top 10 things to bring with you when moving to a tropical third world country

10. Ear Plugs.  Because at 3am when the neighbor's donkey is he-hawing, or when the rooster crows all night, or when the dogs bark incessantly, or when the rain hammers down on your roof, or when the party down the street is so loud you wonder if the whole island is there, the motorcycle horns just don't stop beeping... you can reduce the noise level by 30 decibels.  PTL. 

9. An easily put on face that screams "I don't have a clue as to what you're talking about."  Because sometimes, it's just a lot easier to play dumb. 

8. Really heavy boots or a good sturdy sledgehammer.  Because 3" long cockroaches don't die easily. 

7. Deet. When you think about it, your options are (1) having malaria now, or (2) increased chances of maybe having cancer later. (And here's a ridiculous medical question... if malaria is spread by mosquitoes biting someone with malaria, then biting someone else and giving them the malaria from the first person, what about AIDS? Does it work the same way???)

6. After-Bite.  For when the deet fails.  Because sometimes, it will (or rather, your memory will fail and you'll walk out of the house without putting on your trusty deet).  

5. Lemon juice and a syringe.  If mosquitoes like sweet blood...

4. Sun screen.  If you're going to risk getting cancer with deet, put on some sunscreen and block those pesky UV rays.  Your extra protective measure here may in fact cancel out your over use of deet, making cancer a possibility of the past.  Doesn't that make your future brighter? Yes, I believe it does.  Brighter, and yet not sun burned. 

3.  A good, trusty, portable, UV light water filtration system.  Because sometimes, UV light can be your friend.  Without sunscreen it can kill you - so think about what it'll do to the cholera that's swimming in your drinking water.  

2.  Purell. Because really, you don't know where things have been.  (I have a bottle of this next to my bathroom sink, since that water isn't filtered.  And sometimes I think, "hmm... kills 99.9 percent of germs.  What about typhoid? Does it kill typhoid?)

1.  Eyes that see things the way Jesus does. (Cue Amy Grant's "My Father's Eyes" song here.)  You have to see people and things the way that Jesus does.  There's too much dirt and grime and poverty and pain when you see things with your own eyes.  Look at who the people are, not what they are, what they have, or what they don't have.  Prepare to be open, prepare to be challenged, prepare to be changed.