I'm finally (almost) leaving!

The time has almost come! Sunday, September 24th I fly from Portland to Philadelphia via Dallas. Yeehaw. We have staging/immunizations in Philly until Wednesday morning, the 27th, and then I will be off to The Gambia, starting with a bus ride from Philly to JFK airport in NYC, a 7.5 hour flight to Brussels, and a 7.75 hours flight to Banjul, The Gambia via Dakar, Senegal. I won't actually touch down in The Gambia until 5:20 pm on September 28th.This morning I spent a good 3-4 hours organizing my luggage and weighing and measuring it. It turns out that it is harder to keep everything within the linear dimensions than under the weigh limit. I'll end up taking about 60-65 lbs of goods for two years!! What am I taking? Here are a few interesting tidbits from my packing list:

*solar panel to charge batteries for my digital camera
*30 pairs of underwear
*The Diva Cup. It's a feminine hygiene thing. Some of you will think it is gross/weird. I think it is intriguing and potential very useful whilst traversing the globe. www.divacup.com
*Travel Scrabble. Of course.
*A Field Guide to the Birds of The Gambia and Senegal. I haven’t really liked birds since taking an avian museum specimen prep course at UW. Whenever I look at a bird I feel myself holding a scalpel and stuffing it. But apparently bird watching is fabulous in The Gambia so I thought I’d give it a try.
*A bottle of garlic powder. Just in case I can’t get it there. I LOVE garlic.
*A small collection of fishing paraphernalia. In case I have time to use it whenever I’m not doing whatever it is that an “Environmental Extension Agent” in The Gambia does.
*Duct tape. For shits and giggles and whatever else seems necessary.
*A Nerf football. Will Gambian children like American football? I have also included a soccer ball that I suspect will be more popular...

Well, I’m pretty much really, really excited to leave! A part of me is thinking I’m crazy for wanting to do this but that’s part of what thrills me about this adventure. This is an amazing opportunity to live in another culture half a world away from home and really try to make a difference. I can’t imagine anything else that I’d rather be doing at this point in my life.

I think I’ll spend my last day at home with my family. Maybe I’ll watch the UW football game and hope that the purple and gold send me off to Africa in style and high spirits…well, maybe I’ll have to do that for myself. I’ll watch the first half.

Anyway, farewell!!