Packing

Remember the last time you went on a family vacation? You were gone for a week or two at most. And remember dashing around in the preceding week, getting every thing in order and making sure you didn't forget any essentials like camera batteries or pajamas? Now multiply your anxiety and frantic-ness by ten and you'll get our situation.

Packing for nine months is a daunting endeavor to say the least. It's hard to get enough momentum to begin and then when you do, you realize how much work you have. You begin with the essentials like clothing and work towards other things like books and crafts. By the time you have everything in an unshapely pile in the corner of a room you realize it's not all going to fit into three large duffel bags.

And so we have begun. Just today we have started a 'pre-pack' to see that we have all our essentials and make sure everything is going to fit. Hopefully we'll have everything in order before we leave.

FYI

Karibu! (Welcome!) For those of you who don't know what we'll be up to this year, here are the details.

My mom and I will be spending the next nine months in Tanzania. She has received a Fullbright scholarship which allows her to teach and research abroad for a year. The timing was perfect for me to take a gap year as I graduated this past spring.

We will be living in Mweka, a small town in northern Tanzania. Mweka is situated near Mt. Kilimanjaro so the weather will be cooler thanks to the higher altitude. Mweka is also home to the College of African Wildlife Management, where my mom will be teaching.

During the year I will be persuing volunteer options in the area such as teaching children English along with keeping this blog updated with our latest stories and adventures.