# 8: THINGS TO TAKE WITH YOU THAT SHOW YOUR CULTURE, AND PACKING FOR YOUR TRIP

 

THINGS TO TAKE WITH YOU THAT SHOW YOUR CULTURE
 

As you begin thinking about this, you might want to take a look around your home town, city or village and make a list of possible things to take with you that represent your local, regional and national culture, then decide which of these you will actually have room for in your bags. If you have a number of things to take but don’t really have enough room in your bags for them, you might consider shipping a small box or parcel to the camp’s summer address(address it to yourself) by surface mail, which could take between four and six weeks. You may decide to give many of these away as small gifts to friends, campers, other staff or host family members, and thus won’t have to ship them back home.

 

  1. Handcrafts(small weavings, lace, pottery, baskets, toys, dolls, jewellery, etc.)
  2. Card games unique to your country or region
  3. Traditional folk or folk dance outfit
  4. Postcards
  5. Brochures in English about your town, city, village, region or country
  6. A large folding map of your country, region or county
  7. Photos of some of your favorite places
  8. Photos of your family and of you as a young child
  9. A sample of foodstuffs unique to your culture or region(these should be sealed in original factory packaging, unopened). Do not bring any fresh meat, fruit, vegetables or other fresh foods, as they are prohibited. You will be asked if you are bringing any foodstuffs with you into the country.
  10. Any unique spices or ingredients necessary for cooking a special dish or food at camp(first you should ask your camp director if these are available in the U.S.)
  11. A sheet of basic information about your country and culture(you could also make up a multiple choice quiz to use as an activity with campers and staff – it might be a fun exercise to do at staff training as a way of introducing yourself and helping the other staff to become more familiar with your culture and country)
  12. A flag of your country, and some small flags as gifts or souvenirs to give away
  13. A few cassettes or CDs of folk, pop or other music that are representative of your culture
  14. A collection of folk tales, children’s tales or short stories in English(if you can’t find translations of some of them, you could translate a few shorter ones yourself)
  15. One or two films from your country with subtitles in English(films should be appropriate for children)
  16. Anything else that you can think of (you might ask your friends, family, classmates, teachers, neighbors or colleagues for ideas and suggestions.