Gift for my SIL going to central Africa

[Deleted]

My SIL is going to a country in central Africa with the UN for a year. Can anyone suggest something we could buy for her to take that may be nice? Useful? Caring?
It can either be a good going away gift in general or specific to the area.
I assume it can't be too large and she is leaving in 2 weeks.

@wandering (I know she was in another part of Africa) but she is the only one I could think of with potential knowledge of moving from this part of the world to that part.

[aurora]

There is a lot of variation in central Africa. It's hard to make a location-specific recommendation without knowing more. For example, urban or rural? Climate?

[Deleted]

Aug 16, 2015 19:10:08 GMT -5 aurora said:

There is a lot of variation in central Africa. It's hard to make a location-specific recommendation without knowing more. For example, urban or rural? Climate?

I'm not 100% sure but I assume the UN is in the urban area since she will actually be working in an office.
The place is close to Kenya. I don't want to say the name because of her privacy.

[underwaterrhymes]

I would pack some of her favorite snacks, which may be hard to come by or exorbitant. If she'll be in an urban area, she can likely get a lot of what she needs.

[rupertpenny]

If she doesn't already have a kindle buy her one. If she does, give her an Amazon gift card that she can use for kindle books.

[alleinesein]

Another vote for snacks. You could also put together a little first aid kit with stuff like pepto bismol, alka seltzer, band aids, etc. 2 items that I travel with when I will be out of the country for months on end- a bottle of sriracha and a bottle of blue cheese dressing (I get Kens since its shelf stable). Another good one is a travel coffee mug, starbucks vias and flavored powdered creamer.

[Muddled]

Spices
thermal French press

[Deleted]

I honestly don't think snacks would be the best gift. I know when I packed my things it wasn't too difficult but I didn't have extra room for snacks and I'd be worried about them melting or getting crushed. I think snacks would be a good thing to send in a care package in a few months.

I think the suggestions of a kindle or iTunes gift card are great as they could be used before she leaves to download a lot of things. I'm not a huge reader but travelled a lot when I lived abroad and always wished I had a kindle so my book didn't take up space and weight in my backpack.

[ttc76]

How about a calling card

[katietornado]

I know Ethiopia is not Kenya, but my experience there was with rolling blackouts. Our hotel lost power for the entire last week we were there.

I had one of these with me, and it was a lifesaver: www.amazon.com/Anker-13000mAh-Capacity-Portable-Technology/dp/B00BQ5KHJW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1439797810&sr=8-4&keywords=anker+battery

[Deleted]

Aug 17, 2015 1:55:36 GMT -5 ttc76 said:

How about a calling card

I considered this but silly question. If I buy a calling card here, will it work there?