Waiting, waiting, waiting....

Well Folks, it's been quite awhile since I've last updated. Sadly it's because I haven't gotten any news since November 3rd. I was notified that my medical packet had been received as of November 4th and that's the last thing that was said. It has now been 6 weeks since then and I was really really hoping that I would be one of the lucky ones like some of you other applicants out there (that got medically cleared as quick as a month after they received the medical packet.). Unfortunately that has not been the case.

About 4 weeks after the packet was received in DC I sent an e-mail to my medical contact just trying to touch base, but got a somewhat cold message back saying, "unless you have questions about something, don't expect to hear anything until you've past the 8-12 week timeframe." I mean I expected that as an answer but thought since I'm always so pleasant in my e-mails to her that she would at least sugar coat the uneventful news with some cheery introduction or warm salutation, but nope haha. Oh well, not everyone feels the need to write really pleasant and exciting e-mails I guess :)

So now I am still waiting, with no word as of yet on if I'm medically cleared or not. I really just want to get out of medical review so I can start my Placement Review!!!!!

In other news, I got a small raise last week that will be retroactive back to June! That means I will be getting a little lump sum of extra money in the next paycheck. Soooo....I decided to get myself something as a little present but really meant for when I'm hopefully serving in the Peace Corps: a new Pentax K-x DSLR!!!! I figured it would be an amazing thing to have so that I can really capture the beauty and experience I will be fortunate enough to see while in another country. Then I can hopefully get really nice prints made so that I can take my service with me anywhere I live.

Well, I'm still hoping that I can get medically cleared before Christmas and then get into Placement review for January. Who knows?! I'm just getting tired of waking up every morning and rushing to my Blackberry to see if I have an e-mail from Peace Corps showing an update to my toolkit.

Best wishes to all for a safe and happy Holiday Season!!!

Perhaps I will write a few non-Peace Corps blogs about the holidays - since the Mangam Family tends to have quite the party haha.

Abientot!

Quick Update: Dental Clearance!

Hello, hello! Just wanted to write a little note because I'm a huge dork and am super excited to know that I had an update on my toolkit this morning: Dental Clearance!! Woo!

Now I know I sent everything together on Tuesday afternoon so that means they have everything. I also have read that it takes a couple extra days before the system will show that they are reviewing your medical files, so I will wait patiently to see that update on my toolkit.

Isn't it funny that even though most of us know we are going to clear these certain stages, we still get excited seeing those wonderful words written out on a webpage? Ahhh, what a great Friday!

Medical Review sent!

Well, finally after a much longer timeframe than I had previously expected, I have Fed-exed my Medical/Dental/and Vision forms back to the DC Office. I know they were delivered yesterday, now I'm just waiting to see how long before I see that they are actually in the hands of my Medical reviewer. I e-mailed them to let them know I had overnight shipped my documents and asked if they could let me know when they see them. So fingers crossed they see the documents soon!

I thought I would write down some of the reasons why my medical review took so long to get in order. First, as I have written about before, I was asked to get a form filled out by the Therapist I saw once in 2006. That took forever. First I had to find the name of the Therapist I saw (thank you gmail for your wonderful Archiving). Then I was able to mail him the forms required. After that and after he and I spoke on the phone to refresh both of our memories of that distant visit, I didn't hear from him for two weeks. So I reached out to him only to learn that he had lost the forms. Oi! Thus I needed to ask the DC medical office to please mail me a new form for him to fill out. OK, done. Sent him the new documents and didn't hear from him for another two weeks. I finally called and e-mailed until he responded, told him my address over the phone and asked him to put it in the mail that afternoon. Finally I got them back in the mail on this past monday, more than a month after I first spoke to him.

Another hiccup in my review process was the surprising reaction I had to the TB skin test. I showed a reaction of 9mm. For a healthworker or for someone who had spent significant time in a foreign country, that would be considered a positive reaction. However, I am in the lowest risk group since I am not a healthworker, not exposed to healthworkers frequently, and have not spent more than a week out of the US. I would have needed to show a 15mm reaction to classify it as a positive. I feared though that this might raise some flags and slow my process of getting clearance, so I called my medical contact and asked her if I should get a chest x-ray to verify I don't have TB, she said of course. So I had to set that up and that took a whole extra week. Finally I have everything back, I had a normal chest x-ray thank god, and sent everything off on Tuesday afternoon.

Now that I have sent the forms off, I have a renewed sense of excitement and relief. At least now the whole process is out of my hands, I either get an invitation or not. Hopefully I will hear back in the coming months that I have been invited because I am so thrilled about the possibility of this actually happening. I've been reading some great books lately to get me inspired about development work and I definitely recommend reading them if you're waiting to leave, in the application process, or even just thinking about something like the Peace Corps. The first is Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and a co-author who I can't remember right now...the second is Nine Hills to Nambonkaha by Sara Erdman.

Three Cups of Tea was an amazing amazing book. It was so inspiring to read and I flew through it so quickly I just couldn't put it down. It was so amazing to see just how much one passionate, motivated person can do when they really fight for something they believe in. It has me really hopeful about starting my adventure in Africa and helping a community as best as I can. I'm afraid that I might enjoy development/non-profit work that I will continue in that field for the rest of my life. I guess afraid isn't the right word, because it would be awesome, but I do think it would prove to be difficult in planting any stateside roots. Well that's getting way to far ahead of myself and I should just be happy to be a part of the waiting game now.

:)

Talk to you all (if anyone) soon!!

Keith

Medical Chaos: Part 2

So I thought I would write a little update on the recent activity involved in getting my medical paperwork complete.

When we ended last time I was telling you all about my frustrations with having to get a form filled out by a therapist that I had seen once in my sophomore year at Penn. Well, turns out they really do need the paperwork so I was patiently waiting to get the forms back from said therapist. A few days had gone by, then a few more, so I decided to call and check in with him to see if he ever got the forms and if he was willing/able to complete them. To my surprise, the therapist had lost my forms. How wonderful! You can really see how much he cared about helping me with this, that or his office might be a huge mess and he just decided to throw everything out and start clean haha. Anyway, I had to request new forms be sent to me and then I scanned and e-mailed them to him so he couldn't "lose" them. That was over a week ago and I still haven't gotten his filled out forms yet. I really hope he does this for me soon so I can stop worrying about that at least.

In other medical news, I went to my doctor on Friday of last week to get the results of my bloodwork, all good there. Except one little mistake. The doctor ordered the wrong Hep B test (Surface antibody instead of core antibody) so I now have to get another blood test performed and get those results! Oi, my arm is becoming a pin cushion already (I'm not even at staging yet! haha (I just knocked on wood, don't want to jinx my chances by mentioning staging before I'm invited)). So after we discovered this mistake we moved on to the next action item for the day, my TB (tuberculosis) test and Polio booster.

The nurse on site gave me the TB test, which was surprisingly a little uncomfortable and I winced a little, I'm really bad with shots and needles lol. And then the Doctor gave me the Polio booster in my other shoulder, that actually didn't hurt at all. Go figure. So to explain the TB test for anyone reading this who isn't 100% familiar, they inject a small amount of liquid in between certain layers of your skin on your forearm. Then you wait 48-72 hours before returning to have the spot looked at. A negative reaction will show nothing, just perhaps the little hole where you can see that a needle was inserted. A positive reaction can be categorized in a few different ways based on your health risk grouping (i.e. - people with HIV/Aids, Healthcare workers, people who have lived overseas). Basically a positive reaction to the skin test results in a raised, hard area surrounding the needle spot. For someone like myself who is in the lowest risk group, I would need a hard area with a diameter of 15mm or more. My test came back with a 9-10mm reaction! Needless to say, my doctor and I were shocked. The doctor felt thought that since I am very low risk that the 9mm reaction was still considered a negative reaction in his eyes. I was a little confused on his answer when I was in the office, not sure if he thought we should do more testing or if he thought there was a slight chance I actually had TB or not. So I e-mailed my point of contact in the medical office of Peace Corps in DC and let her know the situation (for the TB reaction as well as for the Hep B mix up).

She called me back this morning and let me know that, Yes I would have to get the other blood test, and that now I need to have a chest x-ray to verify that I do not have TB. I was so baffled as to how I would even have gotten TB, until my friend asked if my boyfriend had ever been tested for TB since he has moved back to the states from Egypt. Hmmmm I thought, and the answer was no, he hasn't. See my boyfriend studied abroad in Egypt from Jun 08-Jun 09 at the American University of Cairo and so living abroad for more than a month in Africa pushes you into a higher risk group. I need for him to get tested for TB and see if his test comes out positive, and in the meantime I will get a chest x ray done to double check if I am clear or not.

I really hope this is just because my body always reacts strongly to things like bug bites, needles, allergic reactions, etc. so hopefully that could be what caused my arm to get hard. Otherwise, if I have TB, that will most definitely push my application back. Luckily TB is entirely treatable by taking antibiotics for a few months and you're all clear. I personally don't believe I have it because I have none of the symptoms. However I have read that you can have TB for years and it be dormant and asymptomatic when all of a sudden one day the virus awakens (dum dum duuuuuum!) and you get symptoms.

Well all in all, this process definitely has been trying and difficult and has caused me to really think about whether or not I actually want to do this. As of right now, I still really want to do this as the next journey in my life and so will move forward in getting through all of these medical hoops.

On a completely unrelated note, I have been in "legal hold" for a few weeks, I wonder what that means??????

à bientôt

In the Medical Clearance Chaos

Medical Clearance...very, very, extensive. I am currently in the process of trying to get through the medical clearance portion of the application process. I have gotten my dental forms all complete, I had my physical exam/medical history check, I had blood work done (4 vials! that's a lot of tests!), sent a letter to a therapist I saw once in college for him to fill out, more about that later, and plan on getting a Polio booster and TB test this Friday. Once that is done, I should have all that I need to send off my medical packet to the Peace Corps Office in DC. I'm hoping that I won't end up having too many costs, I know I'm already going to have to fork over about 80 bucks for the full mouth dental x-rays + a filling correction that took place at the dentist a few weeks ago. I don't foresee too many extra costs from the Doctor as my medical insurance should cover most of it. But who knows how much all of that blood work is going to set me back.

Now onto my first frustration with the Peace Corps application process. I had mentioned on my Health Status Review form initially that I had seen a therapist. They didn't ask anything about when I saw him, how many times, or the reasons why. I said yes because I felt I needed to be completely honest since I am applying for a Government position after all. However, in reality, I saw a Therapist for one hour, sophomore year of college, because my parents wanted me to go. They asked me to go because I had just come out to them and they wanted me to get an "unbiased" opinion. Seeing as I didn't necessarily seek out therapy, nor did I ever see the therapist again and am a mentally healthy, happy individual, I think that the circumstances around this should not require me to get this Therapist to fill out a full evaluation on me. It's not that big of a deal, it's just me being impatient and wanting to send everything right now! haha... So I shall have to wait for this therapist to send me back the evaluation form I had sent him. In fact, I should give him a call and check up on that process :)

In other news, I am still so excited to be nominated and am hoping above all hopes that if I get my medical packet in this weekend, maybe just maybe I can look to hear about an invitation before the Christmas season. That way I can ask for things that would be really useful i.e.- a headlamp, a sleeping bag, solar charger maybe?

That's all for now, back to work!!

Interview and Nomination!!!

Wow…wow………..just WOW!!! So as an update, I had my interview this week on Tuesday. I went into the Peace Corps recruiting office down in the Village (such a lovely neighborhood), had to go through all the high security schtuff which I wasn’t expecting but seeing as the Peace Corps is a government organization, I’m not so surprised, and waited for my recruiter to meet me on a very comfy Peace Corps couch. My recruiter was awesome and very friendly (tons of energy to work with) and she had a recruiter in training with her. The recruiter in training I was told would be sitting in on the interview so she could get a feel for how they should be handled. I actually really liked having her there as it allowed me to ask questions from two RPCV’s which was awesome. The interview was really great! We had lots to talk about, we all shared our experiences, their experiences were clearly a lot more interesting as they were real Peace Corps experiences haha, and we ended on a great note. I asked some good questions to which they had really cool answers (some a little frightening, but hey, you gotta hear the good with the bad.)

So I left the interview in great spirits just knowing that I was going to be a wreck from that point until I heard back about possible nominations. It’s times like these when having a personal blackberry with Push e-mail is something you can begin to hate. Every time I felt that little buzz telling me I had an e-mail I would get excited….and I HAD JUST LEFT! Haha… So needless to say the entire next morning and early afternoon I obsessed over my phone checking every buzz in hopes that it would bring hope and joy with a nomination from my recruiter.

I had finally convinced myself that I just needed to get over it and let the time flow by normally, I do have a job so I should probably be focusing on what I’m getting paid for, and then it happened. At 4:24 pm on September 2nd, my recruiter e-mailed me my NOMINATION!!!!!!!!! That’s right friends, I have been nominated to a program in Business Advising stationed in Francophone Africa departing in the July 2010 timeframe!!!!!!!!!! OMG that’s actually only 11 months away… so crazy!!!! I am very very very excited about the nomination and super excited that I received the nomination a mere 24 hours after I left the Peace Corps office. I jumped out of my chair (luckily I sit in an enclosed office by myself so no one was around to see my craziness spill out all over the desk) and called my parents/friends/Tim and anyone else who has known about my application since the beginning.

Next steps at this point are to wait for the medical/dental/legal packet to come so I can start digging away at all those forms and appointments. I’m going to try my best to get things done as quickly as possible so I can start talking to the placement office about the fact that I am required to take an accredited French course before I leave. Need to get some more details on that and I was told I would know more after all my stuff was sent in. So for now I am just in a state of shock and utter joy that this is actually happening! A few months ago I remember just tossing the idea around between friends, then I started researching the Peace Corps diligently (slightly obsessive I would say) and now I am a nominee! Can’t wait to see what the future holds!!! Will write soon when I get the medical packet :)

Progress!!

Yay! Definite progress has been made. This week I have had the fingerprint forms, agency check, and recommendations sent in and finished. I sent in all of my financial obligation data and my notarized letter of the person who is going to assume my private loan payments (thanks Tim!). Today I received an e-mail from my recruiter that my interview could take place Mon, Tues, or Wed of next week. I jumped out of my desk chair then picked my jaw up off the floor and caught my breath haha and then calmly wrote an e-mail back saying that Tuesday at three would be splendid.

So now I have all the excitement and nerves rushing through me in preparation for finally getting to interview with a recruiter. I am really looking forward to this process as it will definitely shed some more light on what kind of projects I will really fit with and get a better sense of what I can be nominated for (hopefully!!!). I am going to have trouble sleeping every night until the interview just because I'm so excited!

I have spent more and more time thinking about geographic preferences and I have come to the conclusion that I think I would be excited to go anywhere. Really. I can't think of anywhere that I would really not want to go. There are definitely places I would prefer, but I'm not certain I would be too upset with any placement. It's so uplifting just thinking about the possibilities that lie ahead.

Wish me luck!!!!

First package from the Peace Corps Office :)

Yay! Today I got the preliminary package that the Peace Corps office mails out after you first send in your application. The bundle contains the forms for kicking off your legal background check, some paperwork for getting fingerprints prepared, information on what other information they need that was not a part of the application itself, etc.

One thing I wasn't expecting though was when they also included the programs that they feel my resume/application allow me to qualify for. I got three programs that are exactly what I would want to do!!!! I am so so so excited. These were the programs that were included in my info packet:

- Secondary Education Science Teaching
- Business Advising
- Environmental & Water Resource Engineering

AWESOME!!

I know this means absolutely nothing as I haven't even gotten through the interview yet but it's really exhilarating just knowing I could be doing one of these three things. And also, the geographic regions for each of these programs are awesome as well (Asia, Africa, or Central America).

So, now I just need to fill out these legal forms, make sure my recommendation providers finish their recommendations in the next week, and send over my transcripts to the office.

Can't wait to talk to my recruiter and to set up my interview!!


P.S. - In other news, I am soo shocked and sad that Kayla was the bottom of the final four :( She was my favorite!!! I love you Kayla, GO WHITE LIGHTNING!!!

haha...

The time has come!!!

I did it! I have officially submitted my Peace Corps Application!! Wow, this feeling is exhilarating...I could bounce of my bedroom walls for hours!

Now the next step I have to do is follow up on my recommendations. One is on its way and the other two have just started. They have a month from today to get them in so hopefully they will get some time to complete them soon.

I don't really know what else to say besides I AM SOOO EXCITED! Hopefully this excitement can last for the 9-12 month application process. As of Day 1 - STOKED!

Welcome to my Peace Corps blog! Right now I am in the last stage of finishing my application. Have to do some final editing on my last essay and then I will be ready to hit that hope filled submit button on the application page. I have three great recommendations lined up which will hopefully be finished soon as well.

I intend to keep a play by play record of my application process here so that everyone can experience the pain, the anguish, and hopefully the joy of going from a lowly dreamer, to a nominated/invited Volunteer!

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. I'm sure it's going to be a little bumpy :)