The Next Step

First of all I want to thank everyone for the pouring out of support I've experienced for what I'm doing. I'm sorry that I was not able to write everyone back individually, but please keep commenting. It is nice to know that people are out there and that they care about what I'm doing. If there are any questions I will do my best to address them either by comment or within the next post.

Also, I'm trying to add features, like an easy way to subscribe to my blog and a map of where I'll be (when I find out), but any other suggestions on features you would like to see and/or how to implement them would be great. Thanks in advance.

On with the boring stuff, I won't be wrestling any lions in this post (as exciting a story that would make I hope I don't ever have to tell it) so strap in and enjoy the details.

Now that my paperwork and interview are completed I could move on to the next step and last night around 5:30 that happened. My recruiter called to tell me that I had been nominated for a position in French speaking Sub-Saharan Africa doing community development. I am very excited. Now, let me explain the process to this point.

First, was the application and Health Status Review. The first is quite lengthy (resume, references, a couple of essays, and lots and lots of questions). The Health Status Review which is a short questionnaire where I provided information about my medical history... pretty self explanatory. Once these are both processed at the regional office they send a new packet which includes job specific skill addenda (I received 4: information technology, youth development, community development, and education), a National Agency Check Questionnaire (permission to do a background check), and two fingerprint charts. I also had to include a copy of my college transcript.

At this point I was ready for my interview, which you can read about here. After the interview I waited for my nomination, luckily I didn't have to wait too long. As stated earlier I received my nomination last night. Now, I get to wait even more for my packet from the Office of Medical Services (OMS). The packet will have medical, dental, and eye exams. After I get these returned I'll find out if I am medically qualified and last time I checked, I was fit as a fiddle. While I'm working on this a legal check will be done as well, no fear here either. After this I'll get an invitation at least 6-8 weeks before I leave. So, I hope that all of this goes smoothly.

If you have any more questions about the process or the Peace Corps in general, check out the Peace Corps website. The site is chock full of information for friends/family, teachers/students, and fun for kids. I know this post hasn't been fun, but I hope it has been helpful. See y'all later.

The Importance of Patience

Yesterday I had my interview with the Atlanta regional office of the Peace Corps. Just as I had suspected, the closer I got the more nervous I became. In part this was because I left for the five mile drive nearly two hours early and walked into the building about ten minutes late. I had prepared to get there in plenty of time to make sure I knew where I was going and to sit for a while so I could clear my head and get some of my responses ready. This obviously did not happen.

Throughout the application process my recruiter and others who were further along in the process have told me that "patience is the key". While I was sitting and waiting for the other vehicles to remove themselves from the logjam we were in I began to wonder if those who had talked to me about patience knew I would be stuck in this annoying traffic situation. I was on the verge of being insulted because none of them dropped even the slightest clue about this. I must have been delusional because of my utter disbelief about measuring my progress by inches, feet, and car lengths rather than blocks, streets, and miles. I began laughing as I came to my senses and realized that no practical joke had been pulled on me.

When I got there after the metal detector, inspection, and profuse apologizing I went in for my interview. We went over my application and I was asked several more questions. I felt like it all went smoothly except for a missing piece of paperwork. The whole interview lasted about half as long as my trip to the office had (unless you count the trip to Atlanta into my travel time). As soon as that last bit of paperwork gets processed I can be nominated (which will hopefully happen by the end of the month, keep your fingers crossed for me).

At this point I am fairly certain of a few things:
1)I will be leaving in what the Peace Corps call Q3 (April, May, June).
2)My primary task will be youth development.
3)I'll be going to Sub-Saharan Africa.

I am stoked about all three of these things. I know that the time span I might leave is pretty lengthy, it is the duration of almost an entire season. I could just say that I'll be leaving during the spring of 2007.

For those of you who are not all that familiar with the geography of Africa I'll do my best to explain Sub-Saharan Africa. If Africa were a three-scoop ice cream cone (and, it's not) everything below the top scoop would be Sub-Saharan Africa. It encompasses the majority of the continent of Africa. This means that I will probably be learning French along with a few native languages (all of which I am very excited about).

Interview

I have now completed the application and medical survey necessary to go forward with what is becoming a far more lengthy application process than first expected. On Thursday, January 25th at 11:00 am (Eastern) I have an in-person interview with my recruiter, who is a lovely woman to talk with. The one time I met her she was very polite and enthusiastic, so I look forward to being interviewed by her. At this point I am very excited about my interview, but I'm sure that my nerves will creep up as the time ticks down. Wish me luck and I'll update after my interview.