the first trip is booked!

Of course within an hour of my last post I received and email from Dr. Julie Torode at the International Union Against Cancer in Geneva.  I leave for Geneva on March 9th and meet with her on the 11th, I am also trying to schedule in a meeting with my contact Clare Courtney at the World Health Organization while I am there.  Dr. Torode has contacts with member organizations in all the countries that I want to go to, so she is a vital link for me and I feel so lucky that she is able to take the time to meet with me.  I am also super lucky that my good friends Philippe and Sophie Chevrier live in Lausanne and are letting me stay with them. It is only a 30 minute train ride to Geneva, and Geneva is a very expensive city, so they are saving me a bundle, and I get to see them and their adorable boys!

I also heard that Dr. Dottino was meeting with the ambassador to Liberia and trying to finalize plans to travel there at the end of March, so it looks like that is on too!  yay!!!!  I am so excited.....

waiting....

It feels like everything is just hanging in the air right now and my hands are a bit tied.    Work (advertising) has been super busy, which is great, because the industry is pretty lean right now, so I feel lucky to have work, but it really limits the time I have to work on this project... I haven't been able to establish a connection at the International Union Against Cancer http://www.uicc.org/index.php yet...the World Health Org referred me to them for help in finding NGO's and contacts in Vietnam, Cambodia, Syria, Jordan and Ghana.  I have sent 5 emails off to them with no response, I just found a new contact there today, so hopefully I will hear back from her soon because I want to head to Geneva in the next few weeks.   I have sent off a ton of emails to various hospitals and groups in Syria, Jordan, Vietnam and Turkey with no responses.  I am still waiting to hear about if and when we are going to Liberia. The political climate in Guinea is very unstable and really effects Liberia, so there are some significant safety concerns with travel to that region.   I know that everything is going to work out, and it will probably all happen at the same time (doesn't it always) and then I will be running around like a crazy person.  It's just a little frustrating right now!  I so want to be in the middle of it all, I just need some forward momentum!

I applied for a Pepsi Refresh Grant....so on March 1st I will be asking everyone to vote for me every day for the month of March!  It was a super confusing site, so hopefully I filled out the application correctly....I guess we will see next week. The money from that should help with the travel costs and taxes that I have to pay on the BA grant.  With any luck in the next couple of weeks the planning will be in full swing and I will have some definite plans to report!