Pokes, Prods and Passports

Our journey to Africa is still a couple of months away, but there are so many things that have to be done before we can leave. But never fear, I have an unbeatable weapon.  It is not the first one, and it will certainly not be the last. They have never let me down and always serve me well.

 I have my....LIST!

I have made lists for as long as I can remember, for every situation, but this list has them all beat.  It even has sublists.  I've been so worried about forgetting something and so I have it all written down.  The only problem is that nothing was getting crossed off, just more STUFF getting added.  Now a list without checkmarks is a sad list indeed, so you can imagine my joy when finally last week, I was able to start checking things off my list! YAY!!  (It's kind of sad how happy this makes me.  It's the little things)

The first thing was our spiffy, new passports photos.  It is somewhat disheartening to note that this photo is one of the best ID photos I've ever taken, which isn't saying much.  I couldn't show any teeth, but if I smile too widely with my mouth closed, my eyes squint shut and I  look like I'm going blind.  So I barely smiled and now I have a photo that says, "So what if I get to travel the world with this thing...meh...I'm bored." At least I was having a good hair day.

Enthusiasm successfully tempered 

Naturally, the next big thing was putting those awesome little pics in a brand, spanking new passport!  Did you know that passports come in different COLORS?  I did not know this, so imagine my surprise when I find out that not only do we get to keep our standard blue passports for regular travel, but we get nifty, black Diplomatic passports for just such an occasion as entering a foreign country on a diplomatic mission.  (That sounds really clandestine and important, and it isn't, but I still think it's pretty cool :D )

The most recent thing to be checked off is all the dreaded vaccines that we have to get.  It is remarkable how many little bugs, viruses and bacteria want to kill us in Africa.  My arms feel like I played a particularly vicious round of "dead arm" with my brother Aaron.  (He and I used to trade punches in our arms when we got bored...siblings!) and the fun keeps going with round 2 next week.  Oral typhus anyone?!?  Plus another rabies shot.  We know how to party in the Peterson house :D