Praia - Post Report Question and Answers
What household or grocery items do you wish you had shipped to post?
We planned ahead and shipped everything we need. Mexican, Indian, and Asian ingredients are hard-to-find or non-existent here. You should ship cleaning supplies and toiletries. - Feb 2024
Not really missing anything, to be honest. It's the least homesick I've been when living overseas and think it's because of all the similarities. Maybe more gnocchi? - Aug 2023
Meat. Some American cheeses that you can't find here like Muenster cheese and Monterey Jack. Bread flour. Cereal. You can find cereal here, but you won't find American cereals. Any Asian or Mexican ingredients. - Jan 2023
We took advantage of every single pound of our consumables allowance, and with pouch, we can get everything we need. We bought everything we needed for all our holiday baking, as that is nearly impossible to find here. Anything liquid you think you'll need, bring it, and bring too much!
Any time we go back to the States, we bring home frozen items like hot dogs, chicken, bacon, and sausage. We have good coolers that ensure the meat will stay frozen for the 30-40 hours it takes to get home. - Sep 2018
We're grateful for the consumables allowance and shipped most cleaning supplies, paper products, motor oil, and many cooking supplies, especially ingredients to make Asian/Mexican food. We cook a lot at home and many specialty ingredients cannot be found here. - Dec 2017
There isn't a lot of variety in terms of cuisine here so bring things that will add variation to your weekly meals. I would bring tahini, pita chips, peanut butter, mixes to make chili and fajitas, different types of nuts like walnuts if you bake, boxed comfort foods (for us it's Annie's Mac and Cheese), BBQ sauces, Heinz Ketchup, etc. We also tore through our Sam Adams pretty fast :).
For household items, it's worth finding out ahead of time if you will have a pool and if so bring pool maintenance supplies because the quality here is terrible. The paper supplies here also leaves a lot to be desired so if you're picky about that sort of thing, paper towels and toilet paper. This is also a post where you will need a car so standard car maintenance supplies such as extra break pads, air filters and an extra set of belts. Don't forget to bring lots of mosquito repellent. It's good to have a full supply of medicine for common ailments - fever, indigestion, cold/flu. - Oct 2016
More peanut butter, salsa, beef jerky, nuts, laundry detergent, diapers. - May 2014
More white vinegar for cleaning and food disinfection purposes. One shouldn't eat the veggies and fruit here without first bleaching or otherwise disinfecting them. - Sep 2012
Food I can't live without. Definitely think about your consumables, there are very few American products and when you find them they are usually expired and expensive. - May 2012
More books, snacks of all kinds. - Sep 2009
Peanut butter, baking items, chocolate chips, laundry detergent, all house cleaning items, spare tires and other car parts, plastic ware for entertaining, plastic wrap, foil, baggies, toiletries. - Feb 2008
