Oh. My bags are packed. I'm ready to go.

  Yes, it HAS been a long time.  Somehow it took me much longer to decide on this upcoming trip.  Where to go.  Alone or with somebody (ies).  Volunteer or tourist.  What animal to concentrate on.  When.  Etc., etc., etc.
   Somehow, some decisions got made.  Where?  Rwanda!  Alone!  Both volunteer AND tourist!  And, yes, GORILLAS!!  In November!
   At first I wasn't going to go back to Zimbabwe, thinking it was time to "move on."  But then I realized I just couldn't be right in the neighborhood (the "neighborhood" being the behemoth African continent) and NOT go to visit my friends in Zimbabwe.  So I decided to jam three different trips into my three weeks--one in Zimbabwe, one in Rwanda volunteering at a school for former street boys, and one in Rwanda and Uganda being a tourist.  Easier to do all three than to make a choice!

So.  Here I am, all packed--with meticulous care, I might add--and off to O'Hare prepared to be whisked away to Harare via Chicago, Amsterdam, Nairobi, and Lusaka (Zambia) in a "mere" day and a half of air travel and airport layovers.  LOADS of luggage, because of course I can't go without taking lots of stuff for lots of people.
   Scott and Aramis are prepared to drive me to Chicago and drop me off at O'Hare, and thus will begin my 5th trip to Africa and my 6th volunteer trip.  I have more reservations about this trip than my previous ones though.  I don't particularly feel like leaving home.  I am nervous about my itinerary.  I am unsure as to whether I am up for travelling alone anymore.  I am unsure of my reception at my destination.
   And, as usual, I question my own motivation.  It sometimes seems to me that if I really wanted to help people there, I would not spend all this money on getting my butt to Africa, but rather just send the money it takes over to them.

I never really have resolved that matter, except to understand that yes, I really do want to go there and see for myself, selfish as it might be.  Therefore, I'm leaving on the proverbial jet plane.