T-60 hours!!!
After careful consideration, we’ve decided to just pay, though this is irritating apparently it is quite typical of the government! I suppose whats $500 in terms of a once in a life time opportunity? And if this is all that goes wrong, then it will have been quite a smooth trip. I fully anticipate other “difficulties” to be encountered, hopefully my electronics will not decide to die.

Tomorrow is the last day all of my family will be here (My Dad and Natalie are headed out to Chicago early Thursday), not looking forward to another goodbye, but as my Mom said, one day closer to leaving is one day closer to being home! I ran almost all of my last errands, and now I’m just trying to remember all that I’ve forgotten. My “OCD” organizational skills have served me well, everything is in its labeled zip-lock or envelope with an itemized packing list…And yet, I’m sure I’ll forget something!

I got an i-pod nano for the trip, I’m 22, and this is the first i-pod I’ve owned! I feel like I’m behind the times a bit, but I’m quite excited about it!

Other than that, everything is going smoothly and I can’t wait to go! Swahili is still a struggle, but I also learned most people do in fact speak quite a bit of english, mostly we are encouraged to learn the language in case we run into those without secondary education, for general greetings, and as we are guests for an extended period of time (not tourists) so its a sign of respect.

Baby Cheetah

For Natalie and Alex: Mimi papai kumbwa yangu ( I have a large papaya)
I also may bring one of these home? soooo cute (cheetah)