24 hours. 1,440 minutes. That’s the amount of time I have left before I board a plane for Detroit, and then Amsterdam, and then Nairobi, and finally Kilimanjaro. My pre-trip checklist has a refreshing number of lines drawn through it, and it seems like it won’t be a last minute packing job, for once.
The excitement that comes before embarking on something new is mingling with the joy at finishing another year of law school to form a surprisingly bittersweet feeling. Its beautiful outside, and the sense of relief is tangible. Many of my friends are operating without stress for the first time in nine months, and some of them are like different people, actually allowed to enjoy life for a change. Its unfortunate that I’m leaving without really being able to appreciate people functioning at a much more fundamental level. Then again, I leave Minnesota with my last mental snapshot being sunny 80-degree weather and most of my friends exuberant. It’s not a bad way to go out (except for I did end up at Mondale during my last full day in the States… just can’t get away from that place).
Now, for packing. I think I’ve got things figured out for the most part. There’s not much on my list that wasn’t there when I went to Uganda in 2006, but there is a notable amount of stuff that’s absent, like spare batteries and way too many toiletries (with my current wisdom, I’m aware that you can buy things like batteries and toilet paper in Africa. They even have deodorant!). One item on my packing list that I never expected to be bringing to Africa: my Bluebook. No summer in Tanzania is complete without it!
