Water purifiers and other necessities

As others prepare for the Christmas holiday, I am preparing to leave the country.  On Christmas Day 2009, I will fly to Cairo, Egypt.  Alone.  The other members of my party won't arrive until a day or two later.  I'm not afraid to fly alone.  In fact I am relishing the time to read, sleep and listen to my ipod.  Navigating to the hotel on my own, now that is more than a little scary.  I don't speak Arabic and I will be a woman alone.  But, I'm working on that.

In the meantime, I'm scoping out water purifiers.  The one my mom and I took to Ethiopia more than a decade ago has been discontinued and replacement parts are no longer available so I'm to buy a new one.

When mom and I went to Ethiopia, we packed everything but the kitchen sink -- water purifier, food, voltage adapters, Raid, Lysol, mosquito netting, duct tape, one of those little heated prong thingies that you stick in your beverage to heat it up.  Speaking of little prong thingies . . .

When it was time to leave Ethiopia, we were sitting there at the gate waiting to board the plane to come home when four armed and very serious looking men came and escorted my mother out of the boarding area.  I determined right then and there that I absolutely would not get on that plane if my mother was not back.  I wasn't sure what else I would do exactly, but at least I had some semblance of a game plan.  After 30 excruciating minutes, she finally came back.  Evidently the prong heater raised some red flags when her suitcase was scanned.  Airport and police offficials had never seen a gadget like that before and wanted to know what it was used for.

I'm not planning to bring the prong heater thingy.

Mom and I had a conversation on the phone earlier this week about what to pack:

Raid. Check.
Lysol. Check.
Wet wipes. Check.
Food. Check.
Rain poncho. Check.

I'm to check my shoes for scorpions before I put them on. I'm to wipe all the surfaces of the hotel room down with my disinfectant wipes.  I'm to brush my teeth with bottled water.  I'm not to go barefoot.

Check. Check. Check. Check.  Thanks, Mom.  I learned from the best.