Updated Status!

"Peace Corps is currently reviewing your medical documentation"....keep your fingers crossed for me :)

And...6 months later...

Alright so apparently I suck at blogging. No really, I completely forgot that I was even keeping this blog until recently. Unfortunately not much has happened in the past 6 months with my PC process. Here is the quick run-down

August-Nomination received
September-Medical Packet received
October-Dental packet completed
November-Appt with Podiatrist, Family Physician, Eye Doctor ($310)
December-realized I forgot to get a polio vaccine with my medical work
-Polio vaccine ($70)
-mail completed packet to PC
January-Received letter from PC dental saying I need two fillings
-get 2 fillings ($140)
-send back packet again

Nomination!!!!!

Dear Ms. Wilke,

I am pleased to nominate you for the following Peace Corps assignment tentatively scheduled to depart in June of 2011:.....


And the winner (for the moment) is...Sub-Saharan Africa doing Health Extension. The additional details that I received from my recruiter is that the community specifically wants someone with Spanish language skills, experience working with community populations in crisis, sexual assault survivors/women's groups, and HIV/AIDS volunteer experience. I meet all of these criteria with the exception of the work with HIV/AIDS prevention.

I am pretty darn excited. I am trying not to get to fixed on what country this could be but based on the location, date of departure, and the Spanish language either PC is reopening a former location, opening a new one, or it is Cameroon...

Update in the form of Word Vomit...

I am playing the waiting game...which has surprisingly been ok. The bulk of my waiting since I had my face to face interview has coincided with some pretty major life events and so I have had very little time to dwell on Peace Corps.

After my interview 3 weeks ago the recruiter said that we still had a few questions we needed to go over that the 1 hour slot she had had for me in Minneapolis didn't allow us to get to. She said she would be in touch within a week to set up a follow up interview. I followed up with her instead at the two week mark after my interview and we have a phone interview set up for later this week. I am nervous but not for any of the reasons I thought I would be.

To be perfectly honest, I do not remember any of my first interview. I can't remember what questions were asked, what I asked my recruiter, what we still had left to go over, how it went etc. This makes me nervous because I feel like it will be impossible to simply pick up and keep going naturally. Instead I am likely to repeat myself...ask questions I have already asked, etc. which I feel is bad form in an interview.

I do however, feel like I have yet again evaluated my desire for Peace Corps and have a more concrete understanding of how I would react if one of those unlikely "what if" situations came up in real life. For example what if someone you loved passed away during service...what if someone you love ends up in the hospital...what if someone you love really needs you.

The day before my face to face interview my surrogate mother, closest friend, and mentor (not to mention personal reference for the Peace Corps) was in a major car accident along with her children who I took care of for 10 years. The kids are ok but my friend suffered a traumatic brain injury on top of numerous broken bones and injuries. The past 3 weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions as we simply play a game of wait and see...wait and see if she will wake up...wait and see if she will recognize us when she does...wait and see if she can talk...wait and see if the person we all know and love is still in there...

Its a roller coaster of trying to maintain hope, moments of realism, and mourning the loss of someone who is still in fact alive. Needless to say Peace Corps has dropped on my list of metal priorities at the moment...yet at the same time it has made me really think about what if this had happened a year from now as I would potentially be starting service.

I still feel the same way that I felt a month ago that I should not rule out Peace Corps just because something could happen...however, I also recognize now that something really could. Or that my friend and her family may still need my support a year from now.

These are all things I am carrying with me as I prep for my phone interview and I don't even really know how to fully process them or begin to be able to articulate the fact that I am still very interested in, excited about, and committed to the Peace Corps process...when that may not be the tone that comes across because I can not help but think about my friend when I think about Peace Corps. Its a byproduct of knowing that she is the person who knows the most about my desire to join Peace Corps and knowing that the reference letter she wrote is one of the last things she did prior to her accident.

And that is my word vomit update for the day...

Interview

I have been invited to do a face to face interview when my recruiter is in my area of the Midwest in 2 weeks. Anyone have any advice?

Fingerprinting...

This was much easier than I was expecting. The hardest part was finding the cheapest place to do it at. If you are in the town of a PC regional office they will do it for free...unfortunately I am not. The first place I checked out was the Minneapolis Police Dept. However, they charge $15 per card and since we have 2 cards I felt that was a bit ridiculous. After some searching, my word of advice to anyone at this stage and in a similar predicament would be to check out if a large university near you has a police or security station. The University of Minnesota Police Department charged half of what the city police department would have.

Next step mailing everything back and hopefully being invited for an interview. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Some Light (?) Reading.

My mother firmly believes in doing your research. She also believes that in order to do your research you have to find sources that agree with your point of view (Peace Corps is a valuable resource and though difficult is worth it) and ones that disagree with your point of view. In order to follow through on this I went on a bit of an amazon shopping spree and bought several books, the first of which arrived today.

I ordered and received "Nine Hills to Nambonkaha", "Peace Corps: The toughest job they will ever mismanage", "Peace Corps: What to know before you go", and "To touch the world: The peace corps experience." I will keep everyone posted on whether or not I find these to be a valuable resource or not.

Does anyone have any other suggestions of books that would be good or interesting to read?

A