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.