another one-way ticket

This summer I sent over 20 emails into African cyberspace in search of a volunteer position with an NGO from the spring of 2009. My tagline about a Yale Law student on a one-year deferral must not have been as catchy as I had hoped, because after a few months of dedicated effort I received exactly zero responses. Then, in mid-September - over two months after I had sent the initial correspondence - I heard back from Andrew Youn, a Korean Yale (BA)/Northwestern (MBA) grad who founded One Acre Fund in rural Kenya. He happened to be in Minneapolis on a fundraising run that week, so we arranged a "casual meeting" at a Starbucks downtown the day before I left.

The casual meeting turned out to be a fairly intense hour-long session in which I mapped out business and experiment plans for hypothetical situations faced by the rapidly developing agricultural NGO. I had little background with this type of interview question - although I am told they are quite common in the business world - but apparently I did fine because Andrew told me they would try to find an available niche for me with One Acre Fund for the spring after my teaching contract ends in China.

Between the blog entry title and this little background story, you can probably guess what the latest development in my life has been: Andrew officially extended me an invitation to work with One Acre Fund this spring. However, the terms are less favorable than he had hoped; since I can't get there until February and planting begins March 1, he will have to staff the major projects with employees who can be in Kenya at the beginning of 2009. So while I get free room and board (granted, "free room and board" in a hut with no running water or electricity), I have to pay for travel and immunization expenses. I don't really mind; I sort of expected this from the beginning, and if I were trying to capitalize financially I would not be working in a country where the currency is worth roughly 1/7 of the US dollar!

I should add that even after all my excitement to move to Africa, the decision was not easy - I am feeling increasingly at home in China, understanding more and more Mandarin, and finally learning the ropes of being a teacher. I hate to cut short the happy episodes of my life, but the anticipation I feel thinking about Kenya makes it impossible to turn down this opportunity. Oh yes, and of course I had to take into considering the winning vote from the poll on the right-hand side of my blog... Yes, my loyal readers, your vote does count!