Mail Call!!!

The mail I’ve been waiting on finally came. NOW I can let myself bounce off the walls — this will really happen!

I promise I really will post more details later, but here’s what the front page of that “Your Assignment” booklet says:
Country: Ghana
Job Title: ICT Specialist; Teacher
Dates of Service: August 22, 2008 - August 22, 2010
Staging Dates: June 7-9, 2008
Pre-Service Training (in Ghana): June 10-August 22, 2008

So that’s it, folks. I’m out of here June 7th. Come visit me.

READ READ READ

AFRICA.
COMPUTER LITERACY/IT TRAINING.
JUNE 2008.

INVITATION MAILED OUT TODAY.
They can’t tell me the country over the phone, but I’ll know when that invite arrives.
This is for real.

You’re KILLING me, Smalls

GOOD NEWS: As of this afternoon, I have officially been cleared for service in the Peace Corps.

THIS IS AWESOME.

However. There is a reason this post is more coherent than that kind of news suggests: I have been “medically cleared with an applied ‘accommodation’“… I am clear, but an accommodation is now attached to my file. I’m in but not.

THIS IS NOT AWESOME.

So anyway, I’ve been on the phone a lot today, and still don’t quite understand it all. The general idea is that the Peace Corps Cerberus* has decided to stick the “Asthma”** label on me, and their fear of my imminent collapse consequently affects the geographic locations in which I’m allowed to serve. Apparently, off-limits countries include Uganda. The WTF MATE factor is that, with the news of med clearance, I should at this very moment be celebrating official word involving Uganda & February. I should be bouncing off the freaking walls with glee (yes, glee!). As it is, my Placement Officer (who is really very cool, despite the system in which she is forced to work) is pulling out all the stops to try and find a (new) placement that I’m qualified for ASAP, but the reality is that I’m on hold - again - for a while.

Since my opinion is still, regretably, my own, I’m able to link an RPCV’s description of this whole process. Long read, certainly biased, but gives an idea of what applicants like myself are dealing with.

I was told it’ll be after the first of the year before my PO’s search for a new placement will produce anything. I’ll keep you posted.

*© Dan

**In case you’re wondering “wha? Asthma?” - I’m not. I don’t have it. My doctor refuses to write the A-word in my chart. Unfortunately, over the past few years I started growing asthmatic-esque symptoms, and finally had to get an inhaler - which in the spirit of full disclosure was included on my workup. My doc calls it bronchial something-something, triggered by environmental factors (read: smoke allergies meet China, nation of unholy pollution, in which the concept of “no smoking” is utterly foreign). The irony of it all is that sites I’m now “cleared” for will by definition be closer to urban centers, and are likely to have a greater number of environmental triggers than the remote, unpolluted bushland. [Insert humourless “ha ha”].

(Rather long) update

First: no, I still haven’t gotten my invitation. Sorry for getting anyone’s hopes up.

Second: to any currently homeschooling parents, or any soon-to-be homeschooling parents, or to anyone who may remotely at some point consider homeschooling their children, a word of advice. KEEP UP WITH SHOT RECORDS, YO. Apparently the single most useful purpose of America’s public education system is functioning as a handy-dandy immunization record repository. Convincing medical Powers That Be I don’t, in fact, have a school from whom I can request records is a feat to be admired.

So… on to the update.

• PC’s Medical Clearance process is what God gives people who keep bugging him with requests for “patience.” That’s BAD.
  - This week I got a request for “three additional reports” - which, if you haven’t guessed, were actually three shots. So that threw a delay in the system.

• I have a Placement Officer! That’s GOOD.
  - Proper procedure dictates I don’t actually get a PO until Med Clearance goes through, but apparently I get to be an exception. This means that my PO will go ahead and clear me (pending medical) for the job with both TBTB in DC as well as in Africa.

• COI for my nomination is December 27th. That’s BAD.
  - COI = Close of Invitations. The last day to squeeze my file through on the job for which I’ve been nominated. Therefore, the day by which my Medical Saga MUST be complete. If I miss this window, I am on hold for departure until June (JUNE?!) 2008.

• (Assuming I make the deadline) My departure date is officially Feb. 10th, 2008. That’s GOOD.
  - My PO can’t “officially” tell me what country I’m nominated for, only the region (”Sub-Saharan Non-Francophone Africa”). She can, however, tell me the COI and departure dates. So, thanks to the intarweb network of fellow PC-hopefuls, I can check that data against certain “unofficial” lists and come up with a country. Which means, if I make all the deadlines, I know where I’m going… Uganda. Probably a site within an hour of Lake Victoria. Sweet.

So that’s what I know for now. One way or another, I will have a definite answer by December 27th. Cross your fingers.

Ambushed

This week caught me off guard. I thought about just posting a series of punctuation marks:
0_0 … !!! … :’-(

Wednesday night I had a message on my phone. I’d been expecting an interview in three weeks, but the message was “I’ll be out of town for a few weeks, how about tomorrow?” — so I ended up driving to Atlanta at some ungodly hour Thursday morning. The interview went really well; apparently I’m a “perfect candidate”. Humorous moment came when he asked what I missed most from China, and I said “my cat”. It’s not that I didn’t miss my family, or fajitas, or air conditioning — I just missed my cat a lot.

Friday I drove yet again towards Atlanta; I’d had a trip planned in TN for the following week. Sometime while I was stalled in traffic I got another phone call from the same guy. “Usually we give you a couple weeks after the interview, but there’s this job…” I end up with an actual nomination less than 24 hours after an interview I didn’t expect until November. “And I know you asked for Asia, but…” In a completely unexpected location. “Oh, and are you really set on a June departure, or…?” Hm. At any rate, now I can officially put it in print:
I got a job with the Peace Corps.
In Africa.
Departing February.
My recruiter said to tell my cat ‘hello’ for him.

Friday-Wednesday I spent lost in the woods, somewhere in Appalachia. Some hiking, a lot of trail work. Good trip. Lots of trail built. “Camped” in an abandoned schoolhouse (former student body of 45; glorified homeschool was more like it). Making a phone call involved driving two hours up a particular ridge, standing on a truck, and facing Southeast. We were so isolated that the sun didn’t begin to show up until 7:30 or so every morning. Absolutely beautiful weather and view every day we were out.

I got back Wednesday night. My cat died while I was gone.