Jambo :) I have been accepted into the Peace Corps and am officially leaving on Monday! I will be travelling across the ocean to Kenya where I will train for 10 weeks to become a Deaf Educator/Behavioral Change Communicator. After training, if I pass all of the assessments and everything else, then I will be signed in as a Volunteer and will be put in a village somewhere to use the skills I have acquired. I am very excited yet nervous as well. I still have to figure out my students loan deferments, pack my bags, pack up my room and say more 'see ya laters'. It seems very strange that the time is almost here for me to go because the process for getting accepted is very long and at times very tedious. It involved, as Jack Johnson might say, a lot of sitting, waiting and wishing...which I feel is probably good since I've heard that there might be some more of that in Africa :)
Also, I'd like to say that I don't know what kind of internet access I'll have while over there and I don't know how much I'll be able to update this blog but I'm going to give it a shot even if it's only a once-twice/month update, enjoy!
So, when I was first looking into the Peace Corps I read a lot of blogs but could never really find a timeline, however rough, on how the process worked...and so I tried to keep tabs on when things occured so I could relay the message if I ended up making it this far.
Here is my attempt to say how things worked out for me:
August 1st 2011: Started my application
August 28th: Sent in application
September 9th: Fingerprints taken (do not fill out the forms on your own-go to the police station in your town and they know what to do)
September 25th: Fingerprint and other form they sent me sent in.
October 20th: Interview at Penn State University (2+ hours long where we talked about everything. Literally.)
Mid-November: Had to fill out 'Romantic Questionaire' and sent in
December 12th: Nominated for Sub-Saharan Africa with agriculture as my skill)
December 18th: Recieved Medical packet
Early January: Had to fill out another Romantic Questionaire because they had revised their old one and wanted the newer version submitted.
January 28th 2012: Sent in medical forms
February 6th: Got a note saying they had gotten everything but that I had to wait a while before they'd look at them.
May 12th: Got a note saying they wanted 2 more blood tests because mine weren't accurate enough
May 24th-ish: Sent in blood work again
June 22nd: Recieved another questionaire
July 3rd: Sent in Questionaire
July 11th: Phone conversation with Placement Officer (briefly discussed the fact that I took a year of ASL and might be eligible for Deaf Ed)
July 24th: GOT MY INVITATION FOR KENYA!!!!
July 30th: Sent in acceptance Email
August/September: Continuously sending in more forms like passport,visa, resume, aspirations, financial forms, ect.....but atleast I know I'm going to Kenya soon :)
So that was my best effort and I hoped that helps other aspiring volunteers a little bit.
The craziest part of me writing this blog is that the next time I blog I'll be in Kenya!! WHOA!
