What's going on... the beginning of a diary

In the absence of anything remotely interesting to say, I'll use this space as a diary.

I am currently waiting for two events to occur. One has to do with love, the other with a career.

As I have just recently graduated with my masters in International Development, I am now looking to make the 40K of debt that I accrued obtaining that degree serve some use. So, I will either take a job or get a phd. Both options are turning out to be more problematic than I anticipated. The Tulane department from which I took classes is in some difficult straits, since a number of their grants have expired this year and new funding has not yet been acquired. There are other issues as well which I won't post about (just in case anyone actually reads this), but it all adds up to an uncertain future for the department. Which means that they are really not accepting phd candidates anymore... and they are even less likely to grant money to those that they do admit.

So, where does that leave me? Waiting for the department to get its shit together so it can admit me and grant me a tuition waiver. That will happen, at the earliest, in Fall of '05.

Unfortuantely, in June of '05 I have to start paying back student loans, unless I can somehow get a deferment. What about work, then? Getting a good job in the field of international development is proving tricky... I could sit behind a desk and file paperwork, sure, but that's not why I went back to school. Obtaining a position as an anylist or a field worker requires experience... experience which I don't have. How can I get experience? I could volunteer... but I don't think my lenders will appreciate me working for free.

Fortunately, I have this wonderful teacher who has really tried to help me out. Resources are scarce so her actual success rate is low. However, she may have found something ideal for me. She has contacts with this group based in Bangkok that deals with preventable injuries to children. It's a well-established NGO that works all over SE Asia. It's called TASC, and you can visit its webpage here: http://www.tasc-gcipf.org/

She's trying to set me up with an internship/fellowship with TASC. I'd be doing data analysis and have opportunity to both travel and work on policy advocacy at the national level. It sounds just wonderful. Anyway, to make a long story short, I sent them my resume and am waiting to hear back. The feedback from my teacher leads me to believe that they are ready to invite me over, but I haven't yet heard back from TASC itself. So until I do, it remains a pipe dream.

Man, I figured writingin a BLOG would be short a quick... but explaining the whole situation, which, I imagine, is the interesting part, takes a number of words, and I should get back to work. I guess you'll have to wait till a later post to learn about the other thing I'm waiting on... the part that has to do with LUV.

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