Travel Inspiration and Preparation

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please ensure you use the AIRLINE booking reference on your itinerary. PLEASE NOTE SOME GROUP RESERVATIONS DO NOT PERMIT ONLINE CHECK IN.

QANTAS

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA

JETSTAR

EMIRATES

SINGAPORE AIRLINES

QATAR AIRWAYS

SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS

THAI AIRWAYS

ETIHAD

UNITED AIRLINES

AMERICAN AIRLINES

CATHAY PACIFIC

BRITISH AIRWAYS

LUFTHANSA

JET AIRWAYS

KENYA AIRWAYS

Knowing what to pack and ensuring you fit within your luggage allowance can be a struggle!

LADIES

• Long Skirts/Dress
• Head  scarf
• Jeans/Comfy pants
• Jumper/cardigan
• Jacket (Poncho for wet weather)
• Underwear
• T-Shirts/Tops
• Shoes – Comfortable, Dress pair for special occasions
• Thongs – For shower
• Track Suit pants for quiet night/Pajamas
• Bathers (Depending on where you are travelling)
• Sheet/Sleeping Bag

MEN

• Jacket (Poncho for wet weather)
• Jumper
• Jeans/Comfy  cargo pants/shorts
• Underwear
• Shoes – Comfortable, Dress pair for Church for special occasions
• Thongs for Shower
• Track Suit pants  for quiet night/Pajamas
• Bathers (Depending on where you are travelling)
• Sheet/Sleeping Bag

TOILETRIES

• Shampoo/conditioner
• Sanitary items
• Deodorant
• Toothpaste/brush, razor
• Towel/face washer
• Sunscreen
• Insect repellant – RID Tropical (Contains DEET)
• Laundry Powder/liquid hand wash for washing clothes
• Waterless hand cleanser
• Toilet Paper (1 roll)

 TRAVEL DOCUMENTS

• Valid Passport (more than six months validity)
• Airline Ticket
• Travel Insurance Documentation
• Credit/debit card (check availability where you are travelling)
• Cash card for ATMs if needed
• Vaccination record  (Depending where you are travelling)
• Have a copy of all your cards, passport and travel documents with you – leave one with a family member or trusted friend at home

PERSONAL ITEMS

• IPod/Walkman
• Camera/batteries/charger
• Mobile Phone/Charger.  Check if you have international roaming, this can work out still to be expensive.  A good idea is to purchase a local SIM Card so you can make local calls.
• Money Belt
• Leave valuables at home, buy a cheap watch at the $2 shop
• Make sure luggage is labeled on the inside and outside.  Same goes for camera/daypack.

MISCELLANEOUS

• Journal/Bible (if a missions trip)
• Backpack (with padlock/key)
• Hat
• Reading material
• Universal power adaptor
• Torch
• Money belt
• Gifts – eg. Balloons, pencils, stickers (if a mission trip) Check out the $2 shops for great ideas.

Make sure medicine is in original packaging.

• Bring with you any of your own medicine with appropriate documentation.
• Gastro tablets (eg. Imodium)
• Anti vomit tablets (eg. Stemitel)
• Malaria tablets.
• Headache tablets (eg. Panadol)
• Dettol spray or antibacterial hand cleansers are great.  Aquium is a good hand wash, a packet of ‘Wet Ones’ often come in handy.
• You may want to take some ‘surgical gloves’ – now in supermarkets.

To stay healthy, do …

• Wash hands often with soap and water.
• Use waterless soap.
• Drink only bottled water, boiled water or carbonated soft drinks in cans/bottles.
• Avoid tap water, fountain drinks and ice cubes.
• If you visit an area where there is a risk for malaria, take your malaria prevention medication before, during and after travel as directed.
• Avoid dairy products unless you know they have been pasteurized.
• Don’t swim in fresh water.  Salt water is usually safer.

Protect yourself from mosquito bites:

• Pay attention to mosquito protection between dusk and dawn.  This is when the type of mosquito whose bites transmits malaria is active.
• Wear long sleeved shirts, long pants and hats.
• Use insect repellants that contain DEET(diethylmethyltoluamide)
• Read and follow instructions and precautions on the product label.
• Apply insect repellent to exposed skin. DO NOT USE ON WOUNDS OR BROKEN SKIN
• Do not breath in, swallow or get into the eyes (DEET IS TOXIC IF SWALLOWED).  If using a spray product, apply DEET to your face by spraying your hands and rubbing the product carefully over the face, avoiding eyes and mouth.
• Unless you are staying in air-conditioned or well-screened housing, purchase a bed net impregnated with the insecticide permethrinor deltamethrin.  Or, spray the bed net with one of these insecticides if you are unable to find a pretreated bed net.
• To prevent fungal and parasitic infections, keep feet clean and dry and do not go bare foot .  (Thongs are a must).

Reasonable precautions should be taken whilst travelling.  The following guidelines should help towards a safe and enjoyable trip.

• Do not walk alone in deserted areas and around the streets after dark
• Always be accompanied by one other person especially at ATMs
• Always keep valuables such as jewellery  out  of sight (best to leave everything at home and buy a cheap watch from the $2 shop)
• Do not carry a large camera around your neck
• Do not leave  your luggage unattended
• Do not accept lifts from strangers and never ‘hitchhike’
• When in a car, keep doors locked and windows only partially open
• Do not offer lifts to strangers

As we all know (especially Melburnians) the weather can change dramatically in a short space of time.  Here are a couple of websites you can have a look at and see what the weather conditions will be when you are travelling.

www.weather.com.au/world

www.weatherzone.com.au/world/

www.timeanddate.com/weather

www.worldweather.org/

We also recommend the following book for anyone looking to engage in cross-cultural work:

"When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself" by Steve Corbett, Brian Fikkert, Moody Publishers, 24 Jan 2014.

With more than 300,000 copies in print, When Helping Hurts is a paradigm-forming contemporary classic on the subject of poverty alleviation and ministry to those in need. Emphasizing the poverty of both heart and society, this book exposes the need that every person has and how it can be filled. The reader is brought to understand that poverty is much more than simply a lack of financial or material resources and that it takes much more than donations and handouts to solve the problem of poverty.

While this book exposes past and current development efforts that churches have engaged in which unintentionally undermine the people they're trying to help, its central point is to provide proven strategies that challenge Christians to help the poor empower themselves. Focusing on both North American and Majority World contexts, When Helping Hurts catalyzes the idea that sustainable change for people living in poverty comes not from the outside-in, but from the inside-out.