The Africa Pile

For the past five months, a large pile has been accumulating on a bookshelf in my room. Ever since I applied to go to Benin (it's in Western Africa, don't feel bad if you just Googled a map) with the Humanity Exchange, the odds and ends that I decide are necessary for my one month stay scheduled for this summer have found their way into this growing mound. Everything from bug spray (to deter the mosquitoes) to a perscription for Doxycyline (to deter the malaria) to band-aids (to deter my own fingers when I ineveitably get stung by the malaria-bearing mosquitoes and want to scratch my skin off) now occupy the space where action figures (because I used to geek out a bit over Lord of the Rings) and figurines of hand-painted dogs (I also liked dogs...and painting apaprently) used to stand so prominently. Gone are typical desk trinkets, taken over by a best-and-worst-case-scenario pile of preparation. But 21 days away from the day that I depart for my 8 week marathon journey, I realize that maybe a little bit of me is trying to bury my inhibitions about this trip under a pile of utility jackets (more on that later) and anti-diarrheals.

But allow me to digress a bit. I have a thing for bullet-pointed lists, so please allow me even further to digress in the form of such a beautifully organized list.

1. My name is Julia King. I am a Catholic, one of four girls in a six-member family, a do-er, and a student at Arizona State University. And that's pretty much the way my priorities line up too.

2. I am a very, very proud native Arizonan who has never been outside of this country. I am a big fan of the sun, the colors brown and cactus green, and while I enjoy a monsoon shower or two, too much rain at one time or for too many days in a row sort of makes me throw tantrums.

3. The longest I have ever been away from my family is about 7 days during 8th grade science camp. By day three, I was homesick. What can I say, these people are pretty dang cool. (I was also incredibly distraught about all the snow, which for a person who doesn't enjoy rain in excess, is basically death)
       
    INHIBITION #1: It doesn't matter what I put in that pile in my room, there are 5 people who just
                                         won't fit in my bags. I also can't take them as personal items on the airplane.
                                                                                  This is unfortunate.

4. So keeping that in mind, in addition to a three week trip to Hungary and Romania with my scholarship class, I decided to tack a four week trip to Africa onto my summer travels. (They call the the period between March and July the "great rains" in Benin...)

     INHIBITION #2: I hate water. One week during my junior year of high school, it rained for a week
                             straight and my poor dear friend Stefanie who walked with me to all of our classes had
                              to listen to me complain (there is a b word that would probably fit better here...) about    
                             being wet and not seeing the sun the entire week. So, the rain doesn't necessarily worry
                              me for my own sake, just for the locals who might encounter me during one of my rain
                              rages.

5. My mom has handled of this very well. (Except for the minor freak out we had when the travel agent accidentally sent me to Nigeria instead of Benin....see, you weren't the only one who didn't know where it was...)

6. My activities in Benin will include helping out at a local music school-CIAMO (Centre International d'Art et Musique de Ouidah)- volunteering in one of the many local orphanages, fully immersing myself in the wonderful world of the French language, and trying to stay dry. I am ridiculously excited about this entire list, except the last part, because honestly, when the humidity is usually at 100%, why bother?

So, with a disturbingly short time between now and the time that my pile becomes a packed bag (12 DAYS...(!!!!!!)), I can't decide whether to jump for joy or to just find somewhere to throw up. Am I nervous or scared? No, not really. But I have never done this before, so bear with me while I figure out the appropriate actions and emotions. Don't worry, I am already leaning towards throwing up not really being one of the best courses of action.  Instead, I will write this blog for you, to detail my travels and update you on how I am coping in the rain without the best five people in the world. Haha, I'll try not to be too melodramatic about it all, but that is sometimes a side effect of a Julia Rain Rage. Honestly though, there will be way to many incredible things to write about for me to mention the weather more than ten or twelve times each blog (kidding!), so you won't get too bored with my meteorology ramblings.

While abroad, I hope to update at least every other day, but we'll see how feasible of a plan that is once I am actually in country. Feel free to ask me any questions about anything-the preparation, the countries, the cultures, etc- and I will answer you via comment or maybe even a full length blog.

In these last 12 days before I go, I will try to post a couple of other entertaining tidbits about the preparation I have done thus far. Until then though, you can watch some of the video blogs I created a few months ago when I first started getting ready for the trip:

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9-yWbGjGFQ
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2vMV5NyI_s&feature=relmfu
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knO0iNBa4mo&feature=relmfu

For the honor and glory.