e-mail to my academic advisor

Hello Steve,

Thank you for the e-mail informing me of what to expect when I return to school next year. I’m eager to wrap things up, mostly because of the financial aspect, but I know that I also need to be realistic and it is my priority to complete an outstanding thesis that I’m proud of and positively contributes to the people and places I’ve grown to love here in Ethiopia.

Regarding my thesis, many things have become jumbled. The shortened version is that the bamboo company I was involved with went bankrupt due to corruption and organizational issues. Fortunately I was working under an independent contractor and our assignment will be finished according to the original contract and handed off to local and international stakeholders. The work I have been involved with was helping to write and execute HH surveys, input and analyze data and finally to co-write the EIA report for both bamboo forest areas.

It has been a tremendous learning opportunity for me to see the challenges businesses face here in Ethiopia. This specific business was striving to create an ethical development project with admirable benefits for involved communities and bamboo forests. The concept appeared idyllic on paper and was very inspiring work in the beginning, but now that someone is incarcerated, 90% of the staff was let go (unpaid),  and the involved Ethiopian communities are very confused and unimpressed I have little hope that the business will survive. What a tornado of activity I’ve witnessed in the last 8 months! Fortunately I was just along for the ride and managed to obtain experience and information that will help me complete a thesis and hopefully prevent me from being a victim of incompetent employers in the future.

With that said, I have access to social, economic and ecological data from 2 different communities who rely heavily on bamboo for their livelihoods. Unfortunately for my previous project idea, it was recommended that I do not return to the communities to collect ecological data ( I wanted to conduct a bamboo forest inventory analysis) because it may further confuse the community and disrupt relationships. I agree with this suggestion and will work with the SEB and EIA information that I have. Potentially I’m thinking about writing a case study comparing these two communities and the potential of bamboo utilization and marketing in Ethiopia. I need to brainstorm some more and organize my ideas to settle on a more specific thesis plan.

For now at least, I wanted to respond to your e-mail and let you know:

• ·         I intend to graduate sometime in 2014
• ·         Ethiopia is constantly chaotic and full of life lessons
• ·         My thesis has veered off track, but I am confident that I’m on the brink of some great ideas
• ·         After all your years at University of Montana as an advisor, I’m sure none of this information surprises you
• ·         I anticipate when you return from sabbatical we can laugh about all of this over beer and you can tell me your own shocking stories of promising research projects gone sour

Best, Bridget