Ukraine or bust!

So, last night I received an email saying I was selected for the fellowship in Ukraine. Although there was a bit of "deja vu" involved, we were thrilled. I can't believe how fast it all happened. Needless to say, I accepted but have yet to hear back from Georgetown. Today we bought the Lonely Planet Ukraine and have already read a few bits, including the history of Chernobyl. Being in Kiev will be good as there is a lot to do and apparently it an art community - exciting potential there. I will email Lisa (the RELO) soon to find out more about the job outline. We are so relieved to have gotten a site that has a high livability factor in addition to a great job description. More to come...

All dressed up...

OK, scratch that goal. The violence did escalate: a church was bombed and a security warning of suicide bombers in schools went out. Sri Lanka made headlines twice on Yahoo! News...not a good sign. I emailed the ELF people at Georgetown about withdrawing from the post. I was really nervous about how everyone was going to react. I wrote the email on Saturday night (called Magdalena on Monday afternoon). She was so cool and seemed to really "get" where I was coming from. It was such a relief to talk to someone who was so "human" with me. It was great. She mentioned Philipplines and Mongolia as possibilities, but the rosters had already gone out and she didn't know if they had chosen yet or not. She also mentioned Ukraine and Armenia. Joe and I studied the sites last night and emailed her our choice of... Kiev, Ukraine.

Today I called her and confirmed that she did send my dossier to Ukraine. We chatted a bit about my withdrawal and she mentioned that the PAO and Richard were concerned. I read an email from the PAO which just reiterated that everyone there was "worried about the situation". So I sent a message to Richard summarizing my reasons. Hopefully, he will know that I really want to be above-board and professional about everything.

Luckily, I will have a chance at another site. We'll see what happens once again... it would be great to live in Europe again, wouldn't it?

Goal!

News Flash!
We are going to Colombo! I was chosen for the fellowship on Tuesday (2 days ago). I received the email Tuesday night (at my yahoo address and not my CNM address - ??). I accepted and the next day notified my dean (along with my mom, JB, and Carol). So our work is cut out for us... have made appointments for the physical, immunizations, and have much more to do. But I'm looking forward to it. Unfortunately, this morning there was news that there was an explosion (land mine?) in Tamil territory that killed around 64 bus passengers. The army retaliated by bombing some rebel camps... but the Tamil Tigers claimed no responsibility for the explosion. I hope the violence doesn't escalate. It will worry people who care about us...
Now I have to contact embassy folks to try to get contact info for the universities and institutions I'll be working at.
More news to come. Yeah for us... the "lucky people"!

Sinhala Lessons?

The RELO from South Asia emailed me on June 8 (Thursday) asking to set up a phone interview. All went well on the phone call Saturday night; we talked about my teacher training experience, desire to work in Sri Lanka, and a summary of the position... now I'll have to wait for a formalized "letter of invitation" if they select me. Joe's already bought the Rough Guide to Sri Lanka and is reading it this weekend, so our hopes are high. As soon as I get word that I am officially offered the post, I will buy the CD on Sinhala that I saw on Amazon. How exciting! Now we wait... just a little longer for the final "thumbs up"!

Sri Lanka Roster

OK, so I called and emailed the EL Fellow folks yesterday and got an answer! It looks as if they have put my name on the roster sent to Sri Lanka. They mentioned that if I wasn't chosen for that one, they'd put me on the rosters for India and Philippines. Don't know exactly how I feel about the last two, but our fingers are crossed for Sri Lanka. Hopefully, we'll know something soon.