This is a list of stuff we found useful which we thought others planning to visit might want to read, especially if you are going to cook for yourself. It may seem extreme but a) we like good food and b) two of us are vegetarian. Toby and I took approx 25kg of food out each and we ate pretty much all of it. This also included stuffing and gravy which we used to make our veggie christmas dinner. We did have local food too (including unLucky the goat), but were especially glad of taking treats to stuff and to share.
General
50% Deet to fend off mosquitoes (warning if it spills it will burn through plastic)
Double bed sheet/sheet sleeping bag
Pillow (there are some there but they are pretty hard)
Solar mobile phone charger (Freeloader worked well for us)
Head torches
Solar showers (by evening you can have a scalding shower)
Hand sanitizer
Batteries
Soft toilet roll
Baby wipes
Food
Parmesan
Pesto
Laughing Cow (this stuff is indestructible)
Mini baby bell/mini smoked cheese
Sweets to give away (we took mini packs of skittles, opal fruits and fruit pastilles and big bags of jelly babies)
Artichokes/sundried tomatoes in oil (perks up pasta)
Honey
Jam
Cereal bars (you will need plenty – choose carefully)
Tinned puddings (heinz treacle puddings were a massive treat)
Fresh coffee
Tea bags
Ovaltine
Mixed herbs
Chocolate
Wine
Pine nuts
Pistashio nuts
Cashew nuts
Dried fruit
Soy sauce
In Freetown supermarket you can get dried milk (Peak), spices, pasta, couscous, tinned tomatoes, tinned pulses, baked beans, mayo, margarine, spirits, crisps, biscuits and persil and you can buy loads of veg outside on the street. In Kambia when we were there (Dec/Jan) there seems to be no vegetables in the local markets but you can buy small aubergines, chillies, flour, rice, pasta, tomato puree, eggs, bread, beer, coke, limes, oranges. And not much else.
