The Medical Forms

I got my medical forms, and I have never been so happy to have a doctor for a mother.  She was able to look at all the paperwork and immediately know who she had to contact and how to go about doing that.  So that made it much easier.  The part that made it harder is that after my dentist visit, I need round abouts $1700 dollars worth of work done.  And the medical stuff is just dragging out, but I have to blame the Christmas rush for that.  Nobody works on Christmas.

Letter of Nomination

Got my letter of Nomination today, looking like this.

And read like this.

My program number is 124-11-033-U1, I googled this and deciphered it into this...

124 - Water and Sanitation (my program)

11 - 2011 (year I leave)

033 - Third Quarter (April-June)

U - My Placement Officer Code

1 - First Listing for my PO in the 3rd Quarter

Next hurdle, finding out about Peace Corps passports!

The Online Application

If you want to enter Peace Corps (PC) then the first part of the process is filling out the application.  There is a paper verion as well as an online version, but I found the online one easier.  It is basically like filling out a  very detailed job application.  There are sections about your health, level of education, if you have any family or monetary (debt) obligations, what languages you speak, what types of volunteer actives you do...that type of thing.  That's the easy part.  Most applicants are worried about the three time-consuming parts of the application.  Those are The Essays, The Recomendations, and The Resume (I will post my essays and resume as soon as I find my USB).  The Essays are the ones most people freak out about (myself included).  There are two essays you need to write, of between 250-500 words each.  It's easy to write once you have an idea, the main problem is in trimming them down.  Also, get some advice from a PC recruiter and some english majors if you can.  I ran mine by several times and ended up completely changing the tone of my essays.
     The Recomendations are the next part.  You need three recomendations, one from a good friend, one from a boss, and one from the head of someplace you volunteered.  This usually isn't too bad, but you have to make sure they get in on time, even if it means bugging your references.  You see, there is an area on your application where it shows which recomendations have been started, and when they were completed.  It lets you know if your recomendations are getting done.  The last part is the Resume, which for me was the most difficult part.  You need to keep it at one page length, no longer.  Choose carefully what you will write about so as to draw more attention to any leadership, public service, or independant work you have done.  You'll be suprised at what you can use, I put my volunteer work at the Bristol Renaissance Faire down because of the social interation with the public.  Run this by someone who knows resumes, again, I ended up changing the focus of my resume after a few look overs.  Hopefully I'll find my USB soon so I can post my Essays and Resume.

Starting Off

I started telling people I was going to go into the Peace Corps when I was about 5 I think.  My mother had been in the Peace Corps in Nepal in the late 70's, and I grew up surrounded by that.  Our house had brass pots and rugs on the wall, and Nepali food like dahlbaht and poori were common.  She also told us stories about her time in the Peace Corps; like when she opened the door to her house and it was full of black widows, or the guy who tried to kidnap marry her.  One of my favorites was when she was walking through the woods, sat down to rest, and suddenly noticed that there were giant green and red spiders the size of car tires in the trees around her, and she didn't run, she just thought, "Oh, look at that!"  Because of these stories (or perhaps despite them) I was determined to make it into Peace Corps.  I applied out of college, and gave myself a snowballs chance in hell of getting in on my first try.  Long story short, I got in.  Now, those three words, "I got in" don't sound like much, but when I said them, I was screaming them to the rafters!  It seems a bit of a blur, but I recall screaming and dancing while trying to calm myself enough to call back the Peace Corps office and tell them what option they were offering me I liked best.  (First - South America for Water and Sanitation, Second - Sub-Saharan Africa for AIDS/HIV, Third - Eastern Europe/Central Aisa for Working with Youth)  That was more than a week ago, and still everytime I think about it I get butterflies in my stomach.  Hopefully this is the start of an amazing adventure!  (I'll give more details about the actual application process in following posts.)  Fair Winds and Following Seas!