3 days out

Three days to go and I think I have finally dealt with my concerns about getting into the right mental space.

It has been almost 3 weeks since pre-departure training. It feels like a lifetime ago. The reports are already starting to trickle in from the guys that have already left. To be honest, the report from the Thailand kids was more than a little discomforting. After little over 3 days one was in hospital and many more had gastro.

I was watching Blood Diamond on TV the other day, and it really helped drive something home for me. Its a thing that many people have tried to impress on us all through this process. "Don't expect to change the world". Leo di Caprio is playing a Rhodesian who goes on a rant (with what to me was a rather impressive Zimbabwean accent) to the American reporter: "You come here with your laptop computers, your malaria medicine and your little bottles of hand sanitizer and think you can change the outcome, huh? ".

I went climbing the mountain (a hill in Nepali terms) near my house that I used to climb all the time as a kid. It was so peaceful up the top. There were no trucks, cars, dogs or even animals. Just the wind over the grass and me, and the valley in front of me. I think that did a lot to help my state of mind. I am calm and cool and can do this, WOOT!