Grant Dobbe

Part of preparing for Peace Corps service is packing for someplace you’ve never been. I’ve been working very heavily from the packing list in my Ghana welcome book, but I have decided to part from their list a bit. In any case, here’s what I’m taking.

Clothing

• 3 short-sleeved button-down shirts
• 1 long-sleeved button-down shirt
• 2 pair Dockers cotton khaki pants
• 1 pair Columbia cotton/poly-blend khaki pants
• 1 plain tie
• 5 t-shirts, printed and unprinted
• 5 A-shirts
• 5 pair white socks
• 2 pair dress socks
• 24 pair underwear (roughly 75% boxer briefs, 25% boxers)
• 2 pair athletic shorts
• 2 moisture-wicking athletic shirts
• 4 bandanas, assorted colors
• 1 black/brown reversible belt
• 1 American Eagle grey baseball cap
• 1 men’s large Marmot Precip rain jacket
• 1 men’s large Land’s End full-zip fleece

Shoes

• 1 pair Adidas Gel Stratus running shoes
• 1 pair Birkenstocks
• 1 pair Bostonian dress shoes
• 1 pair Puma low-top sneakers (think Chuck Taylor lowtops)

Toiletries

• 2 bars Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Soap
• 1 pack baby wipes
• 1 small bottle No-Rinse body wash
• 1 bottle Johnson’s Baby Shampoo
• 1 cake shaving soap
• 1 shaving brush
• 1 Gillette Safety Razor kit
• 1 pack 5 Wilkinson Sword razor blades
• 1 bottle L’Oreal for Men Aftershave Lotion
• 1 large bar Old Spice Men’s Deodorant
• 1 tube Tom’s of Maine baking soda toothpaste
• 1 small personal first aid kit
• 1 medium sized botle of bug spray
• 1 large bottle SPF 30 sunscreen
• 1 large bottle Sunburn relief gel (for those days when I’m an idiot)
• 90 days worth of ADHD medication (Peace Corps requires me to have it in case there are any delays in getting me my regular monthly meds)

Technical Gear

• 1 White Apple MacBook
• 1 Sony Cybershot Digital Camera
• 1 Sandisk Sansa e250 MP3 player with 2GB MicroSD expansion card
• 1 Sandisk Cruzer Mini 2GB USB flash drive
• 1 80GB USB external hard drive
• 1 Apple Airport Express portable 802.11b/g wireless base station
• 1 6′ CAT-5 Ethernet cable
• 2 USB A-to-B cables
• 1 cable for Sandisk Sansa MP3 player
• 1 USB card reader for SD and MicroSD memory cards
• 1 assorted pack of European/African outlet adapters
• 1 generic USB device charger
• 1 pair Apple In-Ear headphones
• 1 visor-mounted headlamp with replacement batteries
• 1 2 C-cell MagLite flashlight

Other Gear

• 1 Men’s large bike helmet (Peace Corps requirement before receiving bike purchase allowance)
• 1 athletic armstrap for Sansa MP3 Player
• 1 YakPak Flapdoozy messenger bag (for when I don’t want to carry my MacBook around)
• 1 large canvas laundry bag
• 1 Document folio (for all peace corps paperwork)
• 1 money belt
• various stationary and Moleskine notebooks
• a nice handful of Uniball Vision Elite 0.5mm pens, Mechanical pencils, and replacement erasers and pencil lead
• 1 Ikea Slabang digital alarm clock
• 4 sets Rayovac Hybrid rechargeable AA and AAA batteries
• 1 charger for said batteries
• 1 spare pair eyeglasses (Peace Corps requires me to have them)
• 1 Frisbee
• 1 deck of cards

What I’m packing it in

• 5-6 Space Bag travel sized vacuum compression bags, which go into either
• 1 Gregory Baltoro 70 hiking pack (4,200 cubic inches / 70 cubic liters)
• 1 REI standard shower kit
• 1 standard sized shaving kit (for bugspray, sunscreen, and sunburn gel)
• 1 medium sized Land’s End black duffel
• 1 Burton backpack (carry-on)

Any sensitive technical gear is getting packed into a Pelican Micro case or a Sea to Summit 8-liter dry bag, depending on how crushable and/or water sensitive it is. The Baltoro pack itself is getting cased in a rain cover during the airline travel portion of this adventure.

I’m also shipping a box of things I won’t need during training directly to the Peace Corps office in Accra. This box is basically

• technical reference books
• cookbooks
• 3-4 blank CD-RWs/DVDs
• 1 8″ frying pan
• 1 small cooking knife

Anything else I need I will most likely buy in country.

My first flight leaves on Saturday morning at 6:28am from Central Wisconsin Airport. I fly to Detroit, switch planes, and go to Philadelphia for my official Peace Corps staging event.

Staging is the first step of my Peace Corps training. It’s a chance to meet fellow trainees that are going to Ghana, handle any remaining paperwork, and otherwise tie up any loose ends that need to be dealt with in the U.S.

On the 9th, we get our final state-side medical check and then get on a bus for Newark, New Jersey. From there, we get on an evening flight to Amsterdam, sit through a four-hour layover in Amsterdam, and then fly to our final destination in Accra.

The Peace Corps “Bridge to Pre-service Training” document that I received has a good description of what comes next:

The first four days is an orientation. You will stay at the Adventist Women’s Multipurpose Center in double rooms. The electricity and running water are intermittent. On the fifth day you will travel independently to a current Volunteer’s site on a five-day “Vision Quest.” After the quest you will travel on your own to the training site in Kukurantumi, where the rest of your ten-week training will take place. After one or two nights, you will move to live with a family in one of several surrounding villages. You will stay with home-stay families the rest of training. Kukurantumi is about a two-hour drive from Accra.

Your home-stay accommodations will vary greatly. Some of you will be in homes that have no electricity and running water, while others may need to use kerosene lamps and take bucket baths. All homes have had visits from training staff as well as the Safety and Security Coordinator. Home-stay families have also attended a training workshop on how to be an effective host. In all cases the families are very excited about hosting you.

• looking forward to a trip to lake geneva, wi #

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• masticating, picking up my birks, and getting a shit-ton of concerta #

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