it's in my blood

My parents took a safari in November 1982, to Kenya, among other places. My dad wanted to name me Kenyatta, or so the story goes, because I came along nine months after they returned. My mom won that battle, thankfully. I don't think I look like a Kenyatta at all, but who knows. I found 468 slides from their trip in a bottom desk drawer today. First of all I love looking at pictures from my family pre-me. As I've said before, my dad was a photography junkie, and inheriting all his camera equipment was the spark that got me into it as well. About a year ago my older brother had nearly 3,000 slides converted to digital format that showcased my dad's life from about 1950 up though 1990. Forty years of his life. It was an exciting life, too. He hiked through national parks, sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge, and went skiing so often that he ended up buying land in Vermont and building a ski house. He was apparently the favorite bachelor uncle for quite some time before my mom came along and changed all that. My dad's life looked like so much fun. On those hikes it shows them taking breaks to pop open a bottle of wine and a can of pate. Jeez, dad, live it up why don't you?

Anyway, Africa. I've gone through six boxes so far and have seven left to peruse. I'm listening to Paul Simon's Kodachrome right now because they were all shot in Kodachrome and are therefore in amazing condition. They were also shot with a Niiikon camera, for what it's worth. Actually, the same Nikon camera that's sitting in the camera bag to the right of my bed. I got a little teary eyed looking at some of the more beautiful landscapes that my dad captured, for several reasons. The first being that I can't believe that I'll be over there too, the second being that I feel such a strong connection to my dad looking at these knowing that he and I share a passion for photography and travel, and the third being that I'm looking at landscapes and sunsets and trees and mountains that he looked at too. Twenty-eight years ago my dad looked through the viewfinder of his camera, composed a picture, focused a lens (the same lenses that I'm using now) and clicked the shutter. He took nearly 500 pictures that I'm staring at now, preparing to travel to perhaps some of the same places he went. I don't know if any of this makes sense but it's shooting through me like electricity right now, so strongly, in fact, that I had to take a break half way through looking at the slides. I miss him.

Narrowing it down...

Somehow when I typed in "narro..." in my title it automatically filled in the rest of the phrase. Creepy. I'm thinking maybe I used that phrase as the title of another blog entry at some point? I think it was something to do with cities I wanted to move to (Boston & Denver).

Anyway, I've been looking around the interwebs at Peace Corps everythingIcanfind, and I found a page on PC wiki that will take the program you're nominated for and cross reference it with the region and list all the countries that have that program going on. Based on that very scientific and reliable list, it could be: Botswana, The Gambia, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, or Zambia

After I got it to those nine, I went back to a list that told the departing dates for previous programs and figured out that four have had departing dates in February for the last two years. Those four are Namibia, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia. Out of those, South Africa and Uganda have the highest percentage of education volunteers. If it really is one of those two, I'm hoping for South Africa. It has a coast (I'm a water person) and is one of the countries I've always wanted to travel to. It looks so incredibly beautiful. Now, while that is what I'm HOPING will happen I'm fully prepared to be delayed and then sent to Guatemala in April, laughing the whole way at the audacity of thinking I'd figured it all out. Mind you on my application and in my interview I said I had no preferences on location, and I truly don't. I have pretty limited international travel experience and like to form my own opinions on people and places and experiences, so I'd rather learn my own way than take someone's advice of "ooooh, don't go there!"

In more PC news (because apparently this is all I do/think about anymore) I have all my appointments made! Dentist is on Tuesday for a cleaning, exam, and xrays, which will be followed by a trip to the health department for my polio and tetanus vaccines, my varicella titers (odd word), my TB test, and copies of my vaccination record. Thursday I'll go back to the health department to get my TB test read, and a few days after that I'll have to go to get my varicella titer report. The following Monday I have my physical to get pap, blood tests, urinalysis, and vaccinations all accounted for. The next day I go to the podiatrist, though I'm really not sure what he's going to do. I have heel pain when I run around and play soccer, it's really bad in the mornings following a game usually. I haven't had it in months though and I never saw a doctor for it in the first place. I'll have to talk to him about it and see what he can fill out as far as the PC requires. After that it's just a matter of getting the results back and triple, nay, quadruple checking that I haven't missed anything and sending it up to DC.

Tomorrow is the beginning of an amazing thing here in the south: football season. I love football, sometimes I forget how much until I watch it again. My friend and I have a "thing" I guess for anything with an F on it. We were at our favorite bar last year, somewhat imbibed, and saw a guy with pants covered in embroidered Fs. We of course asked him where he got them, and he told us "the internet!" We asked him if he got them at www dot thepantswiththeFsonthem dot com. He laughed and said that's exactly where he got them. From then on everything was the______withtheFsonthem. The bar was renamed 101 Pants, we bought dresses and sewed Fs on them, etc. (Typing this out makes me realize how silly/wonderful it is) ANYWAY... I'm bringing the new camera along to document my last football season for a while :) I'm super excited. I even made a headband for the occasion.