You will find that Capital cities have fine hotels that will keep you in some proximity to your accustomed lifestyle. We hope you will enjoy them briefly, and then travel to the rural villages to meet and understand how the other 4.5 billion of us lives.
There are many fine travel guidebooks out there, many available at www.seasonedbooks.com.
Below are some travel tips gleaned from personal experience:
If you require a laptop, bring a small solar panel and a new laptop battery. Remeber to bring a 220v plug adapter. The little box on your laptop electric cord will probably say that it can be plugged into 110 or 220v power. Use the little 220v plug adapter to change the prong configuration for overseas outlets . Electricity is quite different and unreliable in many areas. It is fun to show pictures of your family and town on the laptop, but please remember, some of the people viewing them may own little more than the clothes on their backs. Be sensitive. You may not feel rich, but comparatively speaking, you are a Rockefeller.
Personal Items: Hand Disinfectant. The entire village and it’s innumerable children will want to shake your hand. I like JAO, or a mixture of booze and essential oils. Bring a bunch of topical first aid stuff. We used Vermont Soap’s Aloe Tea Tree Castile though out our journey to keep the molds and fungus at bay. A 16oz bottle was 2/3 used up by 2 people over 30 days. We also brought a 32oz bottle of Liquid Sunshine for laundry. We used about 2/3 of that as well.
Educational books, especially science, to give to rural schools. Our friends from Computer EZ, here in Vermont, donated 100 solar calculators for our last trip.
Small gifts; Surprise! We brought Vermont Soap! 24 bars was NOT enough. Figure 12 per week if you are social animals like Sandy and I.
Tools; small knife, multitool, electricians tape and duct tape. LED flashlight, Extra batteries and razor blades.
Our friend Burma donated print dress shirts for the men, and earrings for the women. If you are traveling to the small rural villages pack much, and give most of it away. Fill your nearly empty bags with local crafts of good quality. The good deals are not found in the larger cities, and remember to always offer street vendors 40% off the asking price. Then negotiate from there.
We always felt very safe in the rural villages of Ghana and Guinea. I wandered into a fete or festival in Dabola, Guinea. It was an experience I will never forget. Suddenly, 3 hours had gone by and an old woman lead me out of the village. Fete fini! Time to go back to the bush motel.
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