What to Bring and What Not to Bring

Clothing
We are being asked to adhere to a certain dress code while working for CACHA in Tanzania.

For Men:

• Shorts are OK but not recommended. Best to have khakis, something below the knee
• shirts are required

For Women: 

• longer skirts (below the knee)
• tops that cover the shoulders and mid-drift
• sandals or shoes
• Pants and capris are fine for some occasions
• Above the knee shorts and bikinis are not considered proper attire for women and will be frowned upon

The girls in Kilema are available to do our laundry for a small fee. It is suggested that we take advantage of this service as it gives the girls much needed work ($$$).

Other things to consider bringing:

• flashlight and/or headlamp—power is unreliable and some places will turn off all power in the evenings.  Preferably a light that is solar or windup power. (There is a problem with the disposal of batteries).  Candles and matches are advisable.
• 1 litre water bottle—we will be pumping and filtering our water daily, so storing extra is a good idea.
• Adapter and power converter for any electrical items that you bring. One thing to consider is whether or not any of the electronic items that you are bringing have a ground in the plug. If so, obviously the adapter will need to accomdate that. Many of the adaptors that we looked at did not have room for a ground plug. You will only need the power converter if any of your items cannot handle 220 v. Our phones, camera battery chargers and laptop can handle 220V. The recharger on our walkies cannot.
• Mosquito repellent with DEET> 20%
• depending on what the sleeping arrangements are, you may be sleeping in a dorm so...if you snore bring breathe right strips
• if you don't snore—ear plugs

During the weeks preparing for this trip we've had many different versions of documents emailed to us giving us orientation info, tips, checklists, etc. I recall one document that stated that we should bring a lice comb!!

What not to bring:

• mosquito nets. These are supplied for everyone during their stay at the hospital. If you plan to stay in any hotels, you may want to verify that nets will be provided. If you do bring your own net, consider leaving it as a gift.
• towels and bedding. We were told that you are provided with bedding and one small towel for you two week stay. If you think you will need more than one towel (ah....Yah!) then bring one along.
• expensive jewellery or other items of value.  We are bringing a laptop and camera with the hopes that the safe provided by the hospital will be big enough to store these items while we are out on caravan. If not, we adapt!!
• travelers cheques. Many (if not most) places will not accept them (more on money in a later post)

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A couple of comments post trip:

• Bring an extra towel if you can. We definitely could have used an extra towel
• travelers cheques are definitely NOT accepted
• some hotels we stayed at did not have mosquito nets although they do "spray the room" when you are not in it. 
• placing your valuables in the safe at Kilema can be a hassle because you don't have access to it on a frequent basis. We ended up keeping all money, passports, and visas on us at all times and the electronics were locked up in a designated area.  This arrangement was the best for us, however I think we were the only ones who did this.
• we brought water bottles however we very rarely used them. Bottled water seemed to be offered everywhere
• we never saw or needed lice combs
• no one brought candles. Everyone had flashlights (seems much safer too)