Mission Accomplished!

I am humbled by the generosity of everyone that has helped me thus far. I have exceeded my goal of $2,500 dollars to go to Nepal. I discussed this with Angie and Mike and we decided that I will set this aside and use this for a future trip. Man you guys are awesome!

As I am typing this I am preparing to spend the night with about 80 teenagers locked in the high school. That's right all night. I am trying to decide if I should switch to Nepal time tomorrow, since it is almost the exact opposite time there (11 hours and 45 minutes) or wait until we start traveling. I probably won't make that decision until tomorrow morning. The largest factor in this decision will be how to best utilize time with my family. 

I met with Mike again yesterday and finalized some trip logistics and everything "seems" to be in order. I am very excited to leave and yet very nervous. The itinerary has us in the air for 18.5 hours...not including layovers. There are about 10 hours worth of layovers on the way out, arriving at 09:00 Nepal time. 

The Nepal National Team Leader, Ram, expressed a need for a Blackberry or iPhone. Mike was able pick up a used iPhone 4S. It is pretty cool with a white front and a black back...I've never seen one like that. Anyway it took me a few hours and several phone calls to make sure that it is indeed "unlocked" so that it will accept a Nepalese SIM card...I hope it does. I put out a call to my Facebook friends in Rhinelander to see if there was a used "rugged" case out there to protect Ram's new phone and some great friends of mine stepped up and brought one over last night.

Another great thing that came about because of this Blog is that I was asked by an Engine Captain, my counter part, from another Forest to write a piece on the leadership aspect of this trip to put on the National Wildland Fire Leadership Blog. Leadership is leadership, right? I might have to edit out some of the "spiritual" aspects of it because of who I am employed by, but I have Mike to help me out with that. He has been teaching this material to his 8th grade football players and basically takes out the chapter and verse references, so I think we can handle that. 

I am starting to ramble on, so I'll wrap this up. We fly out of Rhinelander on Monday afternoon. I will start my daily postings once we get settled down in Kathmandu.

Thanks again to all who donated...It means a lot to me. 

In his name

TS