I'm leaving on a jet plane...

I'm departing tomorrow and I wanted to make one last post before I'm off for two months! I'm not comletely packed yet, still collecting some things for the clinic at the moment but hopefully I should be all done tonight.

I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to the following peeps:

• To my big sis - thanks for helping with the donations and just being wonderful in general
• Wendell - muchos gracias pour le flashlight (Spanish and French, ah ha!) and if elephant poaching ever becomes legal I'll send ivory your way
• Shayna - I will think of you every time I look at my watch and I will use the blow dryer on special occasions!
• Sab - every cut will have a bandage, every mosquito will be banished entry to my skin and every square centimeter of my hands will be sanitized thanks to you
• Priya - no fools will be stealin' money from me and thanks for your travel advice; if I have a tenth as much street smarts as you do I'm sure I'll be fine
• Mike - thanks for helping me choose my "airport outfit", you poor thing having to help me pack over the phone; see you in Nairobi in a month!

Thanks to everyone who wishes me well - I'm sure I'll be totally fine and if anything the most dangerous thing I will encounter is probably those nasty enterohemorrhagic E. Coli (sorry, did I give too many details about my internal bowel workings?) But I'm supposedly immunized against that and cholera, so really the only danger my travels seem to pose is targeted straight at my dwindling bank account. So pease don't worry!

My travel mates have set up a blog where you can get a better idea of where I'll be exactly and the organization I'm working for - check out http://queenscpi.blogspot.com/. Not only are there cool interactive maps but there is also the world's ugliest picture of me for your enjoyment, courtesy of Queen's Medical Photography (where does my tuition go exactly? Not quality picture taking, believe you me). I will have internet access in the small city I'll be staying at in Bondo, but I've been forewarned it's extremely slow and takes about an hour to load any webpage, so I guess that it will be next to impossible to update my blog or the blog I just mentioned before, but you can check once in awhile just in case. I'll try my best to update and I hope there's gotta be some way I can check on what's happening with Grey's anatomy!!! (Just joking, I can live without nasty George love-making scenes for awhile).

I will be back home on June 24th and I will miss everyone near and dear to my heart (and stomach).

Happy early birthday Rose!!!

Farewell,
-Betty
p.s. I will post safari pics as soon as I get back!