Advice to Anyone Who Wants to Send a PCV a Care Package

I must start out this post by giving some credit where it is long overdue.  My mother, Shirley Hauge, is unequivocally the official winner of the unofficial care package sending contest.  Sorry to other PCVs, but this point is beyond arguing.  My mom rules, period, end of story.  Now, the point of this post is not to brag about how awesome my mom is (because she is).  The point is to give some sincere advice to people looking to send packages to their loved ones overseas.  If you pack your packages as well as my mom does, you will maximize the happiness that you are shipping to your beloved expat.

Tip #1-No Empty Spaces

This is the cardinal complaint of most PCVs I talk to.  You go to the post office, most likely expecting that it’s going to be another “nothing day” only to find to your extreme delight that there is a box waiting for you!  It’s suddenly a beautiful day, no matter how bad it was going before.  There are few sights as welcome before your eyes as that beautiful, red-white-and-blue flat-rate packaging.  Now, you know that no matter what’s in that box, you’re going to be doing a happy dance when you get it to your house/hut and tear into it.  Short of it being full of nothing but packaging peanuts, there’s no way that you’re actually going to be anything other than sincerely grateful when you tear it open to see what’s inside.

Still, there is something so sad about getting a 10 pound under the weight limit flat-rate box with lots of unfilled space inside.  These things are crazy expensive to ship (I believe the largest flat-rate costs $80-90 to send to Ethiopia).  PCVs understand that, and I think that’s one of the things that makes it so extra endearing and appreciated whenever we get one.  The point is, you’re spending money to send the empty space too.  Why not cram a few extra goodies in there to fill up the gaps?

One brilliant thing that my mom always does is that she takes stuff out of the original packaging.  If she’s sending us pasta with a sauce mix or some spices that we can’t find in country, she always takes them out of the boxes and locks them into two plastic baggies.  The double bagging ensures that they won’t spill and has the added bonus that you can then reuse the baggies to store stuff in.  It also makes it so that you don’t feel bad for producing a lot of extra packaging waste when you use your goodies.  It saves space and provides something useful and reusable.  As I said, BRILLIANT!

Case in point, here is a 19 pound package that my mom sent us.

Tip #2-Listen to What They Ask for

Another complaint I hear from other PCVs is that they often get items that are “off by one.”  Stuff like they tell their parents how much they’re missing dark chocolate and they get a Hershey’s bar in the next package, or they ask for hand-sanitizer and get antibacterial soap, which’d be great except for the fact that they only get running water at their site two times per week, so they really can’t waste precious water washing their hands, which is why they wanted the hand-sanitizer in the first place.  Don’t get me wrong; no matter what you send your PCV, it will be appreciated, but just keep in mind that when they ask for specific things, there’s probably a reason behind it.  There’s nothing wrong with asking them to send you a detailed email of things they need.  They’ll love whatever you give them, but they’ll appreciate it extra if it’s exactly what they wanted.

That being said…

Tip #3-Always Throw in Something Unexpected

Care package days are like a mini-Christmas, especially for Peace Corps volunteers.  As much as you want people to send you exactly what you asked for, there’s nothing better than the hidden surprise at the bottom.  Now, you know your PCV a lot better than I do.  Just think about it for a second.  What is that one thing (especially food item) that he or she has been missing but would never even think about asking for?  What’s that thing that’s going to drop his/her jaw and cause him/her to go dancing around their room for five minutes when they see it at the bottom of the box?

Here are some of the best surprises that my mom has sent us:

1) CHEESE!

A lot of people get sent Velveeta because their families assume that real cheese isn’t something that you can reasonably send them.  In the 2-4 weeks that it takes to get there, surely it will spoil.  Well, the time that my mom decided to send us literally 4 pounds of cheese, it took us about 4 weeks to get the package, one week of which it was probably sitting in the warm post office in Fiche during the height of the hot/dry season.  It was absolutely fine when we got it, not moldy, dried out, or spoiled in any way.  The key is to send hard cheeses that have been aged about a year.  It makes sense if you stop to think about it.  Cheese is already rotten from a technical standpoint, and we were making it for centuries before we came up with refrigeration.  My point is, if your PCV likes cheese and is in a country where you can’t really find it, they will LOVE this for a surprise.

2) Collapsible Kitchen Equipment

I have no clue where she found this stuff, but my mom found measuring cups and a full sized colander that are both made of silicone and collapse down into nothing.  I’d never even heard of these before I got them, but they are wonderful.  They are compact, and I can pack them anywhere.  I love baking, so kitchen equipment that makes it so that I don’t have to do the math to convert my recipes into metric is a godsend.

3) Chocolate Chips (a Costco sized Bag)

As I said, baking is something that I love to do, so these little guys (all four pounds of them) have been greatly appreciated.  They wind up getting consumed at a much slower rate than chocolate candies, so they keep the care package joy alive for longer.

4) Nerds Rope

There’s been one in every package.  It’s something I eat maybe one time per year when I’m home, but I turn into a giddy 6 year old whenever I get one.

5) Bacon Bits

We’re in a country that doesn’t do pork at all, let alone the nectar of the gods that is bacon.  She sent us a Costco bag of bacon bits that were consumed in less than a week.  ‘Nuf said. 

As I said, you know the things that’re going to make your PCV’s day.  Don’t hesitate to send them just because you think they might be a little past their prime when they get there.  Believe me, most of us already do highly questionable things when it comes to our food sanitation.  We’re probably eating three-day-old spaghetti that’s been left out at room temperature in an improvised tuperware container on the counter.  Topping it off with some shredded parmesan that’s been living in the same conditions is not going to hurt us.  It’ll just make the spaghetti that much more magical and delicious.

So, there is all of my care package related advice.  The number one thing to keep in mind is that you know what’s going to make your expat, whether they are a PCV, a member of the military, or any other foreigner living abroad for an extended period of time, happy.  That is, above all else, what you are shipping us: love and happiness, and we all love you for it.  Take care, and happy packing!

            ~Jessie