Preparations are in full swing

Greetings!  Thanks for joining me on this adventure of a lifetime.  I'm hoping to be able to communicate with you here regularly before I leave, when I return, and even on a couple of occasions when I'm in Kenya on the other side of the planet.  Technology is amazing.

Preparations are in full swing.  In addition to the quality excitement that Spirit Week at Beaver River has offered this week, I have been taking care of fun pre-trip details including pulling together the unique collection of things that one takes to Africa.  Anti-malaria medication, jungle pants, insect repellent, and lots of enthusiasm, are among the things that I've gathering.  It's time for me to begin learning to identify the wide variety of living things that call the African Savannah home, and to learn simple phrases in Swahili.  This is a fun project for sure!  I can't believe that I'll probably get to see a real live zebra in the wild...and hundreds of other plants and animals that I've only seen on TV and in zoos.  I feel a documentary coming on! 

I'm incredibly fortunate to be able to look forward to talking with Jim Albertson, a BRCS alumni who has just returned from Nairobi this week.  The insights that he has gained and the contributions that he has made during his years with the Peace Corps and the Carter Foundation are amazing.  He has been working on the eradication of a fierce parasite called the Guinea worm, as well as on projects like the construction of wood-less homes.  It's exciting to get to travel to where one of my former students has been working so hard to make a difference.

'Until next time...  M. Watkins