Last days in Madison

Wow, 2 weeks from today, I'll be checking into the Peace Corps training at the Holiday Inn, Georgetown, Washington DC. I'm flying in a day early to spend the evening with Jenni, Jeff and Alex. Congratulations Jenni and Jeff on your engagement! I'll be flying back from Peru for a wedding sometime next year!

I'm down to the wire on packing and last minutes details like how I'll get my taxes done while I'm gone. My friend Helen is now on my bank account so if you hear she's living in Paris in a little bungalow... I've been out of my house for 2 weeks staying with Norma and that's a relief--glad to be done packing up the house. I had a totally wonderful 2 weeks in the mountains in Montana where Edward left me with his house, car and fresh trout in the frig. I slept, hiked, practiced yoga, read and ate good food.

I'll be in DC over the weekend for Alex's 4th birthday, then back to Madison for one last week of packing and goodbyes.

I'm really looking forward to meeting the others in my group after reading their on-line bios and notes. It's too late to worry any more about my Spanish, I got what I got now!

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!

Getting started

There’s a long road between a dream of going into the Peace Corps in 1966 and my invitation to serve in Peru in 2008! The idea was dormant for years and then in 2006, I began to explore work in international health.

Starting point

• I talked with Ann Downer, faculty in Global Health at U of Washington and my sister's neighbor. She helped me realize that jobs in global health are hard to come by without prior international experience either paid or as a volunteer. Gave me suggestions about organizations for volunteer work and suggested Peace Corps.
• I read a lot about volunteer work in international health, contacted organizations and realized I wanted to live in another culture for a period of time rather than volunteer for 3-6 months.
• Read Finding Work in Global Health.
• Read Mountains Beyond Mountains: Healing the World: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer.
• Read Hope in Hell: Inside the World of Doctors Without Borders. While I have great respect for the work of this organization, when I closed the book, I let go of any fantasy of working with them. Way beyond my level of risk-taking.
• Met with Lori DiPrete Brown, faculty in the Global Health Department here at UW Madison. She gave me so many ideas that I left with my head spinning! And signed up for class fall semester 2006.
• First class—Global Epidemiology. Totally fascinating with outstanding lecturers. I felt like I’d been living in a VERY small world and wanted to learn more. Loved the reading.
• Second class—Health and Disease in Uganda. Again I was totally engrossed and encouraged by the professor, Cindy Haq.
• Third class—International Health Systems gave me a solid overview of the agencies and systems. More encouragement from professor Linda Bauman.
• Fourth class—Foundations in Global Health. While I was an audit student for the classes, in the prior classes I did the reading and showed up for class. For this class, Lori DiPrete Brown asked that I do all the homework. That kicked me into gear to write letter of inquiry to 3 organizations as well as do an intensive study of one country (Nicaragua—wish I’d known I was going to Peru!)

Taking the classes was terrific. One of the more helpful aspects was exploring the difference between disaster relief, humanitarian aid and development work. I moved from daydreaming to concrete planning once I knew I wanted to work in grassroots community development. All roads were leading to the Peace Corps but then there was the application process… More about that later.