Today was the day when I was formally invited to pursue a “course of study leading to the award of Doctor of Philosophy Degree in African Studies”.

The events leading up to me holding the very much desired letter in hand includes many drops of sweat (but only a few tears), numerous visits, phone calls and emails on my part since I applied for the program in March of 2009. I almost gave up in September, but finally did a presentation of my proposal in November and a few weeks ago got my first call back.

Since then, I have made three trips to the School of Graduate studies and today was the day! I feel content and anxious to get started.

For the first half of the program, I have secured funding through the generous Swedish Women’s organization SWEA, but as I am now admitted I should probably get to worrying about finding scholarships for the latter half.

Dear reader, any ideas?