Amazon.com is next to Godliness

God bless amazon.com! I have just discovered that they will ship items to Senegal. YES! As stupid as it may sound, this does ease my mind a bit, as yesterday I had my first Peace Corps freakout. What was I freaking out about you may ask? Packing. Yes, that's right, I'm totally serious. I did not freak out about being away from friends and family for two years, or the fact that I will be alone in a foreign place where I do not speak the language, I freaked out about the amount of stuff I would be able to shove into my two checked bags that cannot exceed a weight allowance of 80 lbs.

I haven't even left for Senegal yet and I'm already learning a ton of new information. For example, I now know the pros and cons of different brands of sleeping bags and headlamps (Don't worry faithful readers, you can expect lots of goofy pics of me wearing my headlamp. Just something to look forward to.). I'm also finding out how things I never would have thought of will prove to be neccesities during the course of the next two years. For example, the REI Bug Hut Pro 2 Tent.

It never occured to me, in the past 24 years of my life, that I would one day need such an item as this. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the advice of returned PCVs, current PCVs and future PCVs. I now spend the majority of my down time at work fanatically and frantically researching Peace Corps blogs (especially those from Senegal and the surrounding African countires) so that I can get a better sense of what I will need with me, what I will want with me, what I should just forget and get over now, and what I should have sent to me later.

One that that I'm having trouble deciding on is what type of solar charger to invest in. I have been in several electronic stores in NYC and everyone person I have asked has looked at me like I'm from another planet. Apparently solar chargers are not the norm in Manhattan. Yes, shocking, I know. As of now, I'm leaning towards a solio charger. It seems like that's what most people are using, so I will defer to them.

Although, there is something to be said for this one from Voltaic Systems. 

You can strap it right to you backpack so that it will charge when you bicycle to work in the direct mid-morning heat of the African sun.

Thoughts anyone? Which solar charger should I choose? Maybe I'll just pick the one that looks the best with my bug hut.

Anyway, back to amazon. What this means to me, is that I can ship all the pretentious public health/medical anthropology textbooks to myself that I want! YAY! Yes, I know, I'm a nerd. But what can I say, I think they're interesting. Here's what I have so far and I'm always looking for other recommendations.

• Anthropology and Public Health: Bridging Differences in Culture and Society – Robert A. Hahn, Marcia Inborn
• “Letting Them Die”: Why HIV/AIDS Prevention Programmes Fail (African Issues) – Catherine Campbell
• Global Health: Why Cultural Perceptions, Social Representations, and Biopolitics Matter – Mark Nichter

I'm also trying to stock up on books to fill up my Kindle. I'm thinking that this is one piece of electronic equipment that will prove invaluable. I'm psyched that I won't have to lug an entire library with me to Senegal.  Any suggestions for some good novels that will take me a while to get through? I will even try to repay suggestions with postcards and other African goodies (no, i'm not trying to bribe anyone...).