The Wait is Almost Over!

So... I received a phone call from the Peace Corps Placement Office yesterday. They asked me a few questions like: Why did I apply to the Peace Corps? What have I been doing to prepare for my service? And then some other questions based off of my answers. She was really nice and pleasant and I was so excited when she called. To my understanding... that was sort of the final step before placement. And I was RIGHT!!!!

This morning I woke up, I started my computer, checked my email, and there it was.... "The Peace Corps has updated your Application Status account." WAHOO!!!! 

I HAVE AN INVITATION IN THE MAIL!!!!

In the next few days I will know where I am going and when I am leaving! FINALLY :) All of the setbacks and letdowns were so worth it. It's such a good feeling to know that I will be leaving soon and that they have placed me in a program. The trick is to just hold on a few more days until my invitation arrives in the mail. I PROMISE to update you all as soon as I know!

Learning to keep expectations low...

So, I just emailed my Placement Officer (PO) today and it looks as if I am not leaving in January as planned due to "programmatic requests." It was hard enough waiting for an invitation to leave in January... but it's really hard now not knowing anything! I don't even know if I will still be going to Africa. Everything is up in the air. However, I was told that I will probably be placed in a new program that leaves in February or March.

This whole process is so much more frustrating than I ever expected. I'm learning never to get my hopes up too high because the Peace Corps changes things all the time. I guess I should have seen this coming. I have been beaten over the head with the saying "nominations are not final so do not make any plans to go overseas until you receive an invitation." I've spent a good part of the day reading other Peace Corps blogs and the only glimmer of hope that I have right now is the fact that many other volunteers have been through this exact same situation. Many applicants have missed their nomination and were nominated for a later program. However, although initially disappointed, they seemed happier with their invitation. Additionally, there seems to be a quick turn-over time between missing your first nomination and getting a second one. That being said... I am keeping my expectations low.


I guess the other thing that is making me feel a bit better is the staging dates/countries posted on www.peacecorpswiki.com. The only country with a staging date in Africa in January is South Africa. Although I would be happy to be placed in any country in Africa, South Africa isn't at the top of my list. In February, there are 5 African countries with staging dates (Uganda, Namibia, Zambia, Rwanda, and Malawi) and in March there are 2 (Madagascar and Senegal). I guess it is a good thing in the long run that I'm not leaving in January. It's just a disappointment because ever since I received my nomination in February, I have been looking forward to this time when I would get my invitation. And now that it's that time... I have to wait longer... it's just hard. It's really true that in the Peace Corps the highs are really high and the lows are LOW. But that's just the nature of the Peace Corps. And I know that I am able to deal with it, but it's just disappointing... and it should be and I'm allowed to be. 

I read a blog entry today from a current volunteer about everything being ok. It's ok for me to be anxious, obsessed, frustrated, etc. All of these feelings are normal. And it's ok for me to feel this way. I guess my biggest worry is actually getting into a program. There are 9 national offices for the Peace Corps and all of them have PO's trying to get their applicants into the same programs. It's very competitive. And I'm scared that I won't get into one anytime soon. It's all very stressful. I just have to keep my head up and keep thinking positive. All things happen for a reason. It will all work out in the end... I hope.

Still No News...

So I have been trying to be very patient while waiting for my placement/invitation to the Peace Corps. However, I am learning that waiting is so hard to do sometimes. Below is an outline of just how long I have been waiting:

Late September 2008: Sent in initial application
Early January 2009: Had my interview at Penn State on the way back to school
February 2nd 2009: Was nominated for a Healthcare Program working with HIV/AIDS in Africa scheduled to leave in January 2010. ***Note*** I had my choice between a nomination in Healthcare that was scheduled to leave in July but I wouldn't have been guaranteed to serve in Africa or the nomination that I ultimately received that would leave later but I would be nominated for Africa. This explains the enormous amount of time (almost a year) between when I received my nomination and when I was scheduled to leave. From what I have read, this amount of time isn't typical.
February 5th 2009: Peace Corps sent out my medical packet. I received it a few days later. 
April 27th 2009: Peace Corps received my completed initial medical packet.
May 2009: Received a follow-up medical packet from Peace Corps. 
Late July 2009: Sent Peace Corps my additional medical information. 
Late August 2009: Sent Peace Corps and updated resume and official final transcript from Susquehanna University per their request. At this time I was informed that these were the last two pieces of information that they needed before placement. 
September 2009: Waiting...
October 2009: And more waiting...
November 2009: You guessed it... WAITING!!!

December 2009: Waiting for placement (shocking!!!). The Peace Corps will notify me at least 6 weeks in advance of my departure date. So last week I whipped out my calculator and figured out that if I leave on the last day of January, I must be notified by December 20th. That's 4 days away!!!!

So I have been slightly Peace Corps obsessed lately since I am bursting with anticipation on discovering my placement. I have been looking at packing lists mostly that are available online. Oh, my new favorite website... www.peacecorpswiki.org! Has so much useful information and has answered most of my questions. AND it has packing lists for each country! I know that I will get an official packing list when I receive my invitation, but I can't help but think that it's never to early too start packing :) I feel as though I have a slight advantage on the packing issue since I have been to Africa before. I know what I used a lot of, and what I never touched and had even forget that I brought. So below is a packing list for Malawi (my preferred country... I'll get into that a little later). Things in black I already have, things in blue I need to buy or have asked for as Christmas presents, things in pink I don't intend on bringing with me because I know I won't use it, and my general comments are in green. This particular packing list is adapted from peacecorpswiki.org and the original can be found at http://www.peacecorpswiki.org/Packing_list_for_Malawi#Miscellaneous_But_Important_Items_For_Serious_Consideration.21

General Clothing

• Lightweight, all-weather jacket
• Hooded sweatshirt or fleece

• Sleeveless dresses and shirts
• Swimsuit (one piece)
• Bandannas or handkerchiefs
• Sun hat (baseball cap)
• Good-quality raincoat
• Small umbrella - This just gets in the way. A raincoat is perfectly fine!
• Durable, easy-to-wash pants
• Shorts and other clothes like drawstring pajama pants for lounging around (doctor’s scrubs are ideal)
• Women can and do wear trousers for traveling and in the cities
• Teachers need lightweight dresses/skirts that go below the knee (no slits above the knee, and not tight-fitting)
• Cotton slips (waist to knee and waist to ankle)
• Very durable, practical clothes (not nice, dressy clothes)
• Some nicer clothes for in town (dancing, restaurants)
• Lots of underwear, bras, socks
• Heavy-duty sports bra
• Belt
• Money belt
• shorts (longer, knee-length shorts for women) for biking
• Sturdy work gloves (if you garden)- I never garden... so prob not gonna pack these.

For anyone that knows me, I have tons of clothes! So I'm pretty sure this department along with the shoe department are going to be the easiest to pack.

Shoes

Durable shoes are an essential investment

• Teva or Chaco sandals - I have Teva's... very comfy and practical.
  
• Sneakers and/or hiking boots (Boots are handy for rainy season)
• Shoes (close-toed and good to stand in all day; for anyone who teaches)
• Flip-flops
• Dress shoes

Personal Hygiene and Toiletry Items

• Favorite brand of tampon
• Face/hand/body lotion- Nothing that smells to sweet though... it will attract the bugs!
  
• Deodorant
• Shampoo
• A few toothbrushes
• Toothpaste
• Hand sanitizer
• Multivitamins
• Short supply of razors and blades
• Two pair eyeglasses if needed
• Hair-cutting scissors
• Tweezers
• Lip balm

Ok, so I am seriously lacking in this department. But it's just too early to buy these things. 

Kitchen

• A sharp kitchen knife
• Rubber spatula
• French press
• Kitchen towels
• Send foodstuff to yourself before leaving: specialty/herbal teas; Kraft Mac & Cheese powder; Cliff,Lunaor other energy bars.

Again, just too early to buy these things. 

Miscellaneous But Important Items For Serious Consideration!

• Sturdy water bottle (e.g., Nalgene)
• Lightweight, travel, waterproof tent w/ground cloth (Looking at the REI Bug Hut Pro 2. Comes highly recommended from other PCV's)
  
• Leatherman/Swiss Army knife
• Compact sleeping bag for cold weather
• Laptop
• Bungee cords or backpack straps
• Fitted and flat twin sheets, or double if you need
• Flashlight or headlamp with extra bulbs
• Shortwave radio
• Solar-powered rechargeable batteries with recharger
• Duct tape
• Scissors
• Headlamp (very popular among PCVS!) and/or wind-up flash light
• Converter and adaptors (220V here. Small multi converters/adapters work well.)
• Good dictionary
• U.S. stamps (so you can send letters home with travelers)
• Flash drive!!
• Camera 
• Field guide for flora and fauna of sub-Saharan Africa
• Seeds for herbs and vegetables
• Battery-powered alarm clock
• A couple of thirsty towels
• English dictionary, Thesaurus
• Sunglasses
• Some zip-lock baggies
• Watch - think cheap
• Jewelry - like the watch
• Personal money (you can keep it in the safe at the Peace Corps office)
• Games (Scrabble, cards, chess, Frisbee, etc.)
• iPod, mp3 player, Zune. Recordable audio function is great for capturing sounds of village life. Please note that erratic energy, heat, humidity, sand and dust will do a number on all electronic devices (computers, iPods and cameras).
• Musical instrument (harmonica, guitar, etc.)
• A few novels (to swap after reading)
• Hobby materials like sketching pads and pencils
• Day pack
• Luggage (should be tough, lightweight, lockable, and easy to carry)
• Hiking backpack
• Sharpies
• Crayons, markers, colored paper, colored pencils and cheap paint sets
• Children’s books
• GRE prep materials
• Unbreakable French Press
• Misc pictures from home and calendar showing scenes of the US 
• Small non-stick frying pan
  

So, as you can see, there is a lot to pack and a lot to think about!!! I hope that once I am finally all packed, that my luggage is under the weight limit for the airlines. 

As I mentioned above, I would love to go to Malawi! This is my first choice because my church has a partnership there and I think it would be really awesome to be in the same country. 

Alright, so that's all of the updates I have for you right now. I hope that soon I will be able to tell you where I have been placed and when I will be leaving! Hopefully within the next 4 days!

The Waiting Game

So, as many of you know, last September I submitted my initial application for the Peace Corps. The decision came after I spent a semester abroad in Equatorial Guinea (the only Spanish speaking country in Africa). After spending two weeks in the forest conducting monkey census, three weeks on top of a mountain doing research on galagos (the smallest primates in the world), and seven weeks attending Universidad Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial (the National University of Equatorial Guinea) and volunteering in a medical clinic, I knew I wanted to go back. The Peace Corps is a perfect fit for me. I will be working in the healthcare field helping those who are infected with HIV & Aids.

I wanted to include a few photos of my time in EG before I get into the whole Peace Corps thing. The first is of Clinica Esperanza (the clinic where I volunteered for seven weeks).

This is what the clinic looked like when you walked in the front door. To the immediate right was the check-in desk. The desk in the far right corner was the nurses desk, and to the left of that was an exam table. If you were to walk past the curtain in the middle of the picture and turn to the left, you would enter the lab. If you were to make a right past the curtain, you would enter a waiting area/immunization area.

This is a picture of the only bed we had in the clinic. It also doubled as Dr. King's office. You can barely see his desk in the bottom left corner. This is where we would treat our malaria patients and do patient exams. For being in the capital city of Malabo, this was a great clinic. It had the basic necessities and the capability of performing many tests, even though most came in a box. The doctors were great and helped me learn a lot about tropical diseases.

This is UNGE (Universidad Nacional de Guinea Ecuatorial) where I spent 7 weeks studying. I took four classes while I was abroad but only three were taught here: Society and the Environment, Natural Resource Economics, and West African History and Culture. The last course, Field Research in Tropical Ecology, was taught in the village of Moka. There we conducted our own research and were taught by Dr. Tom Butynski.

This is a picture of the girls and I at a place called Lago Biao (also known as Crater Lake). It is a few hour hikes from Moka and it is a sacred place to Equatoguineans. It was so beautiful! We hiked all the way down the hill to the lake and the boys even swam in it.

This is a picture of my living accommodations for a month and a half. We slept in tents, bathed out of buckets or a lagoon, and did our wash in a freshwater stream. This picture happened to be taken on the Annual Caldera Expedition where we conducted monkey census for two weeks. We did a lot of hiking over those two weeks.

This was my main hike group. We were together over a two day hike. First we left in the afternoon and went on a three hour hike to Camp Peter. There we set up the tents and had dinner. The next day we got up really early and hiked all day long (at least 8 hours) up to Camp Hormiga. Camp Hormiga is at the top of the caldera and there are different population levels of monkey species up there than at the beach. I should mention that there are seven species of monkeys and all have dangerously low population levels. In addition, these species of monkey are endemic to the island, meaning that you can't find these specific subspecies anywhere else in the world! In the EG culture, eating monkey meat was considered normal. It is referred to as bushmeat. But with the extremely low population levels of monkey species, the president outlawed the killing of monkeys for consumption in October of 2007. Of course, a black market popped up for bushmeat, but the population levels have began to rise (thankfully).

Well now that you saw a small bit of what I experienced in EG, maybe you can understand my motivation for applying to the Peace Corps. I expected an in depth application, an interview, and a medical check-up... but what I didn't anticipate was the time it would take to finally be placed and leave! It's been over a year since I sent in my application (which was an ordeal by itself) and I still haven't received my placement even though I am scheduled to leave in January.

The basic outline for the application process seems pretty simple. First you submit an application online, then an interview, followed by a nomination. A nomination is meant to just give you an idea of where you will be going, when you will be leaving, and what you will be doing. It is always subject to change though. You are then sent a medical packet that is comprised of a physical exam, an eye exam, and an extremely thorough dental exam. If you are then medically cleared, you must then by financially and legally cleared as well. If all of that goes well, then you receive your invitation which includes you placement information. This is the step that I am at now, waiting for my invitation.

The application itself was about 15 pages long and included 2 essays and at least 3 references. Much thanks to Dr. Richard, Veronica Irvine, and Drew Cronin for taking the time to fill out the reference forms! The Peace Corps wanted to know everything about me and my family: parents schooling and occupations, my schooling, volunteer experience, etc. So... after that was completed, next was the interview.

The interview wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be. My recruiter was located in Penn State so I stopped by for my interview on the way back to school from spring break. I felt confident after the interview and a month or so after it, I was nominated for a healthcare program in Africa that would leave in January of 2010. I had made it very clear in my interview that I only wanted to go to Africa and work in the healthcare field. By doing this, I can gain patient care hours for Physician's Assistant school applications (which I plan on attending after my return from the Peace Corps).

When the medical packet came, I was not expecting the time it would take to complete it. It had an in depth physical with my PCP (which included several blood tests, a detailed history, and a record of all of my immunizations), an eye appointment and a dental check-up that felt like it would never end. The one good thing is that the Peace Corps provides some money to help pay for your appointments. I was able to use the money for my copay's.

After I sent in my medical packet, I got a follow-up medical packet and had to go back to the doctors office for additional tests. The entire medical packet took about 4 months to complete.

Just a few months ago, I was contacted by a new recruiter who was passed on my application, asking for an updated resume and final transcript. I guess they wanted to make sure that I actually graduated and wanted to see if I had continued to volunteer throughout my senior year at school. Since then, I haven't heard anything. I have been waiting such a long time to hear when I am leaving and what country I am going to. Last Thursday I called the Peace Corps and they told me that my recruiter has just started to place her candidates so I should be hearing soon. As soon as I know I will post it here. Until then, all I can do it wait.