A week after I applied for the Costa Rican farm I still had not heard back from Global Nomadics, the company I had applied to. I sent an email off to the company for a status but knew they were in Australia so I wouldn't hear back from them until later that evening at the earliest. I also decided to go back and re-read the initial description of the assignment On the website. It was on this review that I noticed an age requirement that I hadn't seen previously - "Age 18-30 (flexibility depending on physical ability)." "Oh crap!" was my first thought. I immediately went back into my application and made a few revisions like updating my hobbies from "running" to "running 1/2 marathons." I hoped this was enough. I also have to admit that if I'd seen that requirement I probably wouldn't have applied. A saw other assignments that I moved passed because of the age requirements (apparently many assignments are aimed at college students.) This made me think about a book I read in March that was motivational for me, and helped guide me towards my resignation. In the book "Lean In" by Sheryl Sandburg she said that women only apply to jobs if they meet 100% of the requirements while men only need to feel like the meet 60% to apply. I was startled by this and realized I was even falling into this trap for a volunteer assignment so it made me even happier that I had acutally applied. I just needed to be accepted.
I got the acceptance email that evening and was elated. Now I only had one more hurdle to overcome- the timing. Being unemployed, and still procrastinating from looking for a job, I knew that I needed to leave quickly. I couldn't sit around for a month or longer and then go on my adventure. I asked to arrive on May 20th. On May 9th the company came back with the thumb up! Now I just needed to get everything in order - in the next 10 days.
The next couple days became a blur as I received the contact information of the farmer - Donald, and the website to the farm - www.lagranvista.com. I did some celebrating with friends, made a quick trip to the ranch to pick up some supplies, went to the travel clinic for my vaccinations and prescriptions, and lots of shopping. I also had to book my flight and discovered it was going to take me 2 days to get to the farm due to the flights I could get using my miles. I emailed Donald about arriving on Tuesday and he asked that i fly in on Sunday. it was a good thing my last day of work had passed because there is no way I would have been able to get everything done in the 9 days. I also decided that I would book my trip for an extra week to go sightseeing after I was done on the farm.
Fortunately I was on a roll and started packing early, something I'm not known for. I'm also not a great packer despite the amount of travel that I do on a yearly basis. I always pack too much. After packing all the new items I purchased including rubber boots, a mosquito net, and sleeping sheets I emailed Donald a few questions about some of the items listed on the websiteto bring. I got an immediate response telling me not to bring most of the items I had just purchased. Now granted, I was happy to remove the 14 pound rubber boots from my bag that I had just stuffed, but it was back to the stores for me. I also spent the last couple days getting all my electronics and cameras in order and downloading lots of books to read. By noon on Satuday all I had left to do was book a hotel room in San Jose and call AT&T about my phone coverage. I stopped to reflect all the things that had happened in the 5 weeks since I turned 42. On that day I had no clue about the adventure I was about to take. With that I went out to celebrate one last time before leaving.
