UNBELIEVABLE!

The tickets are booked!

Our flight leaves on Tuesday, July 5 out of Atlanta (hello, Maria!) to London for a few hours, then off to Lusaka to arrive on the 7th of July.
We will be departing from Lusaka on July 19 to Johannesburg to London and back to Atlanta!

Jennie says it's 156 days and counting!  Oh, and she's coming with us! Woo Hooo!!!!

Cannot contain my excitement.... so it's off to the beach at 55 degrees in January!!!!!!!!

It's Been a While

The tickets are coming.... soon. A few hurdles, but nothing major.

I found this logo for the Zambia Tourism Board.  I just thought it was cool!

Charlize

Charlize Theron has always been one of my favorite movie stars... mostly because of her movie Sweet November.  So when I learned that she has a passion for helping the people of Africa, I was super excited.  Check it out: Africa Outreach

They also have cool "give and take" apparel and she is in ca-hoots with TOMS shoes!

WTG Charlize!

Plague in Africa?!?!

My cousin called me today.  She said there is a plague in Africa and they cannot control it, so they are not letting anyone in or out.
"North? South?"  It's everywhere she says.
"How long are they preventing travel?"  At least 6 months.. maybe more.
"What kind of plague?"  I can't remember the name of it.
"Are you serious or are you joking?"  I'm serious
"Darn, I just spent $400 on my vaccines."
So, I'm thinking to myself, I can't wait to get home to research this thing.  She better be wrong about this!
The subject of the conversation changes and a little while later she starts to feel guilt and confesses her awful joke.  I told her I didn't fully believe her anyway!

What vaccines do I need?

Needles? Yikes!

Well, my regular doctor doesn't do the vaccines that I need.  The CDC recommends going to a travel clinic.  I was secretly hoping the nearest travel clinic would be in Charleston so I could count it as a sick day!  As it turns out, there is one just 10 minutes from my condo.  

So, the nurse at the travel clinic (Passport Health) was incredibly nice.. and very talkative.  Talkative people can be a bit difficult for me to stand after a long day of working with the kiddos! The process was also super long.  The appointment lasted an hour and a half! Most of it was the nurse going through my "itinerary" of health.  Approximately 50 pages worth of health and safety info.  Yes, we went through every page.  

The shots took all of 5 minutes!  I got the tetanus booster and the first Hepatitis A shot.  She also gave me the typhoid vaccine, which is taken orally for a week.... it's still in the box.  And of course, the dreaded anti-malarial meds that are taken for 2 weeks before the trip, during the trip, and a few weeks after.  Just hoping it's okay on my belly :)

Guess I need a passport

Welp, as it turns out, no one can enter another country without a passport!  

I printed a coupon for $2 off passport photos.  The process is a little messed up.  So, when someone gets a driver's license, they take your photo there, print it, and you're out the door.  But, with a passport, you have to get your photos taken, printed, and then take everything to the Clerk of Court.  Another crazy thing is that they take your birth certificate and SEND IT AWAY!?!  Yes, that piece of paper that you make sure that you never lose.  It's 24 years old with torn edges that you take such good care of because of the importance it holds...And they send it away? Please, oh, please, come back safely!