As ready as ready can be...

So I'm all but finished with the preparations.  I went out yesterday and today and got the last few little things.  Insect repellent, a bed mat, mug, some extra rope, a fuel canister, etc.  Little stuff that you need but that doesn't require so much time.  I'm gonna go through my pack tonight, get everything washed up and ready to go.  I'm at about 40 pounds of life in one bag for three months.  Life is good, imagine only having to worry about the clothes and the one bag on your back for three months?  No car or house note, no diapers to change, no mouths to feed, no places to be, just the one foot in front of you.  A simple, day-to-day existence.  It will be both interesting and enlightening.

The purpose of it all will of course give the trip something much more.  Three months walking through the third poorest country in the world, not eight years removed from a civil war and its rendition in the movie Blood Diamond.  It is no vacation, there is so much to be done, so much that people there may want or need, so much for me/us to learn.  Walking into a town, abject poverty, and knowing you can't do much for them yet, not this trip.  But that is the point of this trek, to learn, to lay the groundwork.  To see what true poverty is like, not South Bronx poverty, but dollar a day poverty.  To get closer to understanding real developing world cause and effect, their politics and economics, their cultural and societal makeup, why things are as they are.  What I/we can do (or not do) to allow for more people's happiness...    

The trip pretty much starts tomorrow.  I head down to the city and will take it like a bit of a technology trial with the blogging.  I will be down there for a conference by the same organization that is co-sponsoring the Gamechangers funding opportunity that I've been working on.  It will be a great learning experience in terms of building sustainably in the developing world.  Exactly what I'm looking to get invovled with.  So... on that note, let's get this thing started...  ;)