Yesterday morning, Rachel answered my email. I'm going back!!! I'll leave at the end of December and work at CWAF for 6 months. She also told me about a conference in April which is for managers of the 18 African primate sanctuaries under the umbrella of PASA (Pan African Sanctuaries Alliance). If there's an angel investor who will donate airmiles for me to go, I'll do it in a second. PASA is headquartered in Portland, OR - I got to hang out with the executive director Doug at the Gorilla Workshop 2 weeks ago. He's fabulous!
Now, a flurry of action. Nervous and excited. Here are all the categories I'm thinking about, and the action items. I've started a notebook to carry around with me all the time, so I can log things as I think of them and track progress. Keep the things from having to spin around in my head all the time. Here are the categories so far:
1 Table of Contents
2 General To-Do List
3 Health / meds
4 Food / supplies
5 Funding
6 Technology
7 Insurance
8 Re-entry/ living situations
9 Expenses
10 Overall budget (monthly) for when I'm away
As I think of topics, I list them and use them as my working list. For example, under Insurance, I am checking the conditions of COBRA insurance - how long, how much per month. I found out it doesn't cover long term disability, so I need to check into that because it is important (especially if I'll be in the jungles of Africa, where risks of infirmity might be a little higher - alathough arguably not much higher than New York City!).
Another example under Insurance: I intend to sell or donate my car before I go (it's a 1991 Honda and I'm not prepared to garage it for almost a year; when I return, I'll buy a newer one). Since I don't want to cancel my insurance with my company completely, I got a quote that it'll be only $4 for a year to have my insurance dormant until I return and need it again. They don't cover Africa anyway.
I'll sign up for French lessons for the year. Although it's easy to get by speaking English at CWAF, French comes in very handy as some of the workers and all of the villagers only speak French.
I've been at my company for 27 1/2 years and it's been my stability in many ways and allowed me the freedom to go on exotic journeys. Only this afternoon I had an epiphany - I have 11 months to research and find other extraordinary projects that align with my current goals and passions. That's a long time to lay the groundwork and I have an extraordinary network of friends who can help me brainstorm. What fun!!! So I already contacted a few today - the head of PASA and Susan, my friend the executive director of The Gorilla Foundation. I've made a list of other people to contact, too. This is my chance to go spend time volunteering at different entities I've been wanting to help - like Gesundheit in West Virginia (founded by Patch Adams); Yestermorrow, a sustainable design homebuilding / construction school in Vermont; an acquaintance's project, building a school in Virginia; so many things, so little time! And this could also be the chance when I return to visit my brother for a while, my friends in North Carolina, and so on.
In terms of defraying my costs while in Cameroon, a coworker yesterday had the brilliant idea that I should seek grants - for art, conservation, cultural, primates - a whole slew of possibilities. So today I leveraged that idea and have asked 2 of my Barbara Sher groups to spread the word and find someone who's passionate or expert at grant research / writing who would like to help. I've never written a grant, and frankly it's not the heart of my passion or energy, so like Barbara says, find someone who does want to do that. I'll also post to Barbara's Bulletin Board - what powerful tools!
With my luxurious schedule, I'm delighted I'll have 11 months to research the most effective natural insect repellents and anti-itch creams. When I was at CWAF last summer, I got bitten by every insect known to Man. Rachel said I got more bites than anyone she'd seen. And they all preferred different body parts - fleas up to my knees, spiders on the outside of my thighs, ants on the insides of my thights, no see'ums (mot mots) on my forearms, head, face and hands, mosquitoes on my face, and some unidentifiable creatures around my midsection. I couldn't use the repellents I'd brought since they all had DEET which would have been toxic to my baby monkeys who were living on my body. As far as the anti-itch creams go, I looked over all the recommended ones and can tell you I tried them all and none of them work. So hopefully the repellents work!
Connectivity will be valuable there. I can spend time researching how to get Internet connection for a computer via my cell phone. The only place at CWAF to get phone connection is at the top of the hill near the sub-adult gorillas. If I succeed, I believe it will be the first transmission of Internet at CWAF. Luckily I have access to brilliant techies here in New YOrk.
That's it for the moment. As you can see, my brain is racing. It's important to write it all down so I can stay calm.
I've reached out to my friend Paul to strategize about
