what to bring?

People keep asking me if I've started packing? Considering I am leaving tomorrow I must get to it! I've put a lot of thought into what to bring for gifts when I get there, several people have suggested different things, hair clips, elastics and bobby pins are apparently quite popular. I thought about skipping ropes, soccer balls and things for the kids but I realized the kids don't need "stuff" they need the skills so they can make money and buy their own "stuff".
I did however purchase 28 solar powered calculators for the women in our income generating group, I'm going to be teaching them some basic finance workshops, budgeting, marketing and quality. I had the kids make 28 cards to present to the women with the calculators, the cards are all different and the kids wrote each woman's name on every card.
Another thing I am bringing is a microscope so we can test for malaria on site - which is huge. The microscope itself is also huge and heavy and breakable and I'm not quite sure how I will pack it???
If you want to learn more about Shanti Uganda check out our website www.shantiuganda.org
Hopefully the next post will be from Uganda!
Love Wendy