Peace Out Medical Guy

So I received a reply on the email I sent to my Medical Contact about what I should be expecting now that I have mailed off all of my medical forms. Below is the response:

Please note that it can take anywhere from 10-20 days for the kit to be entered into your medical record.  Mail is screened at an off-site security facility (as is all government mail) and takes a little while to actually get here.

Your next step is to simply allow us time to review your kit.  Expect an update in 4-6 weeks.

Pre-Service Unit

Greg no longer works for Pre-Service.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Translation: 

You are going to wait, and then when you are done with that you are going to wait some more. Don't get your panties in a bunch, we will be taking our sweet time since we only have a bazillion other applications that came in before yours.

Pre-Service Unit

p.s. your buddy don't work here no mo'

What the heck?!?! Greg the Peace Corps guy peaced out on me? :( He was so helpful and comforting in his emails, and I swear the only person I have spoken to within the organization, other than the campus reps, that has treated me like a person (as can be seen from the automaton nature of this email.) Don't get me wrong, I know that Peace Corps is huge, and I didn't really expect anything different, and they have always been professional, but it was nice to have a person to talk to who was willing to explain things to me on the level of a two year old...which is what I need. 

So farewell Greg the Medical Dude!!  I wish you big and wonderful things in your life ahead and hope you in a happier place. :)

~Claire

Really Done!/ A Peace Corps Birthday

All of the paper work has gone off to the office in DC!!! The office should be receiving everything on Tuesday, and I have already written to my medical contact officer to check and see what I should be doing at this point other than waiting. Hoping to hear back from him today, and I will post whatever he sends. I guess I just wait now. I have read that only 15% of people get through their medical clearance on the first go around, but I am hoping since I requested the extra paper work before I sent anything in, and because I sent in annoying amounts of records, that maybe I won't have to fill anything else out. Fingers crossed the next thing I get in the mail should be my invitation.

On a more birthday note, I turned 22! The day was very much relaxed since I had just traveled back from Philly where the Dad Vail Regatta is held every year with the MSU Rowing team. On Monday night I went back to Ann Arbor after work to spend some time with my family and they woke me up on Tuesday in traditional Swedish birthday style. The Swedes like to wake people up super early with cake and gifts in bed, and our family has been doing this since I was little, so it was really nice to come home and have that moment with them.

Pretty much everything on my birthday list was very "Peace Corpsy" so I received: a leatherman handy tool, full swiss army knife, eye glass repair kit, two books and a short wave radio. I also got a really beautiful necklace from my Mom that has a compass rose charm and then small beads in the birth stone colors of each of my family members. She gave one to my sister as well, and said it was to help guide us home when we were far away (my sister is going to college in a different state next year.)

I may have become a bit weepy...a little bit. I'm going to miss my family so much, and I think the only way I'm going to over come that is knowing that their love for me isn't confined to our house, and in fact can stretch over oceans. I love my family more than anything, and I am so blessed to have each one of them.

Love,
Claire

DONE!

Okay, sending everything in tomorrow, since at this point I am only waiting on the last doctor to return her paperwork. I think I am going to over night it, I know it won't make much of a difference, but it would make my mind feel better. :)
~Claire

So close...

Polio shot was taken care of yesterday and I received my blood work and dental xrays in the mail (via Dad) as well. Only thing left to do is fax these sheets to my foot and ankle guy and my family practitioner and I should be good to go!

Oh yeah...there is also that whole "graduate on Saturday" thing...woot!

~Claire

Medical

Freaking out a little bit: other than this being my last day in undergrad, which in and of itself is freaky, this is also the day when I am coming to the conclusion that I am not leaving in the fall. After reading through a million PC blogs, I see that there is NO WAY, even if I turn in my medical stuff tomorrow, that they will clear me before the fall. Everyone keeps saying it takes 11 weeks or so, and that is too much time I think. I don't know why my med contact said I was on track, since it certainly doesn't seem that way. :(

Polio

I keep thinking "this will be the week I finally get done with all my medical paper work" and it keeps not being true! But I am getting very close. I have the fax number to send the extra forms to my doc to sign, and then I also have my polio booster scheduled which is the last shot like thing I need before sending stuff in. The xrays are in the mail, on the way to my house and I also have the fax number for my foot dude. Closer and closer we are getting!

On a side note: just submitted my blog to a data base specifically for peace corps so in case you want to stroll around some other blogs (I have no idea why you would though ;) Here is the link: http://peacecorpsjournals.com/?Home

Much love to all,
Claire

On Time!!!

I have been freaking out really badly about how long it has taken me to get all of my medical clearance paperwork in. At every turn you will hear from PC that everything must be done ASAP if you want to stay on track with your nomination. Due to my abnormal tests I just assumed that I had completely botched for a fall departure date and that there was no way I was still on time for everything, which would mean a new nomination with possible new placement and new job.


With this in mind I sent an email to my medical contact person and asked him about it. I got the response a few minutes ago:

Hi Claire –

You are actually in fine shape.  Your timing is not an issue.  I would say if it is not going to be too much longer to wait and send in all your material at one time.  Once it is received here, it is often a number of weeks before files are reviewed by a screening nurse.   But you are far from needing to be concerned about missing any deadlines.

Cheers.

~ Greg ~

I could not be happier!! I'm going in for my TB test in about an hour, and then I'm getting blood pathology in the morning. Calling the dental office to have them mail my perio x-rays to my house, and faxing the forms to the foot doctor. When all is said and done I am hoping to have everything by Friday of this week or Monday at the latest. 

Wish me speed and luck,

Claire

Peace Corps Placement

So I haven't yet figured out where I am going, I'm sending my medical stuff in this week, but I think I have narrowed it down to a few possibilities. Here is the "equation" so to speak, for anyone out there who might want to try and get a jump on figuring out where they are going (which is pretty much everyone from what I understand.)


Using peacecorpswiki.org I was able to find a list of stagging dates that have already been sent out to people that are getting invitations because they started the application earlier/ are done with their medical. Here is the list of known stagging dates currently reported on peacecorpswiki:

August 1 = Zambia
August 3 = Uganda
August 8 = Guatemala
August 16 = Panama
August 17 = Dominican Republic
August 17 = Kazakhstan
August 29 = Senegal
August 29 = Mexico
August 30 = Nicaragua

September 6 = Morocco
September 9 = Macedonia
September 12 = Rwanda
September 15 = Cameroon
September 15 = Botswana
September 15 = Peru
September 15 = Togo
September 21 = Ukraine
September 22 = Azerbaijan
September 25 = Turkmenistan

SO, if you take out the ones that are not in Africa you are left with:


August 1 = Zambia
August 3 = Uganda
August 29 = Senegal
September 12 = Rwanda
September 15 = Cameroon
September 15 = Botswana
September 15 = Togo

I also know that I will not be sent to West Africa because I don't speak a lick of French which leaves us with:

August 1 = Zambia
August 3 = Uganda
September 12 = Rwanda
September 15 = Botswana

NOW, you cross reference this with the placement calculator that is also on the Peace Corps wiki site, which lets you know how many volunteers and in what positions they are in each country. By doing this I am able to figure out the likelihood of me being sent to any of the four option above. 

World Region: Africa         Job Sector: Health Extension

	Country	Number of vols	Percentage
	Zambia	38	46
	Uganda	18	22
	Botswana	14	17
	Rwanda	12	15
	TOTAL	82	100

So essentially this lists the greatest chance I have in getting into each country, since there are more volunteers in certain places than in others. The other piece of information that feeds into this is that the campus recruiter I spoke with said that since Rwanda was just re-opened and since there is still some "issues" there, they aren't sending people without experience, and most volunteers who are serving there are on their second tour of duty. 

Top three countries: Zambia, Uganda, and Botswana!!!

Also on a side note, the internship I am currently working at is based in Uganda and most of the people in the office are from Uganda, which would make me feel a lot better about going there for two years since I would know people in country if anything went really wrong. I'm becoming more and more excited about this whole thing, and can't wait to get my paperwork into the office and try and figure out where I am actually going!  

Back to work,

Claire

Doctor's Visit

Received a call from the doctor's office and was given the all clear health wise! Apparently I have a little bit of something going on but due to my age and the fact that I don't smoke, it should clear up on its own and the OB was even willing to talk to my family doctor and let her know that she would recommend me to go. So this means I am back on track and need to start with doing all my paper work again, which I am going to be tackling this week/ next week.

I'm really, really hoping that this hasn't completely put me off track for a fall departure but life will go on even if I have to wait until December. I don't know how much of a hang up this is going to cause with my country selection, though again, as much as I would love to go to Africa, there are other places I would be just as happy ending up.

I think that this is a big thing one must consider when looking into whether the Peace Corps is right for you or not, how flexible are you willing to be? A good friend of mine was looking in PC around the same time that I was and had somehow gotten it into his head (possibly through another person that had spoken to him about PC) that he, not only wanted to go to Romania, but that it was a perfectly reasonable request to say that the only place he was willing to go was Romania. Let me put this out there, and feel free to comment if you have heard otherwise, but if there is only one place you are willing to get deployed to in PC, you might as well just take a vacation there because this is not the right organization for you.

At every step of my application I was told to be flexible and learn patience because everything was going to take a long time and I was probably going to be frustrated more often than not. Though I, at some point, was able to voice to my recruiter during my interview that I would prefer not to end up in South America, I first made it very clear to her that I was willing to serve anywhere and just wanted to be able to help out and have a meaningful experience in my life and in the people whom I was serving lives.

Alright, more later, let you know as I know.
Claire

Funny Stories

Figured I would fill you in on a few funny stories since I don't have anything new to report within the application process and I would like to get into the habit of making sure that I update as much as possible. With that in mind there have been a few funny stories I have heard over the course of talking to people and seeing what PC is going to be like that I would like to share with the rest of you all.

The first comes from Ty in the campus recruiting office. He was talking to me about people that don't really think about what service is going to be like before they leave to go to their placement and told me about a person that worked themselves up SO much on the trip over that they refused to get off the plane and went straight back home instead. In order to avoid this kind of story I plan on making sure I am totally pooped before I get on the plane. I may even consider investing in one of those weird looking neck pillows that some people have. I have always thought about getting one and what better time to than when I might be stressed/ freaking out? I also hope to have made some friends during the stagging process which should mean I have support in taking my first few steps (literally) into PC.

The second story comes from Buddy, a friend of my Mother's who served in Mali in the 80's. Buddy told us this story over a dinner that we had at our house when he came to chat it up about his experience with PC. This one involves a couple that got into PC (couple can now apply only after they have been married a year and both are qualified, cool part is, is that they will be placed together.) Apparently these people made it off the plane and into the hotel room they were going to be staying in for a few nights before they went to the training site. The kicker comes when the wife opens one of the couple suitcases that they brought and everyone realizes that she has packed an entire suitcase full of toilet paper. My plan for avoiding this kind of story is to not pack toilet paper in a suitcase...seems straight forward enough...

There was also the guy that said he was going to stick around only until he got sick and peaced out a few months later after getting malaria. And lastly the couple that came back and had been so used to their laid back style of living in PC American Samoa that they argued over who had to walk to the end of the driveway to get the mail every morning. I guess when push comes to shove these stories are both for entertainment as well as a reminder that when going into this experience you have to be reasonable in what your expectation are. This is not an easy under taking, it is not the gold paved road you are choosing, and it is going to be uncomfortable, challenging and difficult in a mirad of ways I can only image right now.

I'm going into this experience with this mind set in the hopes that it will be easier to cope as well as maybe even pleasantly surprising on the days when things happen to be easy going. It is all about the mental challenge, once you get over that the physical stuff can't be too bad. :)

Much Love,
Claire