Be Prepared?

My one-pound sleeping bag arrived yesterday, so I did a dry run of packing to see just how much stuff I could fit in my hiking sack. The answer? I'm still not really sure.

With my sleeping bag, liner, camp towel, Leatherman (thanks ALM!), long johns, deodorant, a pair of socks, a dozen journals, a winter hat and a pair of gloves, I'm about a third of the way full. But I still have two years worth of toiletries and a season worth of clothes to get in the mix. When I look at the piles of odds and ends stacked next to my sack, it's clear that some things won't make it to Namibia. But when you're not sure where you're going, it's tough to know what's essential. Typical Peace Corps, there's no real packing list. That's probably because us volunteers are headed to such very different places. We won't know exactly where until the end of December, when our training is complete.

My brother was a boy scout and my dad is an outdoors man. Their motto? Travel light and always be prepared. But how do you pack for two years in another country when you could be living in the desert or on the coast? In a modern-day cement block house or a mud hut in the bush?

So far as I can tell, the best thing I can be prepared for is to not really be prepared at all. It's an idea that, after a few weeks of preparations, I'm finally getting used to.