FundaGeek

I am moving forward with the visa process, getting my plane ticket for Indonesia, and I am gathering the necessary gear to be able to do research in the jungle for 7 months. That means it is time to pay for all of these things. When I originally started to plan to travel to the other side of the world I thought I was going to be there less than 3 months, but after many conversations with the professor I will be working with we decided that it would make the most sense for me to stay the rest of the duration of the project. (That way I get more experience and he doesn't lose his help halfway through).

The biology department at my school has been so supportive and they are allowing me to do an internship for the fall semester so I can make this happen. So at this point I thought, great a win-win for everyone! But by more than doubling the time I will be living in Indonesia it raises the price of my visa, room and board, and travel costs within the country since I will now be traveling to extra field sites. I really need help to make this all happen. I have started a profile on a basic research funding website called FundaGeek. The website contains a profile with more information about the research I will be doing with a video you should definitely check out, as well as a call to help me make my research happen. But your support will not leave you empty handed there are awards for different levels of backing. Please take a second to check out some of the niffy offerings I have on the site. I really need your help to make my research a reality!

And make sure to tell your friends!

The visa learning curve...

So when the professor I will now be working with said he would love to have me join the team of researchers that are going head into the jungle this spring, as you can imagine, I was stoked. (To be completely honest I cried I was so happy!) I knew that this was going to be a harder experience than any I had encountered. Not only because I will be living away from friends and family for 7 months, and not only because I will be in a country where it is rare to find someone speaking English, and of course not only because I will be working from sun up to sundown walking all day through the jungle, but-- I did not anticipate that before even leaving I would face (what I assume will be one) of the hardest parts of this whole process…getting a visa. You may be saying to yourself, “I know people who have gotten visa’s, I don’t think it was so hard for them” or you may have even gotten one yourself but what I have discovered is that no two visa experiences are exactly alike!

So I’ll take it from the top, I consulted with the professor I will be working with and since he hails from France he had to contact the Indonesian embassy in France to obtain a letter of recommendation to send to the research permit granting agency (RISTEK) in Indonesia. Then he told me he had to include the letter from the embassy with the following documents to upload to the permit agency’s website: a letter of recommendation from a senior scientist in the specific field of research, a letter of rec from a scientist at the university he works at, a letter guaranteeing enough funds to complete the research, a letter from a doctor expressing physical and mental health, a passport sized photo with a red background, a copy of the passport, a document containing all equipment and it’s worth, and his CV. So because this was a weighty list I took to trying to collect all of these required documents, which as you can guess took some time. 

So finally when I got ready to upload these documents to the permit agency I found out they all had to be resized and turned into Jpeg files, which proved to be not very easy with my computer, so I sent them to my boyfriend’s computer and he helped me do this in Photoshop. Then finally I uploaded all the documents except the letter from the Indonesian Embassy here in the U.S. The reason I did not have this letter to upload was because after many (I mean MANY) calls and messages left at the embassy, and don’t let me forget emails, I never heard back from them! The permit agency accepted my application and emailed me saying that sometimes they do not receive these letters from the embassy. 

So then while I was waiting and worrying about my application a wonderful professor at my school told me about Consulate Generals, these people are in many large cities around the country and they are the go betweens between people in their regions seeking visas and the embassy. I contacted them (again and again) and finally talked to someone (on the same day I got the good news that my permit had been granted). I thought that since my permit was granted I was golden…this is not the case. I had to tell the permit agency where I wanted them to send my information so that I could get my temporary visa (required to step off the plane in Indonesia) so I told them the Consulate General in Chicago as I am in their region. I thought I had to send them my passport and they stamp it and send it back. Nope. The big hurdle I thought I had cleared--the numerous documents I had to acquire and confusing instructions I had to decipher to upload those documents, was not cleared—I merely left the ground. I found out the hurdle is the next set of documents (of course different from the first set) that I must now submit to the Consulate General to get approval for the visa. And before this process when I was consulting with the professor and a graduate student who has been to Indonesia (but comes from a different part of Europe) I thought they would have it all figured out, but getting a visa in the U.S. is not the same, not even close. 

But what I have learned is that I am not going to let this taxing visa business stop me from getting to Indonesia to live a dream come true. I know that if I can get through this next part of the process I can probably handle any Ph.D. applications; they will be a piece of cake!  

Here's to new adventures

I miss these little guys!

Well the next adventure I am going to be headed on has been in the works since summer. While finishing up my amazing summer at Duke studying lemur social cognition I met a new incoming graduate student. Through this new friend I made a connection with a professor who is headed to Indonesia to study orangutans. I am excited to say that I will be joining this professor to spend 7 months researching how orangutan mothers and infants interact during a bout of tool using by the mother. I am extremely excited and have been working very hard to complete the required permit application (there are over 10 documents that need to be submitted). It’s a relief to have the permit submitted but it has to be reviewed before I get the verdict. Please send me your positive vibes while I wait out this nail-biter. 

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have also created a twitter to share the details of my preparation, and subsequent trip follow me at https://twitter.com/#!/RickiOldenkamp. But don't worry I plan to continue the blog as well and I’m back in the updating mode so check back to find out all the nitty gritty details of how to plan a research trip.