Peace Corps Timeline - July 2009

July 6th - Application submitted

July 10th - Received an email from my recruiter in Atlanta telling me that my application had been received and that my fingerprint cards and background check forms were on the way. Also included some additional financial forms, educational skill addendum, and 2 possible assignment descriptions (Secondary Education, Community Development).
Called my recruiter to discuss an interview.

July 20th - Submitted all things that could be emailed (addendum, transcript, financial mess).

July 21st - Scheduled phone interview for July 27th at 11am.

July 22nd - Sent fingerprint cards ($10 complete at the sheriff's office) and background check form to the regional office in Atlanta.

July 27th - Had my phone interview with my recruiter. We talked for almost an hour and a half (mostly because I do like to tell my stories, haha) and she told me that she felt that I was qualified to be more than a teacher. She told me that she was pleased to nominate me as a Teacher Trainer for a program leaving in June 2010 for Mongolia.

MONGOLIA!!?!?!?!

Not a country that had even been in the same galaxy when it came to my mental list of possibilities. Also, I didn't expect to hear an actual country until (if?) I got my invitation letter in the months down the road. Ohhhhh, mon dieu. Mongolia? I'm a bit apprehensive and a little bit inclined toward disappointment (so long, African horizons) but my recruiter said that there is a 45% chance that my nomination will change/that my invitation will not stay the same. Okay. I wish she would have just told me that I was going to be nominated and left the bombshell of specifics until they were more of a guarantee. From what I can tell, this degree of info is not common at all. Mongolia.

July 29th - Fingerprint forms and background check form received by the regional office.

July 30th, 5:15am - Got an email from the Peace Corps telling me that my application status had been updated. Went online to my toolkit and I am now officially a Peace Corps Nominee. There isn't any interesting info in my toolkit yet (no mention of countries, regions, placements, or timelines) so I guess we'll see what's in my nomination packet/medical toolkit, which should be coming in the mail over the next few days.

July 31st - Toolkit updated again. My medical kit was mailed yesterday.

So, the next step on the road is medical/dental clearance. Should be an interesting experiment in what the system is like for people who do not have health insurance (c'mon, Senate, get it together. The Reps are doing great things, where are you!?!). I have been reading and I can apparently try and get appointments through VA hospitals/clinics and they will do everything free of charge to me...but I have to find a hospital/clinic that is willing to serve PC Applicants. Otherwise, the PC will reimburse me up to like, $300 or something. The specifics are in my toolkit but I don't have it open. Bleh. Needles and needles and more needles...expensive needles, at that. This is the part that I am dreading.

Current status : Waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

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And so it begins.

I couldn't decide what I wanted to do.

The Peace Corps is one of those things that I always knew I was going to go. It's the same as it was with the move to France...not a question of will I or won't I but merely when. I found out about the Peace Corps in elementary school and sort of internalized it. There have always been blocks and stepping stones up to this point, though. Graduate from high school (with flying colours, if possible), get accepted to college, study abroad, graduate from college (with flying colours, if possible), gain some sort of relevant experience, make it through the American citizenship process. With a diploma, a year abroad in a foreign language, two degrees, two years of hard-earned and unparalleled experience, and a naturalization certificate under my belt, I am completely out of excuses.

I toyed with the idea of moving to Asia to teach ESL but knew the experience of working with well-off kids in private English schools was not the mark I was looking to make. Working with refugees has changed me forever and I find myself with a mindset, a skill set, and a history of qualifications and experience that just don't really allow for me to go off to Asia to be a T.A. or a conversation teacher. I turned down a really great job offer in Thailand, a country that has been calling me for years and years. If it had been a position in a refugee camp, I would have been there in a second (or 18 hours, give or take).

I toyed with the idea of applying to the EFL assistant program in France. La France me manque toujours. It was my first chosen home and I miss just about everything, just about daily. I miss the way I feel there and I definitely miss the music of the language. Moving back to France would be an entirely selfish endeavour at this point in my life and I couldn't justify it. Not yet, in any case. There are too many other things that I need to do and languages I need to learn.

So, the Peace Corps. I may never have the opportunity again and I found myself constantly asking, "Why not?"

I submitted my application on July 6th and got my first email from my recruiter on the 10th. The email included a pile of instructions and more forms to augment the already extensive application. It also included the possible assignment areas of Secondary Education or Community Development. These are exactly the areas that I was hoping for and exactly the areas that no other organization could offer to me (keeping in mind it's difficult to navigate the web of NGO's and non-profits when one has little access to the network).

I received fingerprint cards in the mail and went down to the sherriff's office downtown to get fingerprinted (which is really very cool). I mailed those and the background check form on Wednesday (July 23rd). I've completed all the other paperwork that my recruiter has sent and now I'm down to nothing but my interview, which is scheduled for Monday (July 27th) at 11am. My recruiter (who, might I add, is wonderful) has told me that I could get a nomination as soon as August 3rd.

The timeline of a year, give or take, until departure somehow seems very, very short.

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