From application to invitation

The whole process from application to invitation took 10 months and often felt like a part time job. I submitted my online application December 10, 2007. Then on a sub-zero day in January, I slogged through the ice and snow to a brief face to face interview with the on-campus Peace Corps rep. That was followed in February with a longer phone interview with the regional rep who then "nominated" me for a Latin American health team leaving in September. I later learned that there may or may not be a relationship between this nomination and where I would be asked to serve.

Then came the part time job, rounding up college transcripts (who keeps the transcript from 2 years at OSU in Corvallis from 1961-1963?), reference letters, fingerprints and the medical review. The medical review process was very time consuming. Try getting into a specialty spine clinic for a back problem you don't currently have... I am fortunate to have a primary care doc willing to spend the time to go thru old records and fill out the forms in detail. Medical clearance came thru 2 mlonths after the forms went off in the mail. Thank you Dr. Holly Keevil!

Then I waited and waited. I really wanted a Latin American assignment and was asked to submit a language assessment. At this point the process went from time consuming to frustrating. Randy Pausch in his great book, The Last Lecture, said that brick walls are there to let you know how much you want something. That pretty much sums it up.

About in April, I chose to live "as if". As if I would be going to serve somewhere in September. The Peace Corps gives about 2 months between invitation and departure. This wasn't going to give me time to resign a job, rent my house, put my belongings in storage and figure out how to manage finances while out of the country for 2 years. So I went ahead "as if" and by the time the invitation came, I'd resigned, made arrangements to rent my house and a hundred other details with no idea how it would all work out.

Then July 3, the friendly Fedex man rang my doorbell with the invitation. I was so excited, I raced to my friend Helen's house to open it with her. She wasn't home from work yet and I was too excited to wait. So I raced back home with the invitation sitting there like a bomb about to explode. I kept thinking, "What if it is Peru???" As soon as I got home, I opened the packet and there it was--Peru in September. Not much sleep that night--I kept waking up thinking, "Peru, I'm going to Peru". I am so happy with this assignment. 3 weeks away!