On your mark...get set...PACK!

Welcome to our blog. We wanted to have a space to share our stories of our African summer with you, so here we go. We leave on Friday and will be in Johannesburg Saturday evening and then making our way up to Gaborone, Botswana on Sunday. We're both excited about this trip although currently the fact that we're leaving in less than 2 days is daunting. 

So what exactly are we going to be doing?
Driving (Lord willing!) around to different sites within national parks in Botswana and Namibia, and doing animal counts. Animal counts identify groups of animals, counting them and recording their location and what they are doing. This will let us look at how different types of animals use their habitat and interact with one another.

How long?
About 7 weeks total.

Where will we stay?
In our fabulous REI tent. Its a 2 person tent, so with us + our big backpacks + other junk = a lot of stuff and not much space. We're going to be cozy this summer!

What will we eat?
Grasshoppers, meal worms and grubs. Yum. 
I'm joking (I hope...). 

How you can be praying for us:
-Safe travels. We have lots of planes to catch and cabs and shuttles to get in between. Please pray for safety.
-Logisitics. There are still some questions about vehicles, where to stay, etc.
-Getting along. We generally play well together, but we'll be spending A LOT of time in very close proximity so we'll need to be understanding towards one another.
-Safety (do you notice a theme here?). Once we're out in the bush working we'll be around lots of potentially dangerous animals (and smaller things like parasites that are just as dangerous but much harder to see). Ultimately our safety depends on the Lord, so we'd appreciate all the prayer we can get in this area.
-That we use the time well. We will be working with some of Tim's fellow graduate students so please pray that we can set a good example for them and that the Lord will open opportunities to share as He will.
-For a really fun time. We're so very excited to get to go on this adventure together. While it will be a lot of work, please pray that we'll be able to enjoy ourselves too.

We'll be updating this when we can, though internet can be spotty at times. There will most likely be large amounts of stories all at once and then none for a while.