Consumables in the HHE (I speak Foreign Service)

Getting to ship 7200 pounds for free and knowing you can’t get anything you are use to really brings out the horder/survivalist in you. Peter and I walk into Target and turn into some kind of Y2K battery-buying disaster anticipators. You should see the basement.

From Trader Joe’s just today: granola, walnuts, cinnamon peanuts, stevia, apple sauce, oatmeal, 12 cans of their organic tomato sauce, dried blueberries, three tankards of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, jam, maybe a dozen boxes of cereal, (Cereal is $12 a box in Niger.) “How long will this last ya?” asked the checker, uh, I hope two years, was my answer.

Twelve cans of Deep Woods Off. “Going camping?” asks the checker at Bimart. Yeah, and I’m taking 14 gluesticks with me.

From Ultrecht: pastels and paper. Fabric paint. Everything for beeswax collage. We’re going to Niger and I’m taking five pounds of beeswax.

Then I decided I hate Deet and ordered twelve Avon Bug Guard Plus with Picaridin, just as effective as Deet without the potential for seizures. I bought another vegetable peeler, because I love my vegetable peeler and what if it breaks? We ordered another mouse and key board, because you know we’ll spill a cup of something in the one we have, and it’s an expensive ride to the Mac Store. And probably a three-week wait to get one if we order it.

Fancy kid’s bath products and graham crackers from Whole Foods. A 25 lb pound bag of flour from King Aurthur, and a container to keep it in.

And I went crazy at Sephora the other day. Even though I can get Sephora on line. I won’t be able to go to Sephora. But I’ve got five pounds of beeswax to keep me busy, so I should be okay.

My mother brought us 24 HUGE cans of albacore and a five-gallon drum of baking powder, but she lived through the depression, so she has an excuse.

From Costco: sponges, two cases of pool shock (can we even send it?), pool toys, apple sauce, two years worth of throw-away contact lenses, a case of brown sugar, paper towels, two cases of mandarin oranges, ketchup, mayo, mustard, relish, organic peanut butter, two cases of kid-sized boxes of chocolate milk; just give me two of whatever you’ve got! We’re moving to Africa! We filled a cart at Costco. Filled it. In Niger a $15 dollar container of laundry detergent is $40. Since the cart was full, we each, including Camille, had to carry a huge container of Tide, staggering. As we rolled out the checker said “See you next week!”

From Fry’s: Fry’s mind you! I’ve now been to a Fry’s and stocked up, baby. We bought every manner of adaptor/transformer/plug we’ve been advised to buy, and two, five, maybe ten surge protectors, a survivalist can’t have too many of those. Or apple sauce and pool toys, apparently.

And we still don’t have most of what’s on the “What to bring to Niger” list that was sent to us. I’m not going to worry about Stovetop stuffing or cake mixes. I’m a survivalist and can make my own. But we are suppose to bring five shower curtains. Actually, I’ve made a shower curtain before too, now that I think about it.

We have a case of maple syrup, we will be able to take it as a hostess gift instead of wine. That or pool shock. Or maybe we can trade for more apple sauce.