The moment of truth is near!

This morning I began assembling the items I want to take to Tanzania -- all my stuff plus the many little things I have been asked to bring for several people -- the moment of truth has indeed arrived! I am a notorious over packer -- taking enough for a weekend just in case the borders between Georgia and the other states are closed and I might need supplies for a long siege! So the first thing this trip is teaching me, among other things, is to assess what is enough. The irony of me taking too much to a place where people have too little has not escaped me -- in fact, it strikes me as somewhat obscene. So the process of shopping, choosing, culling -- determining how much I really need (when I can have my laundry hand done each day if I need to...wow!) has been more of a spiritual practice than a logistical one. Part of this process has also brought home how fortunate we are in America -- the things I have been asked to bring, for the most part, are things that are so readily available, we hardly notice them -- stand up tubes of toothpaste, Parmesan cheese in a can, over the counter medicines for someone who suffers from a chronic congestion problem - a solution for dry mouth. As Dan, my Rector said, we often go away, thinking, "if I forget something, I can easily find it when I get there..." not so, with Africa, for the most part. So another thing this trip has impressed upon me is gratitude -- for the abundance of life here in these United States. Finally, it is so clear to me how much the community of ministers in Tanzania rely on one another -- and on us here back home. Because things are hard, different, foreign -- and stuff is really hard to get, they hang together -- and I have been introduced to a whole new community of folks that support life in TZ for these wonderful folks -- a friend of Sandy's in North Carolina, who owns a clothing shop and sends, not only things for Sandy, but donates beautiful things to the women in Dodoma; a doctor in Columbus, GA, who gathers samples of nasal spray for one of the folks there; people at the Diocese and at St. Thomas Church who handle the complicated finances of the mission - making sure that those of us here who want to donate can send the money locally, rather than through wires or snail mail. It truly does take a whole village -- and it has been a surprising and wonderful aspect of this junket to meet (mostly over the phone and Internet), so many kindred spirits!

Okay, time to sit on my suitcase and see if it will close.....