soup/sauce packets of all sorts (but you can get rice, beans and pasta aplenty here so don’t waste the space on that) *Jolly ranchers *My favorite cereal Kashi *pesto *peanut butter (they have it here, but I don’t like the taste) *Magazines!! And new music CDs/movie DVDs