Dd18 seemingly totally unprepared for solo trip abroad?

[IWantAMassiveEasterEgg]

dd18 is leaving tomorrow for a trip to other side of the world for 3 weeks volunteering but is worryingly unprepared.
she’s had her required jabs and I picked up malaria tablets for her.

However she’s still got paperwork she needs to print out, she hasn’t packed despite me offering all weekend to give her a hand just has a huge pile of clothes dumped in the corner of her room. Most of which looks like she’s packing for a girls trip away and not a trip to a Muslim country (I have advised her and she just rolls her eyes).

she’s exchanged no currency yet and I feel like there’s probably things she’s missed reading the information. Last night she stumbled across the fact one of her flights has a tiny luggage allowance but instead of trying to book more on she went out for drinks with friends and got in at 1am this morning.

I’ve told her I’m in the office tomorrow so this weekend was her chance to have my help/pick last minute things up.

Im usually quite relaxed about them facing their own consequences but this trip is a big deal and I’m worried about her not being prepared - I don’t have the financial means to bail her out.

What to do?

I’m sorry at 18 and going to another country for 3 weeks I would be giving her more help - you don’t have to do it for her but you could sit down and help her write lists - work through the steps of stuff like how does she get foreign currency etc - bet she’s never done that before.
Your reference to piles in her room - reminds me of me as a kid I ended up being diagnosed with adhd as an adult. I still find packing one of the hardest things - I pull out everything I might need and then go through it to select what I do really need

I’ve told her I’m in the office tomorrow so this weekend was her chance to have my help/pick last minute things up.

OP has offered.

Like others have said, the only thing I'd be making 100% sure is in place is insurance. Because if anything does go wrong and it's not, then you'll be the one bearing the consequences as much as her. It boggles my mind when you see those GoFundMes for people - usually younger but not always - who have simply not bothered to (for a fraction of the cost of their trip) take out insurance and then fallen off a scooter or something.

You're opinion is that she's under prepared and your nagging really isn't going to help. The examples you give are very old fashioned and out of touch.

Do nothing. She's old enough to do it herself

I think that perhaps you are expecting her to do more than is actually necessary (printing out documents etc) and she is more of a last minute type of person. If she is old enough to do this trip alone she is old enough to get organised herself!
At 19 I went alone to the US to work for the summer, I had a job lined up but didnt even have accommodation booked for the forst few nights, or travel arranged to where I was working! Was all fine and I figured things out (and had the best summer of my life)

Well I hope she has fun.

Came here to ask this
Is she too embarrassed or nervous to say she doesn’t want to go ?

I’m on a solo holiday now and have nearly 30 years of packing experience so I’m fine.
DC is going on 2 holidays shortly and hasn’t packed a thing. I’ve encouraged him to buy insurance and sent the link to order a new GHIC which he’s done and it’s arrived. Apart from that he’ll have to learn like I did. Or buy things when he’s there.
I’m very much of the view that I’ve done my bit to raise him to adulthood without any major issues. Mollycoddling him now doesn’t help anyone. I learned, he will.
Take a step back, appreciating this is difficult, and let them make mistakes. Or not, they may surprise you.

she won't be able to buy cheap clothes at markets if she's not changed any money!

They have atms in Tanzania

They have ATMs. And you can’t buy Tanzania shillings abroad anyway.

Printed paperwork is part of the visa aspect she has to present at the border when she arrives I know it sounds old fashioned as everything is done online nowadays but it’s what they’ve asked for.

she does have travel insurance whatever it is the one the volunteering org wanted her to buy. She showed me it on her phone yesterday and I told her to screen shot the emergency numbers on there.

she is doing marine volunteering and organised it herself so could be mostly beach cleans the duties outlined are quite vague. She used her child trust fund to pay for it herself.

Have strong views against these kind of volunteering things.

I hope she’s paid for her trip in its entirety without money from you or other family for it.

I would check that she had travel insurance, including to cover the volunteering, shove suncream and small bag with painkillers, insect bite cream, antihistamine tablets and any other meds you usually take on holiday in the pile, and do nothing else.

OK so she has insurance. I would tell her one more time that not having the correct paperwork could mean a long, unpleasant, expensive situation at the point of arrival, then leave it up to her.

This is the conclusion I’ve come to with my DD. She takes zero notice of any advice or steering; I now give her the facts and then let her deal with the outcome.

it’s really hard as a Mum to stand back but at 18 if she chooses to ignore important advice then neither should you be expected to swoop in and fix the fallout.