Packing List

Well its about that time for the new volunteers to start their packing. I cant believe that we have been here for allmost a year now. So because we had such a hard time packing and deciding what to bring we thought that we would give a little bit of advice to the M-19s. First of all pack two seperate bags, one of those bags is going to be kept in storage for the entirty of your training and you will not have access to it. In that bag put all of your winter stuff, you will not need it during training. The only clothes that you aregoing to need is something to sleep in two business casual outfits and two casual outfits, thats it, do not burden yourself with tons of crap during training. Besides for that here are a couple of things that we are really happy that we brought or that we really wished that we would have.
1. Our laptop- the best thing that we brought.
2. Camera- you are definatley going to want to bring this
3. A photo album- Mongolians love looking at pictures, you dont even understand.
4. really good shoes- you will be walking everywhere you go, do not cheap out on this!
5. Whatever over-the-counter meds you like- Nyquill, alkaseltzer... alkaseltzer saved my life last summer.
6. An iPod- if your married bring one for each of you because you will be split up during training
7. A knife- I brought a mid-sized buck and I use it for everything, but I also have a leatherman which is nice
8. Bring a gift for your host family. It can be anything- I brought my family a bunch of pictures of Chicago and assorted change and they liked them alot. They are not expecting anything huge.

Lets keep it real though, your going to be fine no matter what. Bring what makes you happy and make sure to bring a book, a big book. Looking forward to seeing you in june.