"Pack what keeps you sane"

How time flies! This time last year, I was preparing to leave to begin my service in the Peace Corps. I remember that I was a mess in mid July because I was worrying about so many things. Packing was my biggest headache. Faced with 27 months in a foreign country with weather as cold as Siberia in winter and as hot and sticky as a Midwestern summer day before the afternoon thunderstorms roll in, I didn’t know where to start. I spent several sleepless nights worrying about this. Unable to sleep, I found myself watching reruns of Star Trek: Voyager at 2am while surfing the web trying to find more information through old volunteer blogs and travel logs. I did get a great nugget of wisdom from a smart Kaz-18 regarding packing. His advice:

“Pack what keeps you sane."

Unfortunately, I heard this after I arrived in Kazakhstan.

Looking back on what I brought, I wouldn’t trade my long underwear (I recommend at least 1 pair) to make room for an espresso machine, which is great for sanity. However, if I had this advice before I left, I would have carefully re-considered my packing situation, not drastically, but in some ways, such as:

• Did I really need 7 dress shirts and 5 ties in a culture where it is acceptable to wear the same thing multiple days in a row provided it is clean and ironed? I could have replaced 3 of my shirts and ties with the green eyed lady's hoodie (I would return it)! On weekends I do not work, and it's good to bring casual clothes. Besides, I have YET to see anyone, in Kazakhstan or any other country, play a good game of soccer in dress shoes.

• Did I need 3 heavy sweaters, or could I have brought just 1 and replaced the other two with their weight in jellybeans? Laugh now, but candy makes a great gift, especially if it can't be bought in Kazakhstan. All of the major varieties of candybars /chocolate can be found here. Jellybeans, Jawbreakers, bubblegum, tootsie rolls, etc are rare to impossible to buy here and can be a huge hit. Choose wisely! Also, it's not very hard to find a good sweater here. Kazakhstan is defiantly a sweater country!
  

• More photos, more music, more movies. Less books. Two years is a long time, and I don't want to forget the people who love me back at home (and it's a good ice breaker for host families), music for me is critical to survival, and it's good to withdraw from the host family and reality for awhile and watch Patrick Stewart fight the Borg Queen. Peace Corps has a small library, and while it is not full of top best sellers, it has enough.
  

• Umbrella vs. raincoat? Raincoat vs. waterproof windbreaker with a hood? Or...aren't all raincoats windbreakers by default? This line of thought may sound like idiocy until it is the night before leaving for staging and you are faced with a weight limit.

There is not a miracle packing list for everyone, because everyone is different. However I believe if one packs "what they can carry" and "what keeps them sane", it'll be fine.

And if not, there is always the Green Bazaar and Mega Mall in Almaty...