Seven days and counting.

Anita and I spoke several times over the weekend as we continue to coordinate our thoughts and preparations. Anita is a longtime friend from the late 1980s when my husband and I lived in State College, PA. She is a career children's librarian which was my professional position then as well.

She will travel to Maryland this Saturday, so we will have a couple of face-to-face days to complete our packing and last minute shopping. We will also divide our 'stuff' between two carry-on bags so if one goes missing neither of us will be without some of our 'stuff'. (Side note - I spent a recent weekend watching the HBO rebroadcasts of George Carlin's programs after his recent death. His discussions of words and language are amazing - and one of the shows included his piece on 'all our stuff''.)

My sister-in-law, Njale, is also excited about the short time remaining before we arrive in Botswana. Her recent email counted the days until we could hug, cry, laugh and enjoy each others company again. Being in Botswana will be bittersweet to begin as at some point during our visit we will have a memorial service for Brian, her late husband and my husband's older brother.

Jim is not coming on this trip as he has major responsibility for the care of his father who resides in Meadowlark Hills, a continuing care community in Manhattan, Kansas where Jim, Brian and their sister Jean grew up. Only Dad remains in Manhattan as, in addition to Brian, the family lost their mother earlier this year - the deaths coming only 5 weeks apart in February and March. No one was able to be in Botswana for Brian's funeral in February, so we promised a visit this summer. Jim is still working, so I have the pleasure of representing the family during this visit.

There have been a few comments to my first blog already - thanks to those of you who have taken the time to comment. I will definitely be posting about animals (4-legged, winged and slithering) as we see them. Anita, Njale and I have a brief safari planned for Chobe Game Preserve near Kasane, and we are hopeful that we can arrange a visit to the Okavango Delta, the largest inland delta in the world.