Culture Trek

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Shoving things in a bag takes little effort. It’s the making them FIT that requires far more…

Two of my most successful space savers were the ever important TPs (toothpaste and toilet paper). Removing the packaging from 72 tubes of toothpaste, I was proud to earn the blister on my thumb, particularly since they now take up a third of the space with far less packaging waste. I also rejoiced at my ability to squeeze six rolls of toilet paper into the space of two by carefully removing the cardboard tube and standing on the rolls with all my weight.

Next came the first layer of both bags.

After this, there were a lot of hit and miss fits. I stopped taking pictures of the rearrangements. 5 hours later, I was finally done.

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I want to thank Linda for blogging about her departure for Kenya a week before my own trip. I’ve picked up some great tips from the queen of sorting and packing donations.

Linda is the first Village Volunteer to resume the program in Kenya (my original destination) after the post-election violence, and she is such a fabulous person to be making the maiden voyage. She spent 2 weeks there last summer teaching the girls at the Pirrar School and helping Emanuel run for Parliament. Over the past few months she has shared her stories, political concerns and news of villagers with me. She has also posed some interesting questions about donating culturally appropriate reading materials that I have kept in mind while purchasing my own. One day, Linda, we will have to actually meet.