Formal Invitation!

Hello everyone! Here are the details I know so far.

Staging: I will spend about three days in Washington, DC for orientation with the PC.

Training: From June-August I will live just outside of Antananarivo with a host family. I will go through language, skills, cultural, and health training during this time.

Volunteering: If I survive those three months, I will be sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer. I will then be assigned to some other location in the country. Once there, I will be teaching English to middle and high school-aged children. I will also take on a secondary project, which is yet to be determined.

I LEAVE JUNE 13th!

Medically Cleared!!

So, I am surprisingly medically cleared as of Friday, March 9th! Surprised that it took this short of time, not that I'm cleared. The only follow up I needed was a Polio Booster and a Tetanus Booster. I drove up to chippewa to get them from my doctor because no one in madison would give me them without a doctors visit first.

So the placement officer emailed me on Tuesday, which I thought was amazingly fast considering all of the waiting horror stories I've heard. He asked me about the french requirement I had to fulfill and I explained the whole non-credit course I was taking. He asked for a letter from my professor as proof. So I emailed her and am waiting to hear back from my placement officer, which probably won't be until next week considering its Friday.

Its weird that after only a day of being completely excited about being medically cleared, I am back to being frustrated about not knowing exactly when, where and if I'm leaving. I check my email every half-hour, which is probably certifiably obessive. I also always have my phone by me and am ready to get the mail when it comes. The worst part is that I am avoiding my friends and family.. in person and via phone... until I get an invitation because its annoying telling everyone that its all unknown. I don't care where I go or what I do there, I just want an invitation!! If I tell myself that I probably won't get an invitation until April, it helps to keep my mind off of it. So that is what I shall try to do......

It's official... I'm a nominee!

Today I was officially nominated as a peace corps volunteer! I am nominated for the English Teaching program in West Africa and I leave in June. I will find out all of the specific information after I pass all of the medical exams and get cleared legally. They said that a packet should come in about two weeks containing all of the forms that I have to get filled out by the doctor, dentist, and optomitrist. Then, once completed, I have to send them to the DC office and once they clear me they send my file to the person who is in charge of matching my skills with a specific country in the region and issuing me the formal invitation! At that point I will know my leave date, destination, and program details. That could be as far away as April! I am SO excited for all of this and can't wait to find out more details!!

Peace Corps.... The Process

I will do my best to chronicle the peace corps application process I've been going through. So I think that I went to my first PC info session a year ago. After graduating college in May, I got a job in the Madison school district as a substitute teacher, and working as a live-in nannny.

Anyways, I FINALLY finished my essays (with HUGE amounts of help from Kara Dahl, and also some from Luke Spielman). I turned in my application electronically on November 21st, 2006. I also had to fill out a health questionaire. I went up north for thanksgiving with a huge feeling of relief having finally submitted my application. On December 5th I received a phone call from the campus representative, Greg, wanting to schedule an in-person interview.

On December 6th I received my first packet of info from the PC. It included fingerprint sheets, a sheet for the NAC, info on the drug and alcohol policy, a sheet requiring info on my student loans, info on the secondary education english teaching program, and a checklist. On December 7th I had an hour long interview in Greg's office in Ag Hall. I felt that I did alright, considering the questions asked. I had a lot of past experiences to draw from with teaching, nannying, and tutoring all under my belt. I remember only being stumped on one question, which involved recalling a specific incident where I disagreed with someone and how I resolved it. My mind just went blank and I froze. I tried to make up for it by bs-ing about how its hard to tell without a specific one in mind, but in general I would open lines of communication, gain perspective from the other person, explain my beliefs, and in the end if we don't reach a concensus, agree to disagree. I also added something about having hope in things turning out ok in the end if I don't have control over things like systemic problems. So, he said he needed a specific incident and I couldn't think of one so he said he'd come back to it. The rest of the interview went smooth and I even had three or four questions to ask him. I was so relieved when it was over, especially having slept like an hour the night before. While waiting for my ride, my phone rang, and it was Greg saying he had forgot to follow up on the question. I actually laughed at first, at how ridiculous it was that I couldn't think of an incident. I spit out some answer. I don't like to disagree with people!!! I really wish I had thought of some personal experience I had had, but its too late to fix it now. So on Monday I have a phone interview with my regional recruiter, Erin, from the Minneapolis office. Its supposed to last 30 minutes, so we'll see.
Some of the questions they asked were:
~ Why do you want to join the Peace Corps?
~ What are your future career goals?
~ What geographical region do you want to serve in?
~ Give an example of a time where you were successful in a leadership role.
~ Give an example of of a time when you were frustrated and how did you deal with it.
~ How do you deal with stress? How will you deal with it abroad?
~ How do you feel about learning another language?
~ How willing are you to change your physical appearance?
~ How willing are you to lose some privacy?
~ Are you ok with not having running water or fetching your own water?
~ How will you deal with being the minority?
~ How comfortable are you with being secluded from other volunteers? (say five hours away)
~ What does your family, friends think of your decision to join?
~ What is the longest you have been away from your family at one time?
~ How do you feel about cultural norms of social consuming alcohol? Of cultures that don't allow alcohol?
~ How multicultural is your diet? Are you ok with eating the same thing over and over?
~ Give an example of a time when you worked in an unstructured environment.
~ Give a situation where you have disagreed with someone and how you resolved it.
~ How do you feel you will deal with changed gender equality norms?
~ How will your religion affect your experience abroad?
~ Is there anything that could prevent you from serving if offered a placement?
~ Are you a vegetarian? Are you romantically involved with anyone? Divorced? Married? Engaged?
~ Has someone close to you died in the past year, or have you suffered a relationship breakup in the past year?
~ Any financial or legal responsibilites that won't be resolved before leaving?
~ Any questions?I'm extremely excited and can't believe I'm finally at this stage. I hope with every fiber of my being that I get accepted. I can't wait to take on this challenge. I know that it will shape the rest of my life and the person I will become.