Not long now?

Friday 28th December 2007

Well – it is all systems go for my trip to Africa. I had a recent breast lump fright which threatened to put a barrier to the entire trip. But God or someone was looking over my shoulder – as all is fine & I can now go ahead with the trip as planned. I put a very brave face on my concerns – but was worried beyond belief that instead of being in Africa – I would be undergoing chemotherapy or some similar humiliating experience! Thanks to my guardian angel eh?

Everyone I seem to speak to of late seems to have a horror story to tell about my trip & how dangerous is & how vulnerable a woman travelling alone could be. I have looked on all the web sites & am relatively au fait with the risks – but the stories are really beginning to get to me. But bar wrapping myself up in cotton wool – staying at home forever & taking no risks – I just can’t do any more. I didn’t experience any violence in October when I visited – but a strange sense of paranoia is setting in & it’s driving me nuts? I always maintained that my vivid imagination would get me into grief & now me fears are being confirmed. The good “angel” on my shoulder is telling me that thousands of folk travel through the region every year & remain “intact”. The bad “angel” is telling me that I should pay heed to the risks & avoid tempting fate & just stay at home from now until the day I die? (No risks that way apart from falling off a ladder – electrocuting myself with the lawn mower or boring myself to death?)

The bottom line is that if I were 20 years old – the risks would brush off me like dust in the wind. So despite the copious number of lectures I give my 20 year old son about various dangers in life & how he should take a more mature stance on the way he lives his life – I intend to do what he would do. That is – say “To hell with it – you only live once”.

All to do now is to firm up the dates with the various agencies I am working with – do a truck load of preparation for the teaching I am doing at The University of KwaZulu-Natal with what appears to be a bloody enormous audience - all awiting for some devine intervetion? (Oh God – I am c***ing myself). I hope the ramblings of a "mere clinician" will be enough to at least entertain the eager beavers for a few lectures? So that’s the dark January nights accounted for. Getting my head around power point & preparing levrure notes? Good job I have no social life eh?

All systems go then & wish me luck?

Bye for now - Kate