2016: An African Odyssey

Liftoff!

All packed and ready to go. I’m excited, nervous, filled with antici — [wait for it] — pation.

The question I’ve been getting the most — after so where are you going? — is how do you pack for a 3 month trip. Well, obviously, you don’t! You would need to have an entire suitcase dedicated to your underwear — 90 pairs! Who the hell has 90 pairs of underwear?

This is what I’m bringing, about 2–3 weeks of clothes— luckily everywhere I’m travelling to is varying degrees of hot so I’ve got my summer wardrobe — , plus some special occasion dresses (ahem, Brook..), and 6 pairs of shoes (now, that took discipline). Looks like a reasonable amount of stuff, right?

But looks are deceiving — together, the two larger bags weigh about 80 lbs — a helpful tip the airline rep informed me of. So yeah, I was that person on the airport floor reshuffling all my shit. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

What gives, you ask? Well, you pack only 2 weeks of clothes, but you need (or at least I need) to pack 3 months of face care products, shampoo, etc., — anything brand-specific. I might find Aveda in Nairobi, but I’m not counting on it. So although everything fits nicely, it weighs a ton, something I conveniently didn’t notice.

Anyway, with that packing tip, I’m off!!!