Of Immense Consuming Interest

One of the twisted perks of being in a place with few Western goods is the State Department will ship you a big pile of items purchased back home -- a couple of times during your tour.  It's a bit of a crapshoot to guess what won't be available before you go to post.  When in doubt, if it doesn't expire, buy it.  And buy it in bulk, a year or two in quantity.

We were forced into gluttony.  It's embarrassing buying 300 rolls of toilet paper or gallons of hot sauce (a sick connection?).  Welcome to the world of consumables.

Back in Virginia in June, before we left, James sweated every package of flour and can of beans.  "Did I buy everything?  Did I buy enough?  I could have bought so much more!" Alas, there is a pound limit.  Everything got packed up and disappeared for a few months.  "What did we buy?"

And then it all arrived a few weeks ago.  And then we had to figure out where to store everything.  Welcome to our fallout shelter:

Lighter dry goods up top, liquids down below.  

An unplugged freezer doubles as airtight storage for stuff susceptible to critter infestation.  The can aisle.

The best for last, the chest o' chocolate.  A week's supply.  Kidding!  Kidding?

Finally, we give a little shout out to an unnamed family member, who insisted that we were getting "combustibles."  Hot stuff!