Two things made my packing for the trip home a good experience. The first was that I brought two full suitcases worth of donations thanks to a few friends. The second was that I made a special trip over to the Leper Hospital (it was a holiday on our shopping day) and bought lots of woven items. The donations meant I had lots of room to bring home Ethiopian things. (Side note: I also packed our suitcases light leaving the United States to allow for more weight coming home). The woven items, along with dirty clothes, were great to wrap and pack the more fragile items. What I wish I would have had more of: bubble wrap! With that said, we brought home lots of fragile items and nothing was broken. I had taken empty yogurt and coolwhip containers for Judah to play with and those assited in the packing on the way home too. The containers gave structure surrounding things. We had enough room that we probably could have packed a smaller suitcase in a bigger one and come home on less luggage.
In our carry-ons, I typically don’t worry about clothes coming home. I figure I’ll get home to a closet full of my less favorite clothes if my luggage gets lots. Well, this time I packed an extra set of clothes just in case. You never know when your child is going to pee through their clothes onto yours as you arrive at the airport (lesson learned last summer). Judah’s clothes were packed in a gallon Ziploc bag. Each bag consisted of a complete change of clothes and a diaper. We had several bags just in case. (A side note here is that we packed the other two kids who stayed in the states that way too. It made it super easy for getting them ready in the morning. They were given their Ziploc bag and knew was to put on in the morning.) Thankfully we didn’t have any explosive diaharrea leak onto clothing, urine that soaked through or puke. The change of clothes did come in handy as we were arriving back into the states. After travelling almost 48 hours, I opted to freshen up and put on a clean pair of clothes so I would at least smell a little better to those sitting next to me on the last flight or those hugging me at the airport.
Wow. As a solo traveler, who will ultimately return with two kids, I have no idea how I will pack stuff to come home. I normally pack very light when I have traveled before, and I may have to pass up the option of a change of clothes for me in the 48 hours.;-) Cute suitcase photo. He is a doll.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the helpful info. I cut and paste it all and saved it for future reference.
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