Our departure date is creeping closer. Eric has been injected with several live organisms in an attempt to prevent disease, the malaria medications have been retrieved from the pharmacy, the mosquito net from home has been sent, and several "to do" lists have been written (and lost). We leave in 9 days, which is a little hard to believe right now. I am totally unprepared to go right now, which I'm OK with seeing as this is my 3rd time, but I'm trying to figure out when exactly I will manage to get everything done between work and sleeping, which seem to take up far too much time. I don't even have a suitcase! Somehow I will manage though. So wish us luck as we prepare for our journey.

I though a few refresher photos were in order... just in case your forgot the amazing country of Uganda.

Time to return

It's been over a year since I was in Uganda and my heart had been longing to go back. It's been months of pleading with my boss to pin down a time when I could taken some time off and after going back and forth between different dates and different month she settled on the origional dates I requested 5 months ago. Go figure. I bought my ticket yesterday (actually, 2 tickets, because I'm bringing my boy with me!) which leaves me exactly 24 days to prepare for this trip. Luckily by your 3rd time there's a lot less to do. I'm already immune to typhoid, yellow fever, Hep A & B, and several others. I can simply renew my malaria meds. My passport is ready. I don't really need to worry about packing (except to dig out the summer clothes that have taken residence under my bed since it's 20 degrees and snowing in Chicago). I'm really not concerned about about where we're staying, because I know half the mzungus in town. The the 24 days doesn't really sound all the bad. Eric, on the other hand, doesn't quite feel that way, which is understandable since he is not immune to all African diseases and is lacking in social contacts. But that won't be true for long.

My main obstacle is trying to figure out if it's possible to transport a ginormous baby warmer with me. My hospital is donating one, but this thing is like twice my size, so that's something to work on. Any ideas anyone?

I've got a box full of random medical supplies that we've collected from the hospital. Lucky for me, we're a very wasteful place. If you open something and then don't use it you have to toss it. If you drop something you can't use it. So I've rounded people up to collect those unsuable supplies and dump them in a box in the corner, which means Jinja gets some very useful things. Especially those that are going to have a baby, seeing as I work in labor and delivery and most of our stuff revolves around babies.

The main event this time is actually going to be a baby, assuming the kid decides to wait until I arrive. My sweet friend Tamara is due to have her baby in January and if things go as planned I will be there for the delivery, though I know babies don't often follow our plans. But either way, I'll get to meet this sweet baby and that is good enough for me.

So, I guess you probably already figured it out, but I'm back on this blog for a while. I shall do my best to keep you updated on the happenings surrounding this trip and will, as always, keep you entertained with the exciting stories of my adventures.

And back I go... january 5-22nd!