Preparing for an Overseas Fulbright Fellowship with a Family of Seven
Preparation for our trip has been a long road. As I mentioned in the previous post, we first learned of officially receiving the Fulbright back in January of 2011, more than 15 months ago. Since then, we have talked with many other past Fulbright recipients, university and government officials in Minsk, and many other U.S. citizens that have spent extended periods of time in Belarus. These many conversations have helped to resolve many of our initial concerns about traveling overseas with so many kids. Everyone with any experience in Minsk has told us without hesitation that it is a completely safe, incredibly clean, and an extremely friendly place to live.
Late July 2011, Jacque, David, and I were able to travel back to Washington D.C. for the U.S. State Department Fulbright orientation (a 3 day set of meetings, lectures, and workshops aimed at helping us know what to expect and how to best prepare for our trip). This was an extremely helpful event to attend (plus we stayed a couple extra days and were able to see many of the sites in D.C.), but particularly for Jacque, who had been less involved up to this point in learning about the Fulbright program, Minsk, and all that this would entail. Among all of the meetings we attended, the most helpful were the sessions where we were able to learn from and ask questions of a recently returned Fulbright Scholar from Belarus. We were able to talk about all of the different aspects of her time there, from food, to culture, to academic environment, to just about anything else we could think of to ask! By the time we left D.C., I think Jacque's angst over the upcoming trip had turned to excitement (which was definitely the case for me)!
With such assurances background knowledge regarding the upcoming adventure, Jacque and I were able to shift our preparation focus from the safety of our children to all of the logistical issues related to such a trip. First up was getting the passports for Jacque and the five kids (I already had mine). That took quite a while and involved a minor amount of drama, but then we were able to get all of our Belarus visa applications submitted to the Belarusian Embassy in Minsk before we left for our trip back to Missouri for Christmas. We were prepared for that to be a long, drawn-out process, but to our surprise, all seven passports with Belarusian visas were waiting for us when we returned home in early January.
The next big thing was getting all of the medical exams/clearances (mine was much more extensive than Jacque's and the kids', but it was all still a huge hassle). We had a problem with Jacque and my doctor getting the needed forms signed and sent off in a timely manner, which caused some other minor drama, but by mid-March we had all of our U.S. State Department medical clearances in hand.
Now with medical clearances, the Fulbright office was able to send the first portion of our grant stipend, which included the travel stipend. As soon as we got that, we purchased our flights (SLC--> Washington D.C.--> Frankfurt, Germany-->Minsk, Belarus) for a whopping grand total of $11.5K. But that was a huge relief to finally had tickets purchased.
That left us with all of the final, smaller items, like arranging for 4-months worth of prescription drugs, calling bank and credit card companies to inform them of the travel, purchasing the massive amounts of luggage we would need, planning the home-schooling and purchasing the related electronics equipment, making arrangements for pets (dog and two birds), getting overseas medical insurance for the family, in addition to all of the stuff necessary to button down the house and prepare to be gone for 4 months.
As it stands now (we leave in 13 days), we are almost done with all of the preparation on this end (except the huge job of packing and a few other small things), but we still have not tied down an apartment in Minsk (we have been told repeatedly that we will have to wait until we arrive to find a place, but we have been giving it our best efforts to get something lined up before we get there... with nothing to show for the efforts yet!). Arrangements have been made for us to be picked up at the airport in Minsk and I think most everything is prepared for the course I will be teaching at BSU. I also have been in touch with LDS church leaders in Minsk and we are looking forward to attending the Minsk branch during our stay.
So now we are really close to finishing up all of the preparation (nearly a year and a half in the making) and finally getting on with the trip (just 13 days!). It will be quite the adventure just getting to Minsk with all of the kids, and once we get there and get an apartment we will then have to get fully settled in and acclimated to the new environment. A huge adventure to be sure!
Preparation for our trip has been a long road. As I mentioned in the previous post, we first learned of officially receiving the Fulbright back in January of 2011, more than 15 months ago. Since then, we have talked with many other past Fulbright recipients, university and government officials in Minsk, and many other U.S. citizens that have spent extended periods of time in Belarus. These many conversations have helped to resolve many of our initial concerns about traveling overseas with so many kids. Everyone with any experience in Minsk has told us without hesitation that it is a completely safe, incredibly clean, and an extremely friendly place to live.
Late July 2011, Jacque, David, and I were able to travel back to Washington D.C. for the U.S. State Department Fulbright orientation (a 3 day set of meetings, lectures, and workshops aimed at helping us know what to expect and how to best prepare for our trip). This was an extremely helpful event to attend (plus we stayed a couple extra days and were able to see many of the sites in D.C.), but particularly for Jacque, who had been less involved up to this point in learning about the Fulbright program, Minsk, and all that this would entail. Among all of the meetings we attended, the most helpful were the sessions where we were able to learn from and ask questions of a recently returned Fulbright Scholar from Belarus. We were able to talk about all of the different aspects of her time there, from food, to culture, to academic environment, to just about anything else we could think of to ask! By the time we left D.C., I think Jacque's angst over the upcoming trip had turned to excitement (which was definitely the case for me)!
With such assurances background knowledge regarding the upcoming adventure, Jacque and I were able to shift our preparation focus from the safety of our children to all of the logistical issues related to such a trip. First up was getting the passports for Jacque and the five kids (I already had mine). That took quite a while and involved a minor amount of drama, but then we were able to get all of our Belarus visa applications submitted to the Belarusian Embassy in Minsk before we left for our trip back to Missouri for Christmas. We were prepared for that to be a long, drawn-out process, but to our surprise, all seven passports with Belarusian visas were waiting for us when we returned home in early January.
The next big thing was getting all of the medical exams/clearances (mine was much more extensive than Jacque's and the kids', but it was all still a huge hassle). We had a problem with Jacque and my doctor getting the needed forms signed and sent off in a timely manner, which caused some other minor drama, but by mid-March we had all of our U.S. State Department medical clearances in hand.
Now with medical clearances, the Fulbright office was able to send the first portion of our grant stipend, which included the travel stipend. As soon as we got that, we purchased our flights (SLC--> Washington D.C.--> Frankfurt, Germany-->Minsk, Belarus) for a whopping grand total of $11.5K. But that was a huge relief to finally had tickets purchased.
That left us with all of the final, smaller items, like arranging for 4-months worth of prescription drugs, calling bank and credit card companies to inform them of the travel, purchasing the massive amounts of luggage we would need, planning the home-schooling and purchasing the related electronics equipment, making arrangements for pets (dog and two birds), getting overseas medical insurance for the family, in addition to all of the stuff necessary to button down the house and prepare to be gone for 4 months.
As it stands now (we leave in 13 days), we are almost done with all of the preparation on this end (except the huge job of packing and a few other small things), but we still have not tied down an apartment in Minsk (we have been told repeatedly that we will have to wait until we arrive to find a place, but we have been giving it our best efforts to get something lined up before we get there... with nothing to show for the efforts yet!). Arrangements have been made for us to be picked up at the airport in Minsk and I think most everything is prepared for the course I will be teaching at BSU. I also have been in touch with LDS church leaders in Minsk and we are looking forward to attending the Minsk branch during our stay.
So now we are really close to finishing up all of the preparation (nearly a year and a half in the making) and finally getting on with the trip (just 13 days!). It will be quite the adventure just getting to Minsk with all of the kids, and once we get there and get an apartment we will then have to get fully settled in and acclimated to the new environment. A huge adventure to be sure!
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