Anyway, out of respect for the doc, I won’t include any of his personal information (I’ll call him Dr. Brain from now on) or anything else about his personal life he shared with us, BUT I do want to take a minute to talk about a very important lesson he taught all of the students on the last day of nerd camp, something he was very adamant about… SURVIVAL.
Dr. Brain is what I would call a “survivalist” not only does he go into peoples’ brains and clip their aneurysm to keep them alive so they wouldn’t burst, but he also is prepared to survive the apocalypse (or any more likely scenario that he could possibly face). He taught the students how to treat broken limbs, deep lacerations, and trauma to the spinal cord with objects like cardboard, duct tape, tampons, plastic, rubber bands, etc. It was one of my favorite lectures of the summer (almost as cool as drilling holes into fetal pigs’ brains).
What I’m trying to get at in this blog post is Dr. Brain’s message of the importance of a good survival pack. He stressed the significance of everyone having their own survival kit and to actually keep it on you at all times. Before I left for my month long backpacking trip to Central America, he helped me start mine and gave me a plethora of goodies from his own pack. What a guy.
SO without further ado, I am going to share my, now personally modified to reflect the needs of Peace Corps Paraguay volunteer, survival kit for all you future or current volunteers, or normal nonvolunteer humans who are thinking of starting their own survival kit for travel, camping, or just day to day life (because you should ALWAYS be prepared, and you NEVER know when you’ll need it). ALSO will be sharing some of Dr. Brain’s tips when starting your survival kit.
Item #1- A good knife. This can vary depending on what your survival kit is actually for, I’ve used knives (outside of my kitchen) for cutting rope, peeling fruit, removing parasites from my friends’ foot… you get the picture. Sometimes those swiss army knives are useful, but at other times you may require the use of an much heftier pocket knife. Dr. Brain had a surplus of knives to show us ranging from tiny little daggers to full on machetes…. actually thinking of getting a machete while I’m down here…
Dr. Brain Tip #2- Duct tape can be used for anything.
Item #2- DUCT TAPE! It actually can be (and has been) used for anything and everything.
Item #3- Rubber bands- I have become reliant on good, thick rubber bands for many random things around my house. Mostly in terms of attachment, like attaching my flashlight to a plastic water jug to make a lantern, attaching my phone to my bike to record videos, attaching my Christmas decorations to my barred windows… you get the picture.
Dr. Brain Tip #3- A condom can hold a liter of water.
Item #4- Condoms, non-lubricated, because water storage, duh.
Dr. Brain Tip #4- Many mundane items can have very practical uses.
Item #5- Tampons- tampons can be used to absorb blood from a deep cut (or nosebleeds, anyone seen She’s the Man?), and they’re sterile. Plus if you’re a female… wouldn’t hurt to have.
Dr. Brain Tip #5- ALWAYS be prepared for anything
Along with this tip, I would like to point out that Peace Corps provides us with nearly every type of medication/prevention we could ever need, so for future volunteers, no need to bring or pack things like bandaids, ibuprofen, antibiotic ointments, gauze, tweezers, medical tape, bug spray, sunscreen, aspirin, eyedrops, gloves…etc. you get the picture. For those of you not in Peace Corps, some of these listed items are a MUST to your survival kit. SOO my items #6-10 fall from under this category of things
Item #6- some kind of sterile swab, or alcohol wipes
Item #7- bandaids of various sizes
Item #8- ibuprofen
Item #9- aspirin (or other non-aspirin fever reducer like acetaminophen)
Item #10- a backup of any medications you are reliant on (insulin, inhaler, etc.)
Item #11- Plastic wrap- this one is one of my own, but comes in handy in food storage (do the impossible and keep those ants out of your kitchen), and can be used to cover cuts/scrapes you don’t want to get wet, laminate papers and photos, make frames, arts & crafts, wrapping presents, etc.
Item #12- Needles and thread (or like a mini sewing kit)- useful to stitch up rips in your clothes after you gain weight from all local cuisine and also I just recently used one of my needles to remove parasites from my own foot and always handy for popping blisters after a 30 mile walk to church.
Dr. Brain Tip #6- Besides a knife and duct tape, rope is one of the most valuable survival tools
Item #13- Dr. Brain gifted me with one of those army bracelets that turn into like 300 yards of super heavy duty parachute rope. Although I haven’t broken into that bracelet just yet, I’ve used rope/string for a many of things down here such as hanging shelves, holstering up charla papers, hanging up my photos and spices, making my dog a chew toy after she ate my shoes, etc.
Item #14- BAKING SODA I GOT BAKING SODA- but for real, baking soda has so many random uses, whether you’re cleaning up your dogs pee from your sleeping bag, unclogging your drain, baking cookies or in a pinch when you run out of deodorant, baking soda is a must.
WELL I think that just about covers all of the essentials, and if I’ve forgotten to include something, then it’s probably not very important anyway. Would love to hear any thoughts from those of you that have their own survival packs if there’s any substitutions or anything you find super useful! And I’ll leave you with one more of Dr. Brain’s tips:
Dr. Brain Tip #7- A survival kit does you no good if you don’t have it with you.
**This post was inspired by my afternoon yesterday when I sat in my house without power, using the lantern I assembled from the flashlight of my phone and a water jug, trying to remove a parasite and its eggs from two of my toes using my sewing needle and some antibiotics from my med kit.