Staging

I got my staging packet in the mail yesterday. That's the final go-ahead I've been waiting for, as it contained the official departure date and travel information. I need to be in Philadelphia June 13th, and I'm leaving for Africa (first Johannesburg, then up to Lusaka, Zambia) on June 15th. In a month from today- that's it, just one month- I'll be in Zambia.

There's pretty much no way to actually get my mind around this, but I feel like it's happening for real this time. I've now down everything twice- gotten two invitations, two giant packets, and two staging packets- and what's left is the real, gritty, challenging, frustrating process of actually packing. This is where I got really bogged down, completely stressed out, and stopped sleeping in January. I'm hoping to avoid that this time around, and I'm actually further ahead than where I was when Guinea was still on the horizon. I have a new pair of dress shoes (which is way more significant than it seems, given that the last time I bought dress shoes I was, I think, a sophomore in high school). I have an iPod. I have several new pairs of Chacos in the mail, and I have an incredibly helpful list of packing suggestions from a girl who is currently in Zambia with the Peace Corps.

Now I just have to sit down in a large pile of my possessions and see whether they can all fit into my daypack (somehow I doub it, but I'm holding on to the possibility) or if I need to (okay, get to) get a new internal frame pack.