How we got to this point

Several people have asked us, "Why are you going to Namibia?" Or, "How did you choose Namibia?" Or, "Are you coming back to Lincoln?" Or, "How does this sabbatical thing work?" Or, "Are you nuts?" OK--let's chat.

We can start with the last question. Yes, we are a little crazy. As a family, we've never played completely by the rules, and we've made some big decisions over the last few years. Coming to Lincoln. Staying in Lincoln. Now, taking a break from Lincoln. But, we enjoy adventure and new opportunities. Tristan is a great age for exploring the world: young enough to not mind (too much) leaving friends for a year, and old enough to participate fully and remember the adventure.

Here's how this all happened. In the academic profession, there is an opportunity every 7 years to complete a 'professional development leave'. These used to be called sabbaticals (where the every-7-years comes from). Now, we call them development leaves, so that people don't think we're sleeping during the entire leave. The idea is for faculty to get energized with new ideas to bring back for classroom and research use. In a way, the University is betting that I'll get a lot of ideas and experiences that will benefit the University more than if I just stayed at UNL all year and did my normal teaching/research routine. The unique thing about these leaves is that you remain a university employee while you're gone, and your job is waiting for you (so I've been told, at least...!) when you come back. So, yes: we are coming back.

So, I applied for a leave from UNL. Initially our goal was to go to England, where there was a research center that had offered me some desk space and a data set to analyze. But, England is expensive and there was no money for travel, housing, and such. I started searching for a way to fund this trip to England, and discovered the Fulbright program. It's a program supported by the US State Department and annual legislative appropriations. It provides travel funds and other support funds (housing, transportation, etc.) for faculty and students to travel abroad and exchange ideas. The goal of the program is to improve world relations through scholar exchange. That all sounded pretty good. Our family likes the idea of world peace. Maybe we can help.

Next step was to select a country to apply to--Fulbright requires you select one country and target your application. So, England was our target. But, there were only 8 awards to be given out England-bound scholars, and the competition was open to every academic discipline. Physics, literature, biology, chemistry, ... The odds seemed pretty low, and the awards to England would barely pay for Larkin's plane ticket and a couple months of housing. Cross England off the list.

We're lucky enough to have some good friends. One set of good friends are the Pegg's. Larkin and Mark keep bees together. Mark and Sue Ellen have been to Namibia previously for some hunting trips, and Mark led some UNL students to Namibia for a Southern Africa Ecology course in 2007. During that trip, Mark made contact with faculty at Polytechnic of Namibia, one of two universities in Windhoek, Namibia. As it turned out, the 2008 calls for Fulbright positions included a specific position at Polytechnic. It listed 'natural resource management' and 'grazing animals' as areas of research and teaching that were desired. Seemed to fit Larkin's research program fairly well, with his work in the Sandhills of Nebraska with birds and grazing. And, even better, the awards to Namibia included housing, transportation, and other funds. We could actually do this without going bankrupt. Things seemed to be falling together. Of course, Kelly was still hoping England would decide they needed a grazing/wildlife specialist.

We applied in August of 2007. Contacts at Polytechnic were very helpful in writing a research proposal (have you ever tried proposing a project when you haven't been to that continent before?). Initial response in November of 2007 (while Larkin was in Colombia) indicated that we'd made the short list. And, in March of 2008, we got the official word. We were Namibia-bound.

We didn't go looking for Namibia. But, we found it. And, we're excited about the adventure ahead. Hopefully that gives you an idea of how we ended up having plane tickets to Namibia. And, those plane tickets include a stop in England on the way over and the way back. Everyone is happy.

So, our family is happy. Now, we'll start working on making the world happy.

Tickets purchased

Must be getting closer. Plane tickets are now reserved. 3.5 months to go...