Packed and ready to go!

I'm packed and ready to go. My plan has been to pack as little as possible for the 3 weeks. My friend Maria loaned me these amazing compression bags. You put all your clothes in and then then squeeze out all the air and things pack pretty tightly. It's amazing. So I have this little suitcase and the stuff on the right will go in my backpack. It seems like so little, I feel like I must be forgetting something! But I'm sure it will be fine.

I have been enjoying reading Facebook as friends from around the world are converging on Peru. People are meeting up in airports all over the place. I remember this when I went to Kenya 4 years ago. We had several layovers. Each airport that was closer to our destination, I began wondering if the people I was seeing we're going to the same place as me. I wanted to get a Quaker t-shirt to wear so I could stand out in the airport. No t -shirt, but I have a pin that might do the trick.

I was also reading about people doing all sorts of unnecessary tasks before leaving on a trip. Robin M was baking cookies. I have been working on a quilt with a friend. Crazy! My friend said sometimes she would feel like she had to organize the whole house before she went on a trip. Why do we do this? I guess maybe it's human nature.

The craziest thing to do before a trip is to get a new piece of technology, say, a smartphone, and try to learn how to use it in one week before leaving on a long trip. Which is what I did. AM doing. My to-do list includes learning to text, take photos, edit photos, upload photos, and figure out how to post on Facebook and blog from this little device. Hopefully I'll find some computer access and internet access in Peru so I don't have to write my blog posts on the phone. But just to make sure, if there are no computers, I thought I better practice. So this whole post I have done on my smartphone - mostly speaking it a few words at a time. It's pretty cool, but I think I could have typed this whole thing a lot faster. I think speaking aloud texts, etc works better for external processors. :-)

I leave in a little over 18 hours. I can't think of what else to do right now, so I'll have to go find an unnecessary project to keep me busy... until I think of something else I forgot to pack!