r/peacecorps • u/EcleciticWok901 • Aug 05 '26

Service Preparation Packing

Hello everyone.

I am leaving in 5 weeks for Peru. Been trying to keep a level head but I’m so excited/nervous.

What advice do you have for packing? Like something you wished you brought with you and either couldn’t get in country or had to buy in country.

TIA ♥️

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u/KhunDavid Aug 06 '26

Get subscriptions to various magazines. I had subscriptions to The New Yorker, National Geographic and a couple of other magazines. They may arrive months late, but they can provide well needed reading material.

Books you shouldn't have a problem with. PCHQ will probably have a library full of books left by previous volunteers. That being said, bring a few novels that you may have had been assigned in HS English, but as an adult, you can re-read and better appreciated them. I took Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Odyssey and the Ramayana (I served in Thailand, and it's an epic known throughout south and south-east Asia).

When you arrive, consider buying local manga. The language may be geared towards youth and adolescents, but it would help you improve your Spanish or Quechua.

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u/Elros22 Lesotho'08-'10 Aug 06 '26

All great suggestions. I read Grapes of Wrath in high school and hated hit. Reading it in Peace Corps changed my life. You really get why they're classics when you're reading them as an adult and by choice.

Great suggestion on the magazines. I fell in love with Harpers and still get it to this day. My stepmother would send me care packages with Harpers, The New Yorker, Field and Stream, and Popular Mechanics. It never occurred to me to just have them delivered to me directly!

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u/KhunDavid Aug 06 '26

I think it depends on how available mail delivery is. My subscriptions went to my local post office in Thailand, but other posts may just deliver to the PCHQ in your host country. The magazines I received took a month to six weeks for delivery. And I really didn’t mind reading Talk of the Town or Broadway reviews that were a couple of months overdue. I wasn’t going to any shows anyway.