Hey there, Mozartgirl53! First, I must confess that while I was being a creep, stalking this forum and whatnot, I was constantly thinking of how great you are for diligently responding to questions and encouraging everyone on in this process. I wish you the best of luck with securing a grant to Zambia!
I'm also a rather optimistic person, but I'm kind of a little gunshy with things happening in Russia. I spent the last year in Moscow on a Boren scholarship and I was determined to intern with USAID and whaddayaknow.. it was kicked out of the country during my first couple weeks! Then I ended up working with some people involved with the American Councils, and now that's getting the boot. Now I can see that these are apples and oranges... but Russian-American relations have done weird things that aren't compatible with each other before. For example, banning adoptions to U.S. parents in response to a bill placing sanctions on Russian officials guilty of human rights violations.
Nevertheless, I feel that everything will be okay with the Fulbright. There's just a little 5% dash of doubt niggling at the back of my head.