One Week To Go

I've got a week before I leave and of course, I'm about as ready as New Orleans is to host the Olympics (hey aliza). The only space in my room is a path through the random crap on my floor that leads to my bed. On top of that, no one in New Jersey apparently administers the rabies vaccine, Rite Aid is a hell hole filled with old people (and consequently i have no prescriptions or sunblock) and my stockpile of insect repellent is non-existant -in fact, it is currently in the store where i havent purchased it yet. I dont have a suitcase, none of the insect repellant clothing has come in the mail yet and I may or may not have lost my ipod and all the books i need to read for research this summer. 

I doubt anyone who isnt my friend will read this, but in case they do (or in case your a friend I havent talked to in a while), heres whats happening. 

I'm going to southern Sudan on Monday June 2 (a trip which will include a mad dash through Heathrow since our layover is like, two minutes long). I'm going to be doing health work through the Diocese of Torit, mainly focusing on funding, grant proposals, interviews in different villages, and, potentially (according to my uncle, who is insane), the complete eradication of the guinea worm. We (my cousin George, a student at Berkley named Neesha and me) will be accompanied for two weeks by my Uncle Ed who runs a telecommunication business in Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and some other places, and who lived in Sudan for a significant part of the eighties. 

The basic game plan is to land in Nairobi, go see Nairobi national park while we wait around for visas and permission to fly across the border, go to the police station and have them give us permits to photograph (which explictly say you arent allowed to photograph images of abject poverty, or military anything-so I can photograph...snakes), and then wait around for a while. Then we fly to Juba which is the biggest city in southern Sudan. We will have some "meetings" of an unspecified time/location/topic with unspecified people, and will, supposedly, haggle for a three million dollar grant from the Global Fund-the details are a bit fuzzy and the optimism...a bit high. From there we drive down to Torit (about a four hour drive if the roads are good) and get to our compound where we will be staying with other European aid workers and people who work for the diocese. We will stay there until August 2 or 3 (or maybe a little later, i have no idea) and then from there go back to Juba, and from there back to Nairobi where we will go on safari for a week (and hopefully my parents and my aunt and cousins will come on that as well). Then we come home. 

Thats the basics of it. Details are available and i have them but I smell chicken for dinner and i'm starving. So thats it for now.

ps. Hello Smisch! I cant believe I have a blog. I'm like a carbon copy of you! (because the only thing seperating us until now was my lack of a blog-obviously)