Invitation!

I have officially accepted an invitation to MADAGASCAR departing February 11, 2014! After 401 days of thinking, talking, and dreaming, and a whole lot of waiting with little indication of where, when, or what I would be doing, I finally know! I finally have something concrete to plan on and research. I could not be happier!

I received my invitation on Friday while I was tailgating at the Dave Matthews Band concert. I cried, hugged, and cheered with my friends and random neighbors. Since then, I've read through the Madagascar welcome book, volunteer handbook, core expectations, safety and security handbook, and the volunteer assignment description to name a few. I also researched the country extensively. The more I read, the more I thought that this was an absolute perfect placement for me! The country has many aspects that I hoped for (but didn't admit because I was geographically flexible) and the assignment seems like it will utilize my skills well. The volunteer assignment description did make me nervous as I was reading it, but I believe it was purposefully written in a way that made me think twice about accepting. However, I have now made a commitment to the assignment, country, the Peace Corps, and myself.

After I accepted my invitation, I received four different emails with tons of information about my next steps. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, and I keep reminding myself that I have several months to complete many of the tasks. This reminds me of the episode of How I Met Your Mother where Marshall and Lily think they're pregnant. They make a list of everything they need to do to prepare for the baby, and then do it all in one night while rushing and panicking. If you haven't seen the episode, you should just watch the entire series, great show.

Anyway, a big thank you to my family and friends who have supported me thus far (and put up with me talking about Peace Corps non stop)! This is only the beginning of an exhilarating adventure ahead, and I can't wait to move forward. Here's to Madagascar!

Final Suitability Interview

I had my final interview today with my placement officer! She actually called Friday afternoon and I missed it by 3 minutes (!) but was at work and couldn't have the interview anyway. We scheduled the interview for Monday at 12:15pm which meant I had to wait all weekend! I have never been so excited for a Monday and even created a countdown on my phone.

So today during my lunch break, I was parked on a random street eating a sandwich when my placement officer called me. The duration of the call was whole 7 minutes from pick up to hang up. She only asked me a few questions such as 'Has your motivation to join the Peace Corps changed since you first applied?' 'Has the level of support from family and friends changed?' and 'Are you comfortable living with a host family for part of or all of your service?' And that was it! She then told me I was invited to serve in Sub-Saharan Africa in health extension, departing mid-February! I am ecstatic, this is exactly the type of invitation I was hoping for!! The placement officer told me a formal invitation would be emailed to me at the end of this week or early next week. I'm thinking, 'Can't you send it now? You already know where I'm going!'

So now, I get to wait a few more days until actually finding out where I'll be serving. I think I've checked my email at least 50 times since noon. According to Peace Corps wiki, and a wonderful Google spread sheet found here, I'm guessing it's going to be Ghana, Madagascar, or Malawi. I would be thrilled with any country! The next few days will be long until I receive my invitation and I hope I get it before the 4th!

More RAS

I received another email, "Your file is being passed on to the placement specialist for further review. You can expect to hear from our office again in the coming weeks." I’m such a dork that I googled what ‘in the coming weeks’ means. The email also encouraged me to continue gaining skills so I started volunteering at the AIDS Resource Center and I became certified in Blood Borne Pathogens training. Apparently a symptom of RAS (Restless Applicant Syndrome) is obtaining all kinds of certifications to be a more competitive applicant. Peace Corps is probably some conspiracy agency created by Red Cross and TEFL programs to get people to buy their online training programs. Just kidding, really (please review the disclaimer at the top of my page)! But seriously, I have it bad. I’m talking, reading, dreaming, breathing Peace Corps! The other day, my friend Melanie and I acted out how close that invitation is. Imagine us searching through a ‘tunnel’ and then trying to ‘grasp’ that invitation that is just out of reach. Yeah, we’re embarrassing, we know. I also updated my resume again and sent it to placement. At this point they have three different updated resumes from me and will probably block me soon. Sorry that I’m such a competitive candidate.

Health Volunteer Questionnaire

It's funny to look at my timeline, and that on each date progress was made, I wondered how long it would be before I was contacted again. Well, only 9 days after the last email indicating that I wouldn't be contacted for several weeks, I received an email from the placement officer who did a preliminary review of my file! He asked me to complete this questionnaire for health volunteers within one week. Of course, I started working on the questionnaire immediately and submitted the same day. The questionnaire took me about two and a half hours to complete. Questions included what have I been doing to increase my language skills and work/volunteer experience, how have I learned about the challenges a volunteer may face, what are the top challenges I anticipate and how will I deal with them, what is my greatest concern, and several other questions about site placement. My file will now hopefully move on to the final review before invitation. I'm getting close!

We Have Contact...

About two weeks ago I emailed health placement because I believe it’s beneficial to ‘stay on top of the Peace Corps,’ meaning keeping contact every so often so that your application doesn’t remain stagnant. However, there is a fine line between sending friendly ‘don’t forget about me’ emails, and bothering them. The more time they have to spend answering ‘don’t forget about me’ calls and emails, the less time they have to issue invites, right?

 Anyway, I received an email from placement stating, “We should be contacting you in the next couple of months with the next steps in the placement process. The timeframe for when you may be leaving is probably January-March of next year at this point although that could change and we do ask for flexibility.” Next couple of months? I was really disappointed. I thought for sure they would be requesting an updated resume or questionnaire or another interview or something! I’ve heard of a few people receiving invitations for January/February already and I thought for sure I was close! It has been rumored that more invites for Jan/Feb will be issued in July/August so there is more waiting ahead of me. I’m hoping to hear something by the end of July at this point. Although I say that every month, “I’m hoping to hear by the end of this month…”

At the beginning of June, my parents and I attended a PC sendoff party. I thought this was very beneficial and informative for both me and my parents. I spoke to a RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer) who returned from Burkina Faso in January. She was a health extension volunteer and hearing about the projects she did was amazing! It was so neat because she was also a recent grad when she went abroad and her experience was so valuable to her future. The sendoff party made me antsier. At one point they had two invitations to hand out to unsuspecting nominees. My heart was pounding out of my chest as they called two names. Mine obviously was not called because here I am, still waiting. I have faith though that an invitation will come, and in the meantime I’ll try to keep busy.

My Personality Clash and an Update

I’m very much a type A personality and I’m always making lists and planning. I always reflect on my thoughts, dreams, and actions, and wonder if what I said/did was the right thing to say/do in that moment. I’m also adventurous. Perhaps this is more related to my current stage of life; however I have been this way since I was a kid. In addition, I strive to be more relaxed and go with the flow. So my type A personality clashes with my desire to have a type B personality which causes me all kinds of inner conflict with joining the Peace Corps. Don’t get me wrong, I am 100% committed to the Peace Corps and can’t imagine anything else I’d rather be doing. It is just so hard to plan! Since the Peace Corps has to send an invitation at least four months prior to departure, I only feel confident in planning things four months out. My mom got tickets for us to see Wicked in September, and I was worried for a day or so that I would get an invite and wouldn’t be able to use that ticket. Silly I know but these are the kinds of thoughts I have among others.

Some great news that I received last week was that I have been legally cleared! I turned in a questionnaire almost six weeks ago, emailed legal placement about 3 weeks ago, and received clearance about one week ago! My application has been moved to the health placement desk which was a pleasant surprise! My original nomination included no information about the region, sector, or date in which I was nominated. At the time I was contemplating whether I was ready for the Peace Corps and did not follow up with my recruiter about this. So then during the pre-medical review, I was told that files were reviewed based on nearest departure dates. I was worried that I didn’t have a relative departure date and that my application would fall through the cracks. I emailed placement my updated resume including my social work experience in a healthcare facility. They must have received the resume and moved me to the health desk because I didn’t have that experience one year ago when I submitted my application!

I was also trying to contact my recruiter about my nominated departure date. After playing phone tag for about a week and a half, she left a message stating that I was nominated for September 2013! Well, September spots are filled and it sounds like many people have already received invites for October so I’m now hoping to get an invite for January. I’m really hoping to get an invite to South Africa doing HIV/AIDS awareness and outreach. But as I’ve said before, I would be absolutely thrilled to serve anywhere in any sector in the place where my skills are best matched.

So that’s where I am now, waiting for contact from health placement. Due my excessive stalking of the future Peace Corps volunteer Facebook page, people tend to get invitations on Friday so I check my email even more than usual on that day. I’m going to a PC sendoff party tomorrow which I’m very excited for. I think it will be a wonderful opportunity for me as well as my parents to learn more about the Peace Corps.