Just eight weeks left – I’m definitely getting excited.
I got my inoculations all taken care of. Thankfully I only needed a Yellow Fever shot. It wasn’t too bad: I ended up with quite a knot in my arm at the injection site, but that went away fairly quickly. The doctor also gave a prescription for malaria pills – I’ll have to fill that in about 7 weeks and take them throughout the trip and for a month after.
Other than that, I have just the basic travel medicine kit full of things like aspirin, Benadryl cream, Neosporin ointment, bandages, and my migraine pills. I got myself a blue plastic pencil case from the Back-to-School sales that everything fits into quite nicely. Funny: no matter how old I get the Back-to-school isle still gets me all excited. I just love brand new pencils and packages of paper that haven’t been opened yet.
Anyway – I’m getting all my gear gathered together. I found a really nice hat and a clip-on watch for my backpack. I even got a clip-on thermometer that is also a compass AND a magnifying glass! Never know when that will come in handy. My friend Rachel loaned me her neck pillow for the airplane ride: my doctor recommended that for my neck, but honestly I’m not to sure about it. I’ll have to get used to it before hand and decide later on if I’ll actually take it. Mother has been finding all sorts of knick-knacks that I will need to have with me, and I hit the End-of-Summer sale at REI to get some pants and a nice shirt for the trip.
I am in the process of leaping over the last major hurdle: getting the visa from the Kenyan government. I went to the photography department at Sears to have the photos taken. The girl operating the camera was a tiny little thing. She had to stand way up on her tippy-toes just to ensure the picture was full-on to my face! I offered to kneel, but it worked out anyway. I packaged up all the paperwork, my passport, and the photos into an envelope and sent it off via certified mail. According to the email I received a few days later, my visa & passport will be sent to me within the next week or so, and I’ll be good to go!
Now if I can just figure out my bookreader…
As for your trip to Africa, do take the neck pillow. I finally got one last year and napping on the plane is a treat now, best investment for traveling EVER.
ReplyDeleteIf she has one that you blow up I would come up with something to wrap around though to cover the seam. If it is one of those bean ones, they are awesome.
I sleet on the plane no matter what but believe me it is much more comfortable with the neck pillow: less neck pain and not much of a headache.
I love it.
Anne