A little less than a good night's sleep (at least 8 hours if I should function the next day) away from departure, I am sure that I'll hardly sleep at all tonight. The bags are all packed, apart from the laundry still drying in the room for that purpose, and they're really heavy. I've lost count how many times i have packed and unpacked them now to fit as little as possible but as much as needed (quoting Jerk "as slow as possible but as fast as necessary" - the formula for successful off road driving).
The last week before departure has been quite hectic, but also very informative as I have participated in the MIFU, a JMT (joint monitoring team) MONUC specific preparation course. Among others, we met the Swedish ambassador Lena Sundh (who was in Nepal heading the OHCHR when I was there) who's the initiative taker of the JMT project. Another part of the agenda was a phone conference with the senior observer in Goma (who was also in Nepal when I was there, it feels so good to know some of the involved persons from before). it took lots of concentrations due to the slight delay and the fact that he was very close to the air strip why we had to pause every time a plan came in for landing.
In addition, we had the opportunity once again to practice possible off road scenarios like loose sand, water, or 40 degrees slopes. Quite a challenge uphill as well as downhill, even thought the car does most of the work itself. But the best of all, I managed to squeeze in an hour with my sister and her beautiful Wilda!
