Friday, July 22, 2011

I'm leavin' on a jet plane...


I leave tomorrow morning for Namibia! World of great open spaces and CHEETAHS! :) I'm definitely excited. I'll be flying from Dayton to Dulles. After an extensive 16 hour flight over seas (with a stop-over in Senegal) I will land in Johannesburg and then take another plane to Windhoek, Namibia! :) Finally on the 24th we will have arrived and will stay in Windhoek for the night. I will then be going to Cheetah Conservation Fund for a few days, then to Etosha National Park. After that we go back to CCF. After our course is completed I will be traveling to Cape Town, South Africa to sight see and relax a little. Also it will be an opportunity to pay homage to my pen-pal Emmerance who died of cancer over 10 years ago who lived in Cape Town (but was originally from Rwanda). After my time in Cape Town I will be flying to London to visit one of my dear friends and sorority sisters Brittany who lives and is studying in London currently! I will get to tour London for a day then I'll be back home to my friends and family, and especially my husband and our cat! :) (I am missing our one year wedding anniversary while I'm on the trip). Well next time I post I might be on the other side of the world/ and on another hemisphere! See you on the flip side! My internet access is  limited on the trip so I'll try to post when I can! 
Our cat getting in on my packing! 
Leo wants to go to Namibia to see the big cats!!!

Friday, July 15, 2011

Namibia: The preparations

I have finally finished my courses at Miami University for the summer! I took an entomology class as I mentioned earlier and ended up with a pretty awesome insect collection! We also got to visit the Cincinnati Zoo and got a "behind the scenes" tour by one of the zookeepers for the insect house (I feel terrible because I can't remember his name for the life of me now!)! Definitely interesting. (Did you know they use 3-in-1 oil to keep their ants from escaping?) Also, they grow most of the plants that they feed to their insects, which I think is a cool way to cut down on costs for maintaining the insects. I never thought about how much work goes into caring for an insect house and got to learn about what a fantastic insect house we have at the Cincinnati Zoo (it's one of the best in the country)!
My insect collection, it's a little in disarray because I added a few insects to it  that aren't in the right place yet!
A zookeeper at the insect house at the Cincinnati Zoo
I also took an infectious disease course which was really fast paced but I learned all kinds of things I didn't know before! I've started to appreciate how important getting vaccines really is. Also, to erase some misconceptions I wanted to add the note that there has now been no connection between vaccines (specifically MMR) and autism. The one report that said there was a connection was found to be essentially entirely forged by the scientist that reported it. Yes, even scientists can be unethical! 

So now it's time for me to prepare for my trip to Namibia! I'll probably put one or two more posts before I leave about my flight arrangements and also about all the crazy stuff I had to pack and things I had to do to get ready for this trip!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

I get by with a little help from my friends

I will be leaving for Namibia in about 3 weeks. YIKES! When we go to the Cheetah Conservation Fund they are willing to take some donations that will go for several different uses. If you are interested in donating children's books, school supplies, rechargeable AA batteries, blank DVD's, office supplies, etc. I would be more than happy to pick up those items or arrange a location for drop off. I can only take what will fit in a duffle bag with me (up to approx 70lbs.) so what I can take is slightly limited but any donations would be appreciated! You will be helping in saving cheetahs, educating Namibian youth, and ensuring that everyone in the world can learn and be able to see what amazing animals cheetahs are! General Items to be donated to CCF . I am definitely getting excited about visiting CCF and Namibia in general. So I decided I'd post a few pictures from when Trevor (my husband) and I visited The Wilds and saw their new cheetah center! :)
Me being blinded by the sun
Trevor being blinded by the sun.
A very fitting sign, I know I wouldn't want to make the animals sick by getting eaten!