Lists.. lists.. and more lists!

I’m a list person (this may be an under-statement…), and the last few weeks have been especially full of lists as I get close to departure date. Unfortunately my to-do-before-Peru list seems to just keep growing larger by the day! It’s definitely a lot more work than I expected to get ready for living abroad for one year.
The vaccinations alone are daunting:

-Yellow Fever
-Hepatitis A series
-Hepatitis B series
-Typhoid
-Meningitis
-Polio
-Rabies

Fortunately a recent trip to Africa made this easy and I only had to get one additional vaccine.

I also discover how expensive one year’s worth of medications, just-in-case prescriptions like antibiotics, anti-malaria pills, and over the counter drugs can be. While I’ll be living in a large city it sounds like over-the-counter meds are particularly hard to find, so I stocked up on those. Add in a year’s supply of daily contacts (argh..) and my carry-on is already full!

A trip to REI and some online shopping helped with some other basic items:
-Steri-pen (makes water safe to drink)
-water tablets
-mosquito net
-motion sickness bands for long bus rides
-bug-repellant sleep sack
-waterproof shoes
-water repellant pants
-long underwear (while hot in the summer, most buildings are un-heated year-round)
-camping towel
-mace
-outlet adaptors, convertor
-clothesline
-hidden passport pouch
-locks
-first aid kit
-slash-proof bags (Magellans.com)

I had fun raiding the dollar store for kid toys/games that can be used in therapy… UNO, cards, foam letter, balls, bubbles, crayons/markers, coloring books, etc.

The most time consuming part of my preparations have been in getting documents ready. All passports, photo IDs, licenses, diplomas, immunization records, etc. are recommended to be carried as notarized copies in case originals are lost/stolen.
I’ve also been working on bringing down electronic copies of physical therapy resources I can use, such as:
-patient education materials (in Spanish)
-home exercise program pictures/instructions (in Spanish)
-commonly used outcome tools (in Spanish)
-research articles
-intake/eval forms (in Spanish)

It’s been very time consuming to try and locate all of these materials in Spanish, but I think it will be worthwhile to have some of these things ready in advance.

Lastly, I’ve been trying to get my hands on as many books as possible. Here’s my reading list:
-Half the Sky by Kristof and WuDunn – great read for anyone! Excellent book*
-Where there is no doctor (Donde no hay doctor)
-501 Spanish Verbs
-Lonely Planet- Peru
-1001 Pitfalls in Spanish
-Culture smart: Peru
-Physical Therapy for Children
-Women’s Health in Physical Therapy
-Essentials of Global Community Health

If you have any recommendations for other resources please let me know!