Cameroon

Packing List
General Clothing
- Professional clothes, slacks, button-up shirts, including blouses and skirts for women (business casual)
- Casual clothes for informal and after-work occasions
- Pictures of clothes you might want to have made (clothing patterns or photos from catalogs or magazines)
- Good-quality cotton shirts in dark colors (the dust in the air during the dry season and the sediment in the water year-round quickly discolor light-colored clothing )
- One dressy outfit for ceremonial occasions
- Plenty of good-quality underwear, boxers, socks, and bras
- Sweater
- Rain jacket
- Two more formal outfits (female teachers, especially, should bring several nice-looking dresses they can wear in the classroom until they can have some clothes made in-country)
- Durable jacket (i.e., jean jacket or fleece)
- Shorts
- Bathing suit or swimming trunks
- Hats or baseball caps
Shoes
- One pair of comfortable dress shoes
- One pair of sandals for general use (e.g., Tevas or Chacos) and another pair for work
- One pair of running/athletic shoes
- One good-quality pair of work or hiking boots (especially Agriculture Volunteers)
- Waterproofing lotion for leather boots (if you bring boots)
Personal Hygiene and Toiletry Items
- Antibacterial wipes or hand sanitizers (useful when traveling)
- Any vitamin supplements or herbal remedies other than multivitamins
- Items that smell good, like lotions, incense, soaps, and sachets
- A three-month supply of all prescription drugs you are currently taking
- Two pairs of prescription eyeglasses (if you wear them) and repair kit. Contacts are not recommended due to elevated rates of eye infections and contact solution is hard to find.
- Sunglasses
- Hair clips and ties
- Initial supply of toiletries (if you have favorite brands, bring enough to last two years)
- Sanitary pads (the Peace Corps usually supplies tampons, but they may not always be the size you want)
- Hair-cutting scissors
- Cosmetics
Electronics
- IPod or other MP3 player (with speakers)
- External hard drive with music, recent TV shows, or movies
- Digital reader such as a Kindle or Nook
- Rechargeable batteries and battery charger
- Reliable watch (durable, water-resistant, inexpensive)
- Travel alarm clock
- Compact flashlight (e.g., Maglite or Fenix)
Kitchen
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Plastic storage containers and zip-top-style bags of assorted sizes (large containers are good for organizing items such as medicine and clothing)
- Good kitchen knife and knife sharpener (if you’re attached to a certain kind or quality)
- Favorite recipe book
- Packaged mixes (sauces, salad dressings, soups, drink mixes such as Crystal Light or Gatorade)
- Favorite spices
- A variety of open-pollinated (recyclable) vegetable seeds, if you like to garden
Miscellaneous
- 12 passport-size photos (make sure to have them in hand when you arrive; Peace Corps/Cameroon will need them the day after you arrive for in-country documents)
- Anything that will make you happy and feel at home (personal touches)
- Map of Africa and/or Cameroon (those available here are expensive)
- Travel-size games, such as Yahtzee, Scrabble, and Uno, as well as playing cards
- Art supplies (paints, brushes, paper, colored pens, and crayons)
- Books (each Peace Corps satellite office has a library, but classics are hard to come by)
- A favorite writing utensil, with replacements or refills
- Stationery and an assortment of greeting cards
- U.S. stamps (returning Volunteers can take mail home for you)
- Addresses of people you may want to write
- Weekend-sized backpack
- Bandannas
- Extra absorbent micro-fiber towel (small and great for traveling)
- Sleeping bag (good for overnight stays at other Volunteers’ homes)
- Bicycle shorts and gloves (a helmet, repair tools, and an under-seat bag are provided by the Peace Corps)
- Heavy-duty duct tape (good for everything)Concealable money pouch or belt
- Water bottle (e.g. Nalgene or Sigg)
- Swiss Army knife or Leatherman tool (very important to many Volunteers)
- Combination padlocks
- Good-quality portable umbrella
- High-school grammar books and literary anthologies (for English teachers)
If you plan to travel to other countries for vacation, you may want to bring extra money to suit your travel plans; credit cards or traveler's checks are preferable to cash. There are ATMs in larger cities, and most towns so you may want to bring an ATM card to access a bank account in the U.S.
Small gifts for host family and friends (not required); knickknacks for the house; pictures, books, or calendars of American scenes; souvenirs from your area; hard candies that will not melt or spoil; photos to give away