Packing is such sweet sorrow

Airport send-off July 2010

VSO's volunteer website gives a long list of what to pack - close to 100 items including first aid medicines, wellies (gum boots), blue tack, binoculars.  As usual, I followed everything plus some extras, such as a hammer.  I arrived at the NAIA 15 kilos overweight.  I blamed the bathroom weighing scale at home that I used to weigh my bags - which may have been calibrated by the weight-watchers not to reveal the true numbers.  I would have spent a fortune to pay for my excess baggage if not for the kind soul of the ground crew.  I told him that I was a volunteer to Africa and he probably knew how some things could be hard to obtain there.  So he allowed me to re-pack my big suitcase and I ended up with two check-ins, and 3 hand-carried bags.  I

Sundries to pack

thought then that the ground crew was lenient with my baggage because he considered me an overseas Filipino worker (the unsung heroes of the Philippine economy).  I am proud of that attribution although I cannot contribute a cent to the annual USD 18 billion that overseas Filipinos send back home.  Now one year later here is the scorecard:  I packed an ice pick that cannot be used.   Despite the heat, block ice is unheard of as you can't make commercial ice with the frequent brown-outs.

My co-vols cooling their heels at the Dubai airport

There was a need to bring a feather duster (or akin to it) as that gadget does not exist here, even with the constant dust.  I am the only one in the compound who wears an apron (a grade school project of Mia and an extra) in the kitchen and to think that I can't whip anything.   All told, I had everything I needed, including Lucky Me noodles of different flavors.