Frustrated Packing & How I Have Become My Wife

Heading off to ATL tomorrow.  Then to Honduras on Thursday.

And naturally, I started packing today.  2 bags.  80 lbs.  Thought it would be a cake.  And here's what we've got:

Clothes:  (Have no idea if this is enough or too much.  Will be interesting to see.)

5 button up long sleeve shirts

10 pairs of socks

13 pairs of underwear

2 pairs of shorts

7 white undershirts

1 sports coat, tie, and relatively nice pair of black pants  (None of which match, but what can you do.)

1 pair of pajama pants

3 pairs of jeans

3 pair of light khakis

1 pillow

1 towel & wash cloth

3 long sleeve shirts

2 pair of basketball shorts

1 swimsuit

4 polos of diverse color and fabric

3 shortsleeved button ups

1 sweater type thing

Shoes:  (All of necessity)

1 pair of tevas

1 pair of hiking boots

1 pair of boots

1 pair of tennis shoes

Things & Non-necessities:  (The things that I think we might need.  Will be REALLY interesting to see how useful these things are.)

Duck Tape

Leatherman 

Cooking knife

Super glue

Bottle/Wine opene

Headlamp

Adapter/Power Surge

Extra wallet

2 belts

Alarm clock

Day planner

Battery recharger

Calculator

Dominoes

2 decks of cards

Accumulated travel sized items (compass, tape measure, screwdrivers, etc.)

Pill thingy

Crap load of rechargable batteries

2 large bottles of contact solution

Germ away stuff

Toothpaste

Pills, pills, and more pills (3x month supply)

Extra mouse

Puzzle of the US

Chalk

2 games of Uno and some bubble stuff

A nice metal bottle

Shampoo, soap, cologne, extra contacts

40 ft. of rope

Shaving kit and extra deodorant

Cable ties!!!!

Frisbee

Maglight

Dopp kit

Notebook and Folder

And that's it.  Everything someone needs for two and a half years in a foreign country.  Or at least, what I imaging they'd need.  But this is really a cut down list - my first packing attempt was a disaster. 

The whole exercise has been an extremely frustrating experience.

Now whether this all weighs 80 lbs...we'll see.  Tried weighing in on a scale and we look like we're ok, but looks can be deceiving.  Plus, Lauren's got all her bags and stuff.  Fun, fun times.

And on that note, I understand her that much better.  For the last two weeks she's been stressing about this.  I get it now.  Packing for a really, really long trip - while not knowing what you'll need or where you'll be leaving - is a complete, unadulterated bitch - 'scuse the language.  So my apologies to Lauren for all the mocking - I understand now. 

I understand.

And, so that's where we're at.  

2 days till we're in country.

Might be a bit till we can post more, but we'll get to it as soon as we can.  

If you can think of something that I'm missing, you've got about 25 hours to let me know!

-Jacob 

Dos Semanas

We've come to discover that we aren't very good at updating our blog. Hopefully this will be remedied in Honduras when we are begging for things to do during off hours. Well, okay... maybe after the 12 weeks/6 days a week/8 hours a day of language and technical training, peppered by safety and security meetings, meals with host families, field based travel, etc, etc... And maybe after an additional 2 months of site adaptation during which we live with another host family before moving into our own house... and then we'll have to figure out the electricity and running water situation, obtaining and/or building furniture, setting up a kitchen...

Anyway, our next post may be in 5 months :)

But for now, here's our menial update:

In exactly two weeks (dos semanas) Jacob and I leave Texas for Tegucigalpa, Honduras. We've over-bought everything we'll need... some of which we probably don't need at all, but whatever. We've been told to pack for virtually all-weather conditions, minus snow of course (yay!). The Honduran climate is primarily affected by elevation, which runs from sea level to 9,000 feet, hence the all weather needs. I'm packing my hair dryer, I don't care what anyone says. Hiking boots, sandals, shorts and jackets, and plenty of rain gear. Haven't tried putting anything inside our suitcases... I'm not up for that yet, should be interesting to say the least.

We've traveled quite a bit in the last 4 weeks too, seeing family in Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. We have a good 3,000 miles under our belts since pulling out of NYC last month.... Jacob drove about 2,900 of those, thanks babe :)

We've made our flight reservations to Atlanta for staging and look forward to meeting the other volunteers traveling with us to Honduras. I'm in a bit of organizational overload, which only means I'm more ridiculous than ever.... lots of lists. And everything is spotless (compulsive cleaner, especially when nervous... hopefully a useful trait, lol). My former coworkers always got a kick out of my desk, it looked like I never did any work, ha! Oh well.... I won't have a desk to clean for quite a while.

Anyway, we'll try to update again before we leave, and hopefully we'll be able to send some short updates during training. Hasta luego!