TANZANIA COUNTDOWN

Somehow the past few months have managed to zip past. The house is now sold, I'm settled into a little apartment, my business is now in its 'dormant' stage for who knows how long. And now, with just over a week to go, it only remains to do a little more shopping for interesting bits (like a solar powered charger for my camera batteries) and then to see if it'll all fit in my luggage within the prescribed weight allowance. 100 pounds for 90 days...hmmm...we shall see!

Just received an email from my TEMBO colleague Jo who left for Tanzania last Sunday, and will be there to meet me next week. Somehow, it all seems rather unreal at this stage to be chatting with her on the other side of the planet.

Speaking of Jo (the other one, that is) don't be surprised if you see me referring to myself by my new name. We decided that having two Jos at TEMBO meetings was far too confusing. So, I was determined to come up with something close that would work whenever we're together. Henceforth, I'm Jotu, as in “Hi, I'm Jo too”. Our friend Greg John who's way ahead of me in Swahili skills provided the proper spelling, and as of now I'm fairly confident that Jotu doesn't have some indecent meaning in Swahili that will result in total embarrassment down the line.

I expect that my next posting will find me on African soil, in some internet cafe in Arusha.

Til then: Happy trails!