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 :)