REALLY?!?!? I cannot believe that. I'm affiliating with a professor at the University of Peradeniya in Kandy too!!!! Professor Asoka Dangolla! So I'd be in the same location, at the same University. Craziness. If I received the Fulbright I would be working to combat the monkey menace terrorizing the cities of Sri lanka, specifically the Torque Macaque species. I would be working locally capturing, translocating and monitoring primates, as well as trying to working with local communities in finding ways to implement means of deterring this species away from their villages and pattys without harming the viability of the species since it is a threatened endemic species, which can provide economically by means of ecotourism and other routes if a balance can be struck between human and primate livelihood (actually - all endemic primate species in Sri Lanka are either threatened or outright endangered, its a huge problem with little work being done on it)
I only speak English but am actively trying to pick up Sinhala, and know no Tamil (hearing you know it already put your proposal ahead of mine in the ranks!)
As for how badly I want go to to Sri Lanka, you have no idea. I am getting sick to my stomach daily with worry of rejection! I am not going on to Grad school because i focused all my attention on the Fulbright that I put off taking GREs and I NEED this to go through. I have done primate research in Buffalo, NY the last couple years and am graduating in psychology/anthropology/animal behavior/ zoo biology - so this is my passion. I have no alternatives right now if I don't get it and so this is one of the scary endeavors I have ever undertaken. I also am becoming a military girlfriend this summer - my boyfriend is accepting a position as a US Navy Flight Officer, and so the Fulbright will ease his being away at training and active duty. I have worked for everything I have ever been able to accomplish so receiving a Fulbright would be such an accomplishment.
