Correction: goodbyes are in fact worse

Now that the horrors of stuffing too many things into suitcases is over (and yes, I'm already discovering things I've forgotten) it's time to say all my goodbyes. I've left my home in NH, and cut a swath of teary-eyed farewells as I make my way from NH to NY and finally FL before the final plane ride to Georgetown, Guyana.
Some of those goodbyes were harder than others, because they might be permanent. Ajax, the 150-pound lapdog extraordinaire, is 8-years-old and the model of a perfect dog. I'm holding out hope he'll still be around when I get back, but two years is a long time for an old dog.

 My favorite chicken (yes, that's a thing you can have. Some chickens are particularly cool) is even older than Ajax. Here you can see Vacuum Chicken eyeballing my phone and wondering if it's edible. I wonder if pet chickens are a thing in Guyana. I'll keep you updated if I manage to acquire one. Be assured that I will get way too emotionally attached to it if I do.

I'm now off on the final round of goodbyes: family. My dad gave me a machete lesson (the agricultural tool of choice in many subsistence-farming regions) and a sharpening tutorial. He told me to make friends with someone who is good at that sort of thing, because it takes hours. I'd hate to spend three days grinding away at an edge, just to ruin it and start all over, but it's a good thing to know, and I guess I need the practice. More on that later. Also, he says that's the souvenir he wants. I guess when I come home in two years, my suitcase will be stuffed full of machetes. Aaaaaaand I'll have to be prepared to be detained and searched repeatedly, because that looks a bit suspicious to airlines.

As a going away gift, my dad gave me a magnifying glass. Why? They're light and easy to pack, and very useful. You can use them to read, or look at bugs, or dig out splinters, or start fires. I was never the burn-ants-with-a-magnifying-glass type kid, so this was my first attempt. Turns out, that's something that you can need practice at too. Let's hope I don't need to start any fires out in the jungle in any sort of emergency situation.

My mother gave me a vegetable peeler and a can opener. Why? Because they were on the list, and I'd neglected them. I can almost hear her rolling her eyes at me. I read that list through a hundred times, and even had it out when I was stuffing my suitcase, and I STILL forgot things. She's probably pretty convinced at this point that in my 100 lbs of luggage, I've forgotten everything useful. She's probably right.