Exciting News: Going to Nigeria ... again!

While Derrill was in Nigeria this week, he confirmed to the president of the American University of Nigeria that he would be coming to work there for the next three years. We have a job to look forward to!

"In Nigeria," says Joy obviously. "So we're moving there."

I was impressed while I was there with the friendliness of the people, how eager my colleagues were to have me there, and the real opportunity to do some good in the world.

We have been quite coy about all this online up til now. We didn't want to jinx anything by sharing too many opinions publicly online before a deal had been made. Up until the decision was reached (D hadn't finalized it fully in his own mind until Sunday night and told the president on Monday) we had been in contact will several other possible universities, each interesting in their own way.

Even though we have been silent online, "we have been thinking and praying about this decision for a long time." It's a pretty big step for us, and not one I think we had predicted going into this job market. But we now feel it's the right step for us now and are looking forward to it.

Baby Lavinia appears to be very excited to share about Nigeria. She's jumping all over inside Mommy.

"I have been feeling like we might end up going to Nigeria since before Derrill went to Nebraska in March. I had told Derrill that Nebraska or Nigeria sounded like the most likely for doing the kind of teaching he is interested in doing right now. Then Nebraska fell through pretty quickly."

Each additional school that contacted me for an interview really disturbed Joy, who wanted the uncertainty ended. "Ya! I kept feeling like we were going to go to Nigeria, and then I would be really stressed about Nigeria for a few days, and then I would feel peace about Nigeria, and then I would feel stress about it again. That's what I did for the last two months."

People have asked us if we're excited. My typical response was that, yes, that was one reaction we had. Fear was another. There were many others. Several of our concerns had to do with the fact that we will be the only members of the Church in Yola. Even if Nigeria is prone to civil disobedience and conflict, the conflict is in other states of the country: Adamawa state where we would be is very peaceful traditionally and calm.

Now that I have been there, however, I can just say "yes." I'm excited. The overwhelming answer from the Spirit as we've prayed about the decision has been peace, and not just general warm fuzzies, but specific reassurances about specific concerns. After all, anywhere you go there will be challenges. If God wants you to learn something, like patience, He can accomplish that in NYC just as well as Nigeria.

"Oh, I don't want to live in NYC! Sorry, but Nigeria doesn't sound too bad compared to NYC. Apologies to anyone who lives there. I am not a city person. Nothing personal. I wouldn't want to live in Lagos either..."

"Especially since Derrill made the decision, we have had continual peace instead of just moments of peace. Satan seems to be a little concerned about us going. I was in a lot of turmoil the few days before we made the final decision, to which I attribute Satan trying to sway me against the decision."

"Some of the reactions we've gotten from people as we talked about this have only reached the fear part. And some people have been very excited for us and talk about what an adventure it will be. We feel the weight of all of it and know that Heavenly Father will help us to overcome any challenges in getting or being there -- known or unknown -- as we know we'd have challenges anywhere we are in the world. With God, nothing is impossible."

Yola is way on the far east on the river that runs into Cameroon. Lagos is in the far southwest. Nigeria is 2.5 times as large as California. There is an LDS temple in the south east near Port Harcourt.

This is a picture of the inner court of the faculty building where I will be working. I'll be on the second floor.

The family I was staying with kept asking me how I was in my decision process after each trek to see something on my list -- housing, shopping, the town, the school, etc. Every time they asked, I had been feeling just a touch overwhelmed. I answered I was still in information gathering mode and needed some time to process. Once I wrote my thoughts down to share them with Joy -- assuming the internet connection would work -- I felt a lot better.

It's not necessarily going to be easy. That's not the point. Knowing a lot more about some of the specific challenges involved, I'm confident we can deal with them and find a lot of happiness there in Yola.

Crystal Ball 2: A Little Clearer

Subject to everything falling into place the way we expect, this is what we're looking at:

We would leave Ithaca July 20 and fly to Salt Lake. Oh, family in Utah! We're coming to visit. We'll drop off some stuff with some lucky family to watch for us.

We spend some time in UT, Vegas, and Santa Barbara. We bless Lavinia probably the 31st, possibly the 24th. The 24th would be kinda cool (Pioneer day and all that) but might be more problematic travel-wise. We'll see.

Some time while we're out and about we need a pediatrician to give Lavinia a Tdap shot (Tetanus/Diphtheria). If you can are in SB or UT and can help us get in touch with a pediatrician you like, please let us know!

We would then leave from Salt Lake to our New Home around August 3.

If you are family or dear friends in UT, Vegas, Santa Barbara, or along the way and would really like to see us and our new bambina, please let us know! We would love to see you!

Looking in the Crystal Ball

There's a lot Joy and I still don't know about what is going to happen in the next few months, but for anyone interested, we do have some decisions made at least. So here's a rough timeline, if everything works out the way we think. It brings to mind the old line, "If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans." These should be worth a chuckle.

We hope to have heard back from any school still interested in me this week. Within the next couple weeks I will be flying out to visit Nigeria. We hope to have a final decision about where then or very shortly thereafter. So we'll stop being silent/coy/private in a few weeks.

Baby Lavinia arrives June 24 and we begin a frantic dash to get her passported and visad.

Early July we will move out of Ithaca and visit our families in California and Utah, blessing Lavinia in my parents' ward.

Late July or early August we leave for our grand, three year adventure.

I'm sorry we've been keeping rather quiet about things online. It's certainly not for lack of interest as we can find precious little else to talk about that is quite so engaging. Until a decision is made, though, we would rather not jinx anything. The places still on the table are each very interesting prospects that we are excited about and we'd love to tell you more ... soon. We just know we probably won't be in Ithaca for more than another 10 weeks.

Hyrum moving on part 4: The Compromise

The next two morning weren't any better. In fact, they got a bit worse. Tuesday he got worried about school while we were in the car. Wednesday he started crying before we got out the door.

This was not going well. He was still happy enough at school and cried when Mommy tried to bring him home again, but we could see the pattern developing.

So Wednesday morning as he began to have a fit, I stood apart and prayed to know what we could do for him. For a moment I saw my son more clearly. He wants to be happy. He needs to be happy. He needs everyone to be happy. I need to give him an excuse to be happy. Make him a deal. He wants you to help him be happy.

I stepped back into his view and asked Hyrum an important question. "Would you like Mario to come with you to school?"

He stopped crying. I had his full attention. Mommy had been quite firm that toys were not going with him to school. I wasn't sure at that moment how much I'd need to bargain with both of them or if I could pull something off with her approval, but I felt like I was on the right track.

Oh Yes - a Joy post

At some point Hyrum stated saying a wonderful phrase that eased his mother's heart. The phrase is "OH, YES". He says it with much feeling and determination as a regular response to anything he agrees too, or at least he did. As any parent of a two year old feels that if they ever get over saying No all the time it would be wonderful and just figuring out that there is a yes is awsome.

Lately his favorite response to most questions is "OKAY" that is supposed to mean a lot of things, like Yes, lets do it now,  what are we waiting for or of course.

Hyrum has an announcement

Most of this was already posted, but it has come to Hyrum's attention that some of you only tune in to see pictures of him, so he has asked that I, Brother Watson, include the following announcements with some of his pictures to make sure you hear about them too.




Hyrum will not be leaving Ithaca for another two years. "I'd rather sleep in."











Hyrum's dad got a postdoc with his majestic advisor, who rises in everyone's estimation every year.








At last report, Hyrum will be staying in the branch. "Sorry, Ant'ny, but Daddy will be a thorn in your side for years to come."


Hyrum is one month old, so Grandma Jule took him out for ice cream ... only he didn't get any.

Hyrum will be moving to a mobile home his parents are buying from someone in the ward next month.







"No, not the McFaddens. The Cornabys."











"Daddy seems really excited about the postdoc, doesn't he? He says it'll be an 'expected utility maximizing solution,' whatever that means. Just so long as he keeps the clean diapers coming, I'm good."

Oh, I'll tell you where to go...

... and what to research when you get there.

DECISIONS HAVE BEEN MADE! My personal job market is over. I have found a position that should be fulfilling, supportive, and set me on the road for the work I'd like to do in the future. What is it?

I'm going to be a postdoc for my adviser, Per Pinstrup-Andersen, for the next two years.

So where are we going? Nowhere!

... That doesn't sound right somehow. Anyway, we're here for the next while, and we're looking forward to it.

So I guess no one wins the poll since "nowhere" wasn't an option, but thanks for playing anyway. Join us next time in two years.

The polls are closed

Well, we've finally heard from all our first round job interviews, and the survey says .... XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

All of you who voted for somewhere else are still in the running because we have no job yet and everyone else has said no. So the field is wide open and ready to harvest. We're still thrusting in the sickle with all our might, and still hope for a harvest. At the rate we're going, we'll have doubled the number of applications within 2 weeks.

I have been growing a protest beard (now a true Ithacan. eek) for the last two weeks. The first beard that I'm growing for me instead of for Joy in our marriage. But she doesn't mind. "Nope. She doesn't mind," she says.

The election was rigged! We demand a recount! There will be rioting in ... the chin? until our demands are met. Actually, there have been some pretty good riots in my stomach for a couple weeks, and I've learned that a sports medicine doc may not be the best choice for a stomach complaint, but that's who they handed me this time.

Paper 4 ... A New Project

For those of you who didn't know it before, I am insane.

J: "If Derrill didn't think so before, now he's convinced."

I've been really depressed at not getting any call backs from my interviews yet (still a couple hold outs) and Joy has been sending out new apps every day, but it's very stressful and it's been very hard to get solid work done on my dissertation for weeks. I did get some stuff done the other week because I signed up to present my work and I needed some work to present, but then just sat staring at the computer most of the day.

So then my adviser emails me. His post-doc up and got a job and has left their big, multi-year project in the lurch. Without any arm twisting, he asks if I would please be willing to drop my dissertation and work full time on this important book. I would be writing two of the chapters and reviewing/proofing the others, then listed as third co-author.

My first thought was that there was no way I would have time. There are precious few weeks before he and probably the other members of my committee leave for the summer, before which I'd have to defend the dissertation. But then Joy reminded me that I work best and happiest when I have way more to do than can possibly be done. She noted, correctly, how many times I have felt like God was inspiring me at certain points along the work, and testified of her confidence in me. The most touching part was that, when I reminded her that getting both done would really eat into family time, she said she would rather have me happy for one hour than all day as depressed as I've been. I decided to give it a second look.

It's really a good and important work, one that I believe will make a difference in the world for many people. I would be proud to be a part of it, and had actually wanted to be for a couple years as I heard him discussing it with Fuzhi (the post-doc) and other people working on the project. And the chapters I would be doing are right in line with the other research I've been doing on agricultural production and good governance.

I was still undecided that night, pondering the pros and cons and just how little time is left (and, incidentally, proved my lack of working ability again by not getting anything done after the call came, so even if I didn't get any work done on the dissertation, how would that be any different from now?). As I poured my heart out in family prayer that night, suddenly things came together for me. I realized how some of the things from Church and from priesthood blessings recently had foreshadowed this project coming.

And for the first time in a while, I felt peace. I felt peace and resolve. We've really adjusted our daily schedules this week to make it possible for me to spend full time on the project and still get an hour or two in on the dissertation and the job market every day. (Joy, meanwhile, continues her brilliant, dedicated pace at churning out several new job applications for me every day.) And Thursday and Friday, the first days of this new resolve, I've actually gotten back to writing the paper and making progress again ... just as advertised.

So maybe I'm going to have to find a way to keep my life overcrowded. It seems to have been one of my keys to success at BYU, and if it works here (as it did last November when I dropped the job market to work on the Hunger in Africa presentation at the UN with Per), it may be something I'll have to plan into my life.

So I've taken on far more than I can possibly do and pray that I still somehow finish the degree in time for whatever job is actually out there, somewhere.

So, in addition to the three papers of my dissertation, I'm working on:
Food Policy for Developing Countries book
Hunger in Africa book chapter
my meatpacking book
a paper on areas where people both buy and produce their own food
and planning future work on the effects of globalization on hunger and obesity, and identifying the difference between the effects of "market inequality" and "structural inequality" on economic growth.

A healthy pipeline, wa? This a picture of my graying hair. Watch for updates as developments are sure to be coming soon. :)

One month and counting

There are two things I refer to in the title. The first is that Hyrum is due sometime in the next month. The second is that a month has passed since my interviews in New Orleans.

Hyrum's official due date is March 10. But we all know that doctors lie to us. First children are regularly "late" which means they tell us the wrong expected due date! But Mar 10 is the official expectation, a mere 39 days away now. So, if you care to, please vote when you think he will come. (The reference in the poll to being his father's son means two things: one is that he'd be an April Fool, and that fits me well enough; the other is that I was born after a 10 month pregnancy, and by that point we're gettin pretty late.)

I had 6-7 interviews in New Orleans, depending on how you count them, and so far I've heard back from half of the employers ... in the negative. So I'm still waiting on the University of Denver at Colorado, Oklahoma State University (my advisor's alma mater), and the Miami University ... at Oxford ... in Ohio. I would be really happy at any of these, I believe, and each has particular attractions.

In general, I'm doing pretty well at the waiting game. But at night, right as I'm preparing for bed, the worry monster does creep up and hit my stomach because no one has called today yet. So I might as well have some fun with it and ask everyone's opinion of where we'll end up. For fun too, I've been singing "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" with slightly amended lyrics:

I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord,
Over mountain (UCD) or plain (OSU) or Miami.

Being risk averse, we've also started applying to some additional places for the second econ job market, so we could still end up pretty much anywhere. Cast your votes!

A great conference

Preparing for the AEA conference this weekend was a very stressful, and anxious time. Waiting and wondering which of the 84 schools and organizations to which I applied would call me back and ask for an interview was nerve racking. I had to live with my cell attached at the hip, which I found decidedly uncomfortable as it perpetually reminded me when no one had called that day.

Thankfully, seven organizations -- 5 schools and 2 branches of the USDA's Economics Research Service -- did ask for an interview this weekend, and though the preparations were brutal, the actual interviews were ... fun! As I neared the end, I told Joy that I wished I had more, just so I could have more fun. Each interviewer seemed genuinely interested in me and the work I do, giving good feedback in some cases of things I can try to improve my paper, informing me as much about them as I did them about me. I can honestly say that, from my side at least, each interview went well.

As much as I would enjoy telling some of the funnier stories from the interview process, I think it might be more politic to wait until I have a job in hand. Now is another period of waiting to see what the search committees decide, during which time I can thankfully get some more work done on my dissertation. I came away from each interview with some more reasons why I would enjoy working there, and I think we would be happy wherever we end up.

(While wandering around to get the lay of the land and figure out how to get to each of the hotels where I would be interviewing, I went down a wrong street and came across ... a Hattery! So now I can sport a new brown derby. I wore it to the exhibits where people were selling books and subscriptions, and though it got some very positive feedback there, I decided to stick with the advice of the Cornell professors and not try to stand out Toooo much by wearing it to the interviews.)