Thursday, May 1, 2014

Decisions, Decisions

It looks like I have a tough decision to make: Should I stay in Africa another year or come home?

Back in January I applied for a Fulbright renewal grant which would enable me to remain in Botswana for another year.  I was told it was highly unlikely I would receive a second grant because they are highly competitive and they “practically never” give them out to current Fulbrighters because they want to give as many people as possible the opportunity to get a Fulbright.  On Monday I found out I was one of only four people to receive a Fulbright renewal grant for the next twelve months.

On the one hand I am honored to have received another Fulbright because it is so uncommon for that to happen.  On the other hand, I was already looking forward to heading home in a few months and have been excited about returning to the land of electricity, water and food on the grocery store shelves.  Not to mention the fact that I’m not sure how happy my department back at Texas Tech would be if I told them I wasn’t coming back in August as planned.

At this point I am torn about what to do.  I started making lists of pros and cons to ease the decision making process, but that isn’t helping much.  On top of that the U.S. Embassy has been trying to sweeten the deal by asking me what concessions I want in order to convince me to stay.  There are lots of arguments for staying here and going home, but at this point I’m just not sure which one is best for me.  It looks like there is lots to think about over the next couple of weeks.

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