Africa Journal #8: Africa Shopping List

Africa Journal #8: Africa Shopping List

You can get almost anything you need here in Uganda if you know where to look. This is great, but the imperative word in the previous sentence was almost. Here is a short list of the things you should absolutely bring with you to Africa that you cannot, at least to American quality standards, buy here or shouldn’t buy here because it would be so expensive. Again, not an exhaustive list of what to bring, just the essentials that would be wise to pack with you from the states:

· Hi· High-quality backpacking socks and underwear

· Backpacking compact quick-dry towel

· Containers of your favorite American peanut butter

· Individually wrapped pieces of quality, European dark chocolate (I prefer Lindt)

· iPod filled with plenty of music, podcasts, and audiobooks

· A decent set of headphones

· Breathable, dryquick t-shirts

· Petzl AAA headlamps! Many. . .

· Face wash, Toothpaste, Shampoo & Conditioner (I prefer the Burt’s Bees stuff)

· Starbucks VIA

· Quality polarized sunglasses

· Aveeno sunscreen

· All natural mosquito repellant

· Chewable fiber (this is a really good idea if you’re eating the local food often)

· Zebra F-402 pens

· 10L/14L daypack w/ bladder (I love my Arc’Teryx Endorphin Pack)

· Zip ties

· SOG multi-tool

· Pepper spray

· All-natural multivitamins

· Water purification filter (backpacking grade)

· Resistance bands for working out

· Frank’s Red Hot Sauce

· Quality lithium AA’s

· Coleman camping lantern

· Benadryl anti-itch cream

· Lawry’s Garlic Salt (or whatever spices you can’t live without)

· Loradatine allergy pills

· Aluminum camping spork

· Photos of friends and family

· Photocopies of your passport, DL, and shot record

· Topo map of your country and adjacent countries

· If you’ve got the room, bring toilet paper. You’ll thank yourself later

· And finally all the books you’ve ever wanted to read: You’ll likely have time to read them and while there is a decent bookstore, if you’re a hardcore reader, it still leaves a lot to be desired.

You may be saying, especially if you’ve been here before, “You can find that either at Owino market or Nakumatt” and maybe you can, but the previous list is of things it would be better to bring from America to save money or to have the selection and quality that you like. There is one brand of American Peanut Butter that is good here, but it’s expensive and it is just plain American peanut butter. I like the natural JIF. Yeah, can’t find that here. You can get electronics here, but they are almost exclusively trash from China. Good dark chocolate is hard to find too. Quality clothing is almost non-existent. You may be thinking, “a lot of stuff is missing from this list! What about baby wipes, milk chocolate, quality sandals, hat, journal, medicines, The Economist, etc?!?” You can get all those things here for similar prices on what you’d pay in the US or significantly less.

Fellow Africa sojourners, anything I’ve forgotten? Let me know!