South Africa, January 2012

I'm going to the Rainbow Nation! On January 23rd I will be leaving for what I suspect to be Washington DC and then heading to South Africa on the 26th. I haven't yet officially accepted the invitation since there are some questions I need the the answers to first, but at this point I don't see myself turning things down. Anyway, I was really excited to receive the invitation and am even more thrilled with my HIV/AID Prevention and Mitigation position.

Figured I would post this up, it will be the first entry to show up on peacecorpsjournals.com as a South African entry, and I am hoping to be able to contact some of my fellow volunteers before we leave. If you have also received an invitation for SA Jan 23rd please comment!!!!

Much love to everybody,
Claire

South Africa

I, Claire P., am accepting my invitation to serve as a HIV Prevention and Mitigation Volunteer for the United States Peace Corps, to depart January 23rd, returning March 30th 2014. 

My Invitation Came

The invitation came and is right now sitting on my kitchen counter. I'm not opening it until my Mom and Dad get back, and I invited my cousin over too. As much as I want to open it (and believe you me, it took all my strength to not rip the thing open right on the porch) I want to share the experience with my family, and not just be by myself and the dog when it happens. I am SO thankful that I had a sub job today, because waiting a few hours is going to be unbearable enough.

Will post again in a few hours

Oh My Goodness,
Claire

Finger's Crossed

Within the next week I will know where I am going for Peace Corps, and I know until then it will be a constant checking of the mail to see if the invitation has arrived yet. After poking around wikki I am pretty sure that I will be heading to either Zambia or South Africa.

So I have been doing a little bit of research in order to get a head start on getting to know these countries. To my shock I discovered that South Africa is one of the countries in which PC has you live with a host family for the entire duration of your service. This caught me off guard because the only other country I had heard in which that happens was Kazakhstan, and I kind of thought it wasn't something that happens a whole lot. To be honest, I am not sure what I think about this. Its not something I am going to get super worked up over until I get the invitation but it would definitely change up my mental picture of what service is going to be like.

It surprises me that PC does this at all to be honest. It seems like it adds one more variable that could go wrong into the equation. What if a family and a volunteer don't get along? Is there a possibility to change? I have heard many a horror story about bad home stay families within the study abroad community and it just worries me a bit.

But again, this really only applies if I end up going to South Africa. Zambia has an independent living situation and this may be a bump I don't even need to go over.

Just some thoughts, cross your fingers for me, can't wait to get the big white envelope!!!

~Claire 

It's in the Mail!!!

I received the following this afternoon:

Greetings from the Placement Office!

I just got the green light to move forward with your invitation.  There is now a Health extension program open, and I am sending you an invitation packet to the address we discussed.  It is departing mid- to late January for Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on HIV prevention and mitigation.  You should receive the packet in 7-10 business days. 

After reading through your invitation materials, please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.  Otherwise, please follow the detailed instructions in your invitation packet on how to accept your invitation.

Congratulations!

Best,

Kristen

Wow, here we go!!! I'm so excited, and after cross referencing Wiki, I think there are only two countries that fit the MO. That being said I am also keeping in mind that there may be countries leaving in January that wiki doesn't reflect since there has been a bit of a freeze with invites. I'm so overwhelmed and excited right now that there are no words. :) 

More to come soon!

~Claire

Bye Bye Central Asia

Okay, so I don't know what happened with blogger exactly but for some reason it double posted the story below instead of putting up what I wrote about Central Asia. That being said, I re-wrote the post and it goes something, kind of, like this:

Now that I have cooled down from figuring out that I am actually in the US Peace Corps I have had a little bit of time to think about the other things that went down within the phone conversation I had with placement. I don't want anyone to take this the wrong way but I realized today that I am a little sad about the fact that I will not be going to Central Asia. It also kind of blows my mind that out of all of the countries within that area, that none of them can support a colposcopy (which I would only need if at the half way check up I had an abnormal pap.)

That is a lot of freaking countries! In case you didn't know which ones, here is a list:

• Azerbaijan
• Kazakhstan
• Kyrgyz Republic
• Armenia
• Albania
• Turkmenistan
• Bulgaria
• Georgia
• Macedonia
• Moldova
• Romania
• Ukraine

I spent half of my senior year, as well as a lot of extra time writing a 25pg research thesis, studying the democratization of these countries, and now to know that I won't get to see it first hand is a bit of a let down. I do know, that when the day comes and I see that big white envelope in the mail, that I will be pumped about which ever country I end up in; be it in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, or Eastern Asia, and that is a very comforting/ exhilarating thought. 

So here's to you Central Asia countries! May your democracies flourish, your people be well fed, and your female Peace Corps Volunteers have normal pap smear results!!

Much love, 

Claire

Official w/o Invitation

Holy heck!! Just got off the phone with the placement officer...WHOOOAA! I am officially cleared to by a US Peace Corps Volunteer and have been told that I will be getting an invitation. :)

That being said, I will not be receiving an invitation until the beginning of November because there is currently a freeze on invites due to the Federal Budget mess. When the invites do start up again they will be for departures sometime between January-June.

Things I now know:
-I can not go to Central Asia because they can not support my one medical hiccup
-There are looking at Sub-Saharan Africa, South America and Asia for my placement (originally it was just Africa and South America but I asked if I could be considered for Asian placements due to my Asian Studies background.)
-It would be helpful for me to start taking doula classes, Red Cross HIV classes and CPR/ First Aid (the doula classes are something I had brought up specifically with her, so this may not be an across the table recommendation.)
-It will take somewhere around 8 weeks for me to get my actual invitation and she will email me once they are ready to go out again.
-When invites start going out again they will be anywhere for within the period between Jan 2012 and June 2012

Oi, so I feel like I kinda of know a little more, but not really. Now just have to work on eliminating my credit card debt, gaining more health skills, and getting my affairs in order to leave...at some point. Going to go chill out for a second now, very strung out on energy. :)

Hope this finds you all well!

~Claire  

Waiting...

Sitting here and waiting for the call that is going to come within the next 10mins. Needed to blow off some nervous energy so figured I would post on the blog. Attempting to breathe :) So pumped but also so nervous!!!! Will let people know how it goes once the call is done. Wish me luck!

~Claire

Placement Interview Part II

WOOHOO PART II!! Kristen just emailed me back and I have set up an appointment for Thursday at 10am :) Will let everyone know how it goes, and fingers crossed will have an idea of what the heck is going on by the end of the week.

~Claire

Placement Interview

WOOHOO!! I received the following over the weekend:

Greetings from the Peace Corps Placement Office!

I would like to introduce myself as the Placement Specialist responsible for the final review of your application.  As you may have already heard, the federal budget resolution for this fiscal year as well as projected budget realities for next year, have had a significant impact on current Peace Corps’ operating plans.  Due to the reduction of Peace Corps assignments, all programs have filled for 2011, and therefore, if you are selected for service, the earliest programs are now departing in the January – June timeframe. 

I have reviewed your entire file and have some follow-up questions for you.  Please let me know the best times to reach you between 9am and 5pm Eastern Standard Time.  Include your time zone and the phone number you would like me to call.  The conversation will last approximately 30 minutes.  Because of the high volume of applicants we are working with, I would be grateful if you would give me at least two options for times and days to call.  I will reply to inform you of the day and time I have reserved for our conversation.

I look forward to talking to you. 

Best,

Kristen

I'm so excited, and have emailed her back to let her know that I can talk with her at any time on Thursday or Friday, so finger's crossed I will have an idea of what is going on by the end of the week. Will up date more later, just wanted everyone to know and thought it might also be good for anyone that is waiting on a similar email to know that there are no more 2011 spots. :)

~Claire