I've often spoken about the most difficult part of the journey, the hunt for sponsorship....however I haven't spoken about the second most difficult; people's reactions
I do the monitoring for Freezing Omanis, so I read every comment and every word that I can find......not all are nice ones. There are many people who say that Antarctica is a holiday spot, and that why are we getting sponsored for a holiday?
First of all, its not........you can't just take a flight there, you get there through the roughest waterway in the world. its not a holiday.....we are there to learn and bring back things, iv spent months preparing and training for it and iv gone and come back, yet i am still finding myself lacking time!
Besides working a full time job, im working on my campaign......trying to collect data about plastic bags and having talks and meetings with different companies takes time as well! and don't forget training, sending proposals and contacting people yet again.
Ask anyone who has looked for sponsorship in Oman, you feel demeaned.........people who are responsible for the sponsorship treat you like you are begging them, while in reality....they get benefit as well.
Anyone who has done that will never want to do that again, yet my team knows that they will have to do this again...and again....and again.......the next team will be supported by us and will support the team after them.
Antarctica is a dream place for any environmentalist. Its difficult to get to, expensive and requires training and effort......
I know the new team will get the same objections, they will get the same 'glory hound' label....but before you tag us with that label, just find out what we are actually doing and why.
I do the monitoring for Freezing Omanis, so I read every comment and every word that I can find......not all are nice ones. There are many people who say that Antarctica is a holiday spot, and that why are we getting sponsored for a holiday?
First of all, its not........you can't just take a flight there, you get there through the roughest waterway in the world. its not a holiday.....we are there to learn and bring back things, iv spent months preparing and training for it and iv gone and come back, yet i am still finding myself lacking time!
Besides working a full time job, im working on my campaign......trying to collect data about plastic bags and having talks and meetings with different companies takes time as well! and don't forget training, sending proposals and contacting people yet again.
Ask anyone who has looked for sponsorship in Oman, you feel demeaned.........people who are responsible for the sponsorship treat you like you are begging them, while in reality....they get benefit as well.
Anyone who has done that will never want to do that again, yet my team knows that they will have to do this again...and again....and again.......the next team will be supported by us and will support the team after them.
Antarctica is a dream place for any environmentalist. Its difficult to get to, expensive and requires training and effort......
I know the new team will get the same objections, they will get the same 'glory hound' label....but before you tag us with that label, just find out what we are actually doing and why.
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