South Africa itinerary

To help me organize my trip one last time, and to give you a brief idea of where I'll be and what I'll be doing, here's my plan:

Nov 4: fly to DC (big day in DC!), then direct to Johannesburg
Nov 5: arrive in Johannesburg in the late afternoon, spend the night
Nov 6: fly to Cape Town, arriving mid-day; rent car, check out Cape Point
Nov 7: climb Table Mountain, hang out in Cape Town
Nov 8: drive to Wilderness, hike, spend the night
Nov 9: drive to Storms River Mouth, hike, spend the night
Nov 10: drive to Cintsa on the Wild Coast, hike, snorkel, spend the night (see a theme?)
Nov 11: drive to Port Shepstone, crash for the night (or in nearby Oribi Gorge)
Nov 12: arrive at Edendale Hospital for a quick look-see, then retire to my temporary home in Northdale, near Pietermaritzburg

Nov 13 - Dec 5, weekdays: work at Edendale hospital!

Weekend excursions:
Nov 15-16: hiking in the Drakensberg mountains?
Nov 22: safari at Hluhluwe-Umfolozi
Nov 23: hang out in/near Durban, snorkel, etc
Nov 29-30: maybe up Sani Pass into Lesotho?

Dec 6-7: PMB to Jo'burg, Jo'burg to Senegal, Senegal back to Boston!

Test run

Just procrastinating on packing right now and trying to see if I can really set up this blog dealie... but I'm excited about voting in a historic election tomorrow morning, then heading straight for the airport for 5 weeks in South Africa! I'll be traveling for a week, then working for a month in Edendale hospital in KwaZulu-Natal ("K-Zed-N") province. I'm sure I'll learn a tremendous amount but less sure that I'll be bringing much to the table there. I'm curious to see how (if) my training in the opulent American health care system translates in a resource-poor setting.

I bet as an American in Africa, I'll be better received if Obama wins...

Anyway, more to come from the road! Won't have much internet access during the vacation portion of my trip, but I should be able to blog a bit more once I get to KZN. Stay tuned! I'd love to hear from you while I'm away.