Anticipation; Visas; eight plus six equals two

A great joy in any trip is the anticipation you feel as the months and days count down to D-day. I read the medical information for the countries and the CDC's recommendations, and then went to Bangor and got $450 worth of shots and medicines to keep me "safe."I ordered Pimsleur's Swaheli CD's (10 of them) and have been listening to them for at least a month, back and forth to work in my car. I am reading "Out of Africa" and will watch the movie before I leave. I ordered the Lonely Planet "Kenya" guide and have been reading those portions of it that cover the places in our itinerary, those portions providing additional Swaheli phrases, and comments on the history and literature of Kenya. I stay up late looking at maps of the places we will visit and I visit the websites of the hotels, lodges and camps where we will stay. I go to the CIA World Fact Book and look up Kenya and Tanzania and marvel at their life expectancies (younger than me in both countries!) and other facts of their existence such as the fact that the median age in both countries is about 18. I ordered "safari" pants for our safari, pants where you can unzip the bottom half of the legs to create shorts, and a safari long sleeve shirt, all to keep the malaria-carrying mosquitoes away. I created this blog so that I can hopefully make it available to those who wish to follow us on our journey.



And I got visas for Janet (Bay) and me, hiring CIBT to attend to dealing with the Kenyan and Tanzanian embassies, and that was another $500 (only $300 of which was for the fees charged by the countries for the visas). How nervewracking that was to send away our passports to some company in Washington, D.C. 6 weeks before our departure not knowing if we'd ever see them again. So for peace of mind, I added "insurance" at $12.50 per passport (I'm not sure what that got me other than the additional charge).  And then came the call that my credit card would not accept their charge for these services.  Guess I should start paying my bills.



And in my last two Swaheli CD's, I learned that "eight is equal to two" - in time that is. Apparently, they measure time from 6 A.M. and 6 P.M. So if you say "Sasa ne za nane" (I know. YOU probably don't go around saying that.), it literally means "now it is at eight" but what it really means is that, in our time, "it is two o'clock."  Eight hours after six o'clock is two o'clock, right? Go figure.