Now my feet won't touch the ground!

Three weeks to go! After sharing my thoughts on sleepless nights with a good friend, I was given some great advice from that same good friend.

Think of the warnings that travelers to Canada hear before they come here.
1) Don't eat beef or lunch meat.
2) Watch out for ice storms and other extreme weather.
3) Political instability with elections every year.
4) West Nile virus, H1N1, SARS, etc

If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere! That sure helped me put this massive trip into some perspective. Thanks friend!

Sleepless nights

I am learning not to read Lonely Planet travel books before bed. The information tends to get me (subconciously)worried a bit as the books often tell you "what can go wrong".

Reading that before bedtime has been giving me nightmares and sleepless nights!

Practise

I am just making sure I know how to upload photos to this blog. In five more weeks, I hope to be able to bring you photos of a much larger member of the cat family.....
the KING of cats in fact!

Ouch!

I survived a couple of needles today. Yellow fever...not me! Hepatitis A...go away! Typhoid...smack that!

I also was given a couple of new prescriptions to fill for Malaria and watery stool - should a bug happen to sneak by my superior defenses.

I'll be spending the weekend shopping for a few necessities...mosquito net, DEET, UV Pen (good idea Nelson!).

Getting so excited!

Pins, pens and posters...oh my!

Collected lots of favours to take with me on the trip. CIPHI swag, Canada pins and flags will help me look more like an ambassador. I need all the help I can get.

Spoke with my connections over there. We're trying to fit a lot into a small time frame. Looks like I'll spend time in the City and in the rural environments, which is exactly what I wanted to see.

I get my shots tomorrow. We'll see how excited I am after that. Ha ha....

5 Weeks to go!

With five weeks to go, there is a lot yet to do to get ready.

I just got my VISA back from Ottawa for entry into Tanzania, which is always nice.

I also had a great chat with our friend Tim Sinclair-Smith. If you don't know the name, he is the man who invited our Environmental Public Health group to Sea Life Caverns for the Swim with the Sea Lions demonstration in 2008. He now works at the Calgary Zoo. He worked in East African animal rescue centres several times throughout his career. he had some great specific advice on helping me survive my visit!

I get my immunization shots later this week. Yellow fever, Malaria, Hepatitis and even rabies are some of the diseases to consider.