After almost two years of applying, qualifying and preparing for departure, I am now less than 12 hours away from boarding a plane and heading to Tanzania! I still can’t quite believe it’s really happening. There were more than a few moments during the process when I felt like they’d just keep delaying my departure date until I eventually gave up or keeled over. And I’d be lying if I said I never consider bailing out – I had a particularly acute attack of “What the heck am I doing?” just yesterday and developed a great alternate plan that involved me spending the next 27 months hanging out on a beach in Mexico (at a resort with all of the amenities, of course) and posting to this blog as if I were in Tanzania so none of you would be the wiser. But that seemed like a lot of work and I couldn’t get anyone to come with me, so back to Plan A!
Thanks to all of you for your support, encouragement and generosity during this whole process. It really helped me hang in there when I was ready to give up. And I promise I won’t blame any of you if I get eaten by a lion.
I leave you with the requisite Peace Corps blog photo of my packed luggage. Somehow I managed to cram more than two years of necessities into two checked bags and two carry-on bags. Hopefully I remembered to put a toothbrush somewhere in there…
I’m not sure how often I’ll have internet access (or how reliable it will be when I have it) but my goal is to try to post at least once every two weeks. Fingers crossed!
(Oh, and I’m still working on the layout here. The pine cone photo is a default – will replace with something more Tanzanian as soon as I have the chance to take some photos. This is my first blog so any suggestions or feedback are appreciated.)
Take the 10 East for 10,077 miles and make a right at the Serengeti... 