From the first day at the Mosaic International Summit held in Nov 2011 in Qatar, I started to visualize myself walking on thick snow, gazing at spectacular ice sculptures and the distinctive wild life that Antarctica has to offer after a very inspiring and touching speech given by Robert Swan OBE, the first man to walk on both poles.
In the beginning, I couldn’t believe that Robert is serious and that he would really respond back to me. His positive and uplifting response to my email was a big surprise.
Robert came to Oman in Dec 9th 2011. He gathered me with Bader Al Rahbi and Ali Al Easry, the first two Omani men to go to the Antarctic. I also met with Abdulrahim Turkistani who was there in the last expedition as well. Before Robert’s talk to some
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business people in Oman, we spoke a lot about the expedition and the challenges ahead. I got more excited about the expedition and made a final decision to go.
The days followed Robert’s talk were mainly to convince my family and get their “go ahead” permission. In the beginning they resisted a lot. They couldn’t imagine me going to a NO MAN LAND, disconnected and isolated from the civil life, living for days with people I never had known before and freezing for the first time ever in my life. Being the youngest amongst my siblings makes it tougher to get everyone’s approval in the family. Everyone has his or her concerns and worriers. Yet, I knew that was all because they care about me. Thus, for the same reason they finally accepted and gave their hand of support.
Then came the challenge of raising money. I started approaching organizations in Dec 9th itself. I had to write fundraising proposals for the first time in my life. Most importantly, I had to convince my family and myself that raising funds is not at all begging. It is a mutual benefit with the funders.
It was my last month at work after I decided to leave because of a few conflicts I had with the company management. I was fully taken by the expedition, yet trying to keep a clean image before I leave the company for good.
I wake up every day to check the list of organizations I made, check my diary, send emails, make phone calls and sometimes go for meetings. “What to do next” is always there in my follow-up list.
One obstacle that I was frustrated with was when a number of organizations told me that they couldn’t sponsor me because they year is coming to an end and the budgets have been frozen. Some organizations were not interested at all and some were like this is a personal journey for adventure and that its not worth sponsoring.
I was patient and I understood the policies and regulations some organizations follow, thus I wasn’t arguing much. Yet, it was so frustrating and disappointing sometimes to keep waiting and following up for a “No” answer.
Despite the rejections I received, I got to meet with some wonderful people who wanted to help me so badly but they couldn’t. They were sad for not being able to help. What they may not know is that the thought counts and their passion motivated me and helped me work even harder.