Kaleb’s Travels The life and times of Kaleb Guard

First of all, why am I travelling? Well it’s partly because of Dad’s work. But it’s also because we get to learn a new language, live in a new country and experience another culture. Everyone says that this is going to be one of the best experiences a kid could have.

Before I can get started about my travels, I really have to talk about what happened before I left. There were a lot of things to do before we could go. So really my journey begins in Perth and a couple of months before I left.

We had a lot of things to organise:

• My passport – I had to get my passport organised because I didn’t have one. I had never been out of Australia before. I had to get my passport photos taken twice because the first ones were too small. In the first ones, I had long hair but when I got the second lot taken my hair was cut short. But the second lot were the right size. And then I had to get even more… just in case! Getting passport photos is strange because you’re not allowed to smile and I’m used to smiling when I’m getting my photo taken.
• My shots – I hated getting them. The first lot hurt a lot when I got them and kept hurting for a week after. The second lot only hurt when I got them. But I had to have the shots because I was going to Nigeria and Nicaragua where, if you don’t have the shots, you can catch yellow fever, hepatitis and other nasty diseases that are much worse than a couple of needles.
• Packing the house – we had to empty the whole house into boxes and put them in a truck to take it around to my Nana’s house to be stored while we are away. Dad and Bridget did most of the packing while I was at Nana’s and Granny’s. But I did help unload the truck when it got to my Nana’s house. Once the house was empty we stayed with my Nana until we all left.

But that was not all...