Care Packages

Hey Friends!

I've gotten some questions about care packages so here's what you need to know:

1) You can mail  things to the Nampula Peace Corps office:

Corpo da Paz
Anna Weaver, PCV
Rua Dar-Es-Salam, nr 14
Bairro Central, Caixa Postal 526
Nampula, Mozambique

2) Good things to send:

Instant food mixes (soups, cakes, mac and cheese powder, jell-o, etc.)
Drinks (herbal tea, instant mixes, hot chocolate, etc)
Junk food (Candy, chocolate, dry cereal, etc)
"Cheese" (velveeta, kraft parmesean)
Good sunscreen, bug spray/sticks, bug bite anti-itch stuff (mother nature can be brutal here)
Small trinkets/games/coloring books for the neighbor kids (ages 2 through 12-ish)
String for making friendship bracelets
Frisbees
Books
Pictures (I miss you guys!)
Letters about random things

3) Advice:

Mail is unreliable.  It could take 2 weeks or 2 months before I see my mail, if I ever see it. Take that into consideration before sending home-made cookies ;)

Small envelopes and letters tend to get lost while large packages are difficult for me to transport and likely to be raided.  Therefore, small packages and padded envelopes are your best bet.  You can take things out of the packaging to make things fit better (ie I don't need the box to bake the cake if you just put the instructions on a sticky note or something) I think it's under $20 to send a flat-rate padded envelope. 

Peace Corps will cover up to $5 in customs fees per package so don't claim anything of value, though I wouldn't recommend sending anything valuable anyways.

Last word of advice for what to send.... Send anything!  What would you miss if you were living out of the country for two years? We love surprises and any time we get something from home it feels like Christmas :)  Thanks in advance from me and Mireya!