I'm a junkie

Last night I was called a junkie. I was watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, the only show I watch religiously, and I kept blurting out that I must go to this place and that place in Japan. My mom finally told me that I'm a travel junkie; this is not news. All of this makes me wonder what propels people to hit the road and travel. What keeps some on tour buses and what drives some into the wild? I'm not sure if there is an innate sense to voyage and seek the unfamiliar, or if it's just that way for some. For me, I'm pretty sure it's innate or genetic, because I have to have another trip planned before the one I'm on is even over. It sounds somewhat idealistic even lofty, but to me there is no better use for money than the experiences travel can provide. It's the possibilities and the excitement of what those possibilities might bring that makes travel so tantalizing, even paramount.

Travel breaks down so many barriers and misunderstandings, even for people who are well informed. Travel is not always easy, it can be very demanding, and when it is, you wear those trials and tribulations like badges of honor. There is nothing like crossing the Rio San Juan with all the Nicaraguan migrant workers who are coming home and pile onto a small boat to share their earnings and experiences with their loved ones back home. Remembering the times that you had to take a bucket shower, or those nights that you had to sleep with swarms of mosquitos, and taking all those travel delays with stride. Who you are unfolds in these situations; you in a microcosm. It lets you share experiences with people who don't usually speak the same language as you, reminding us how fundmentally the same we all are in our needs and desires.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." - Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad

Armageddon

When you go on a trip a lot of guidebooks give you a list of things "not to leave home without," but I think they should label going to East Africa as a "bomb shelter" list or an "armageddon" list. I've spent about half of this year traveling out of one suitcase or a backpack, I'm used to trimming the fat. I'm completely ok having one pair of flip flops and a pair of tennis shoes, and having barely enough clothes to make it through the week, let alone "options." The $180 worth of stuff that I just purchased from target seems so ridiculous, but it seems ridiculous not to have some pepto bismol, anti-histmaines, immodium ad, advil, a 3 month supply of tampons, or acouple sticks of tom's of maines deodorant. Granted I will be living in Kenya, but the availbility of some things is quite questionable unless I want to make the three or four hour trek back to Nairobi. I could care less about my hair dryer, but I will not be taking care of my "rag" the old fashioned way.