August 21 2006

The idea about applying for a sabbatical took root at JUST the right time, since the deadline for applications for the 2006-07 school year was November 1, 2005!

I found the SANBI (South African National Biodiversity Institute) website http://www.sanbi.org/frames/kirstfram.htm. SANBI oversees all of South Africa's botanical gardens, but is based at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Cape Town, South Africa. We discovered that there were opportunities for international horticulturists to do volunteer work at Kirstenbosch or at one of the seven other gardens in South Africa. Edward jumped through a lot of hoops. He contacted folks at Kirstenbosch to make preliminary arrangements for us to visit. He managed to get the application submitted to Christopher Newport University, along with the necessary documentation. Then we sat back and...

WAITED!!

Decisions wouldn't be made until January, 2006. We heard that there were 7 applicants for sabbaticals, but that the university would only be funding 4.

We had a good Christmas. Edward made me promise not to buy any Christmas gifts since we needed to be saving our money for a possible trip. Of course I buy Christmas gifts all year, so I already had a good deal of my shopping done, but I tried very hard to be good!

Finally, the word came. Edward's sabbatical for Fall semester 2006 had been approved!