T-Minus 3 Days

This is it. The blog you've all been waiting for. Less obtrusive than mass emails with a slick, easy-on-the-eye "minima black" template so you have absolutely no excuse not to read this stuff. Expect updates once a week (that's optimistic). I'll try and have pictures up and also maybe some audio blogs that I'll be recording with my bad#*(@ Marantz PMD620. I'll see how I can make that work. Maybe a podcast? Feel free to email me if you have any ideas. Stay tuned.

I just saw Indiana Jones 4 so I'm feeling ready to spend my 6 months in Malawi. Foreign locales are a piece of cake for a tough-as-nails world traveler with a machete, loose fitting khakis and one of those cool hat-things (maybe I should look into getting a bullwhip).

Seriously, I'm getting eager to get over there and meet the World Relief Malawi staff. I feel well oriented thanks to some training in Baltimore and there's really nothing more left to do but get a haircut and go. So many questions assault my muddled psyche. What will Malawian culture be like? Will the language be too difficult? Will my supervisor accept me in the "WR Malawi family" even after I addressed him as a woman over email? Into the unknown.

I'll be leaving the States on the '28th and getting into Lilongwe on May 30th. That's a good 48 hours of misty-eyed existential airport time. "Who am I? Where am I going? Where are any of us going?" Blah blah blah. Be glad I won't have the opportunity to update this blog in transit or the petty angst emanating from your screen would be enough to deter any of you dear readers from checking it ever again. If you really want to feel what the travel experience will be like, just turn on some weepy music and drink Sprite out of little four-ounce glasses and sit in the same place for 23 HOURS CONFESSING EVERY SIN YOU'VE EVER COMMITTED EVERY TIME THE "FASTEN SEAT-BELT LIGHT" LIGHT COMES ON. Yeah, it's not going to be fun, but I've done this before, and there are few things I won't do to get back to Africa.

To be continued on the other side...