Procrastination pays off???

I will admit that when I came to Africa, I wasn't too excited about my prospects for programs of graduate study at Makerere. I came with the understanding that I had been accepted into three programs: Construction Project Management, Economic Policy & Management, and International Relations & Diplomatic Studies. The issue was that I have only one academic year of study and, of course, most Masters programs take two years. Construction Project Management was a one year postgraduate diploma program, but I really wasn't that interested in it. Part of the problem was that my options were fairly limited when I was searching for programs of study from the US: the Makerere website was down about half of the time, and I think the university faculty and staff were on strike most of the time when it was working. Obviously, information was limited. So, I decided to put it off until I arrived at the university.

When I got to the registrar's office I discovered (after patiently waiting for them to literally dig through a huge pile of admission letters) that I had in fact not been admitted to the Economic Policy program because I didn't have any economics background. Granted, that does make sense, but this, naturally, was the program I was leaning towards pursuing. So, with my options limited to Diplomatic Studies or Construction Management, I decided to go exploring to see what I could find.

I remembered hearing about a new master's program in renewable energy, so I asked around and eventually was able to get in touch with the professor who was starting it. It turns out that the program focuses on how renewable energy can be used to developed Third World countries: which, ironically enough, is the exact type of program I wanted to pursue when I originally started looking for areas of study. I met with the professor in charge of the program, and, conveniently enough, he agreed to let me in!

There are couple big changes with this program – one of the biggest being that the professor doesn't think classes will start until around September 15^th (compared to the August 25^th date I was expecting). That's because this program is jointly operated by multiple universities: Makerere, Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Addis Abbaba (Ethiopia), and some university in Norway. To fill the next weeks, the plan is for me to start doing some research and reading. The bright side is that he said I should still be able to make it home for the Jorgensen-Connolly wedding on December 13 & Christmas.

One other slight change with this program: it is technically supposed to be a two year program. However, the professor said if I wanted to, I could try to fit all of the classes - and some of my thesis preparation - into my one year here. Actually, to quote him, he said, "If you are mad [crazy] enough, you might just be able to fit all classes into one year...if you are crazy." So (I'm sure this will come as no surprise to most of you), I'm going to try fitting this program into one year. We'll see how it goes!

Now it is just up to me to navigate academia bureaucracy to get all of the required signatures. And, believe it or not, it's actually more of a chore over here than at ISU! To get one signature, I actually had to find my way to a professor's house :) However, once I get all of that taken care of, I will officially be pursuing a Masters of Science in Renewable Energy - pretty cool, isn't it!


Pic (nothing to do with the post): I love my mosquito net!