I feel like I am going to reveal my account to my family here, but I couldn't not at least tell some of them about this. It's way too nice to keep to myself!

Onward...

Last year I had the opportunity to visit a friend finishing up her Peace Corps service in Zambia. I spent a few days in her rural village with her and then we traveled around for a few weeks. Because I prefer to talk to locals rather than spend all my time traveling with other tourists, we did a lot of chatting with people. A topic that came up more frequently than one might like if they were looking to keep the conversation light and cheerful is the prevalence of malaria. A man I talked to in Zambia told me that it had been years since he'd had it and he was pretty stoked about that. Someone I talked to on Zanzibar thought the USA as a whole is the best thing ever because some program (an NGO? The government? I'm not sure) helped facilitate insecticide spraying, which brought down the malaria rates (and therefore deaths) considerably. PC volunteers I talked to shared the experiences they had with malaria when they stopped taking their anti-malarial meds and said it was really miserable even with readily available and top of the line medical care.

I bring all this up because my Santa gave me the amazing gift of a donation in my name to an organization called Malaria No More which is dedicated to wiping out malaria. They provide prevention, treatment, and research towards more permanent solutions (namely vaccines). It is very cool. I also received some very cool stuff (like seriously rad stuff) but it is, in the end, stuff and the donation will help create a lasting effect on people other than myself.

(UPDATE: I spent some time looking over the website (http://www.malarianomore.org) and it looks like a great charity. You should all go look at it.)

Don't get me wrong, I like things that have a lasting effect on me also. I got some incredibly thoughtful gifts that are absolutely perfect for me.

Anyone who skims through my profile or my previous exchanges might get the idea that I really, really like hiking. I spent this last summer hiking the first 1400 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. On the trail I used a tent that I bought used from an REI garage sale. It served me well for a couple thousand miles but I am getting to the point where I will need to start safety pinning the zipper shut. It's definitely time for a new one and my Santa not only provided, but provided the exact one that I've been drooling over for months! I am super, super excited to use this on my PCT thru-hike (I need to finish what I started, yo!) next summer. As you can see from the picture, Cara the dog agrees that it is a pretty fantastic gift.

I love being exposed to new music and my Santa sent me a link to a Spotify playlist. I mentioned in my profile that some of the best gifts I've ever received were CDs burned with music I've never heard of. I've never used Spotify but I'm exited both to learn something new AND for the new music. Like really, really excited. I love music but am so bad at finding it. (UPDATE: The music is great.)

A Patagonia duffel bag is exactly the right size to carry my climbing gear: rope, harness, draws, etc. It conveniently has straps to carry it like a backpack. This means that I don't need to coil my rope on my back and worry about it getting caught on everything as I scramble to the base of a climb (my rope getting caught on a rock or branch jutting out has more than once caused me to land on my butt and embarrass myself).

I am much more aware of bugs and the issues they can cause after somehow managing to contract Lyme disease while hiking last summer. I have family that live in the Midwest where it is sometimes ridiculously hot and humid and a tent is no fun but is necessary due to ticks and mosquitoes, so this will be perfect for camping out there!

I haven't quite figured out how to set up this chair yet and the directions are in Japanese (fortunately I have a friend who speaks and reads Japanese so I will solicit her help), but it will end up being a super nice place to park my butt. I'm sure that I'm missing something really obvious, but I can't make the ends of the clasp reach. I'll figure it out. I love bonfires with friends in the summer and there are never enough chairs. I will now have the dopest and most conveniently transported chair at the party.

I mentioned in my profile that I love learning new things. My Santa is clearly brilliant because he was able to take that information to choose for me a book that explains simply (but thoroughly) how things work, ranging from microwaves to nuclear bombs. It is very nifty and I am excited to sit down and look at it more thoroughly. He also wrote a nice note inside.

Mt. Rainier National Park is one of my favorite places on the planet and now I can take it with me wherever I go! I got a bandana with a map of the park. It's almost too cool to use but I'm sure I'll get over that quickly. I promise not to use it as my pee rag while hiking...I'll put it on my head instead!

I included in my profile a link to my PCT blog, which I can tell that my Santa read (and it's a little embarrassing now, since I went back to look at it and noticed that I did a very bad job editing on my phone) since they referenced one of the entries in a note. I like to keep journals of any big adventure I go on, and the best way to do that outside is to use a waterproof notebook. Once again my Santa came through. I went through a couple of these last year while hiking and so I KNOW that it'll get used.

I don't think that I can offer enough thanks to my Santa for this whole experience. I'd like to send a thank you note via snail mail (yeah, my mother hammered that habit into me from the time I could write), but I don't even know where to send it. If I used the return address on the box would it get to you? If not, know that you made a swim coach from the Northwest ridiculously and insanely happy! I might need to extend my rating scale to rate like a 7A***** or something for this. Thanks so much!