The house is finally packed up, items sold, donated, deleted……wow how much “junk” we have amassed, this goes to underline the need to right size our lives! All this material stuff takes up space and that’s about it….

An amazing effort by sharki3 and Bevan and Carmen and Ronnie an Yvette and Larry in selling off and moving our stuff…..oh and of course Esme who spent a day helping sharki3….I think that without family and friends helping us we would be doing this for another month!

In between all this packing away, we finalised all the todos on our financials; life insurance, medical aid, wills, credit cards, travel cards, cash….tax….and a small matter of handing over our business signatory to our managing director….

Confirmation from 2 of the volunteering organisations was great this week, with both Zambia and Tanzania confirming our stay with them…cant wait for those experiences at children’s schools. Accommodation is booked in Botswana at Gaborone for 4 nights and also Francistown for a couple of nights followed by Livingstone for 3 nights. We have still to firm up volunteering in Mbeya in Tanzania and a plan for Dar es Salaam. People from Kenya have been in touch again regarding some work there so we shall see how that develops before Uganda and Ethiopia.

Great to catch up with my mum, dad and sister on the phone and hear them before we embark, don’t how long it will be before we chat again, so making the most of these moments.

Tomorrow will be my final trial backpacking test after good rehearsal today, only 10kgs with laptop and some toiletries still to go in! Not too bad…but room for improvement tomorrow!

I keep waking up early which is very unusual but understandable, not stressing or panicking just with my mind chasing the todos for the day….hoping for a well deserved sleep tonight.