I know you’re sick of hearing about the trip, and I apologize. But you can imagine that it’s all I really have to talk about this week.

I have been making little runs to Wal-Mart to pick up supplies, and the local Wal-Mart let me down yesterday. In the sample-size toiletry aisle, they are supposed to have travel-size Charmin. These are little rolls of toilet paper in a clamshell plastic case, small enough that you could easily fit one inside the center tube of a normal roll of toilet paper. When you are headed for a Developing World country, you cannot guarantee that there will always be T.P., and so it’s best to bring your own. These rolls fit easily in a backpack or you can even carry one in a pants pocket.

But our local Wal-Mart has been out of them on my last two visits. I found the shelf tag and the empty bin where they are supposed to be stocked. I will run to Tullahoma today and see if they have them there.

I also need pens, so that I can journal the trip. I always take along a blank book and journal heavily. Some of it is personal journaling, some of it is note-taking for the newspaper series that I will write upon my return. And I’ll probably get a bag or two of hard candy to stash in my backpack as an occasional comfort.