so it begins.
Where to start...
I applied for the Peace Corps in September 2009 after graduating with a degree in Communications and Political Science from Western Washington University last June. As with most hopeful volunteers, the application process was a long, tedious and incredibly stressful one; and unfortunately, is not quite over for me just yet... but I'll touch on that later.
I was originally nominated for Youth Development in Eastern Europe leaving September 2010. Post interview and just slightly pre nomination, in attempt to become a "more competitive applicant" I began to pursue all things medical/health care related. I began volunteering with the American Red Cross of King and Kitsap counties as a youth basic aid and disaster preparedness instructor and went back to school for a short program to become a Certified Nursing Assistant. After completing the program I began working as a nursing assistant at a rehabilitation and nursing facility and eventually moved to the cardiac care unit of my local hospital. It seemed my new found experience wasn't going to apply to my assignment at all until I got a call in late June asking me if I would be interested in leaving for Sub-Saharan Africa on July 19th for HIV/AIDS development. I was completely caught off guard with this. For starters, I hadn't even been medically cleared yet. The Office of Medical Services had not even begun reviewing my file. This potential assignment was nothing like my nomination and it was leaving very soon. Most surprising to me, a placement officer had come across my specific application and essentially seemed to have hand picked me for this assignment. I felt honored and was bursting with excitement, so naturally I accepted. My medical file was then expedited. The backwards nature of this is where things got complicated. To make a long story short, some inaccurate paperwork filled out by my doctor stated I had a very severe egg allergy and could not receive the proper vaccinations (which contain eggs) to serve in Zambia (which the OMS slipped to me by accident was the country of assignment). In the past I had a very mild egg allergy, with no reaction to any vaccines like the flu shot and could have/can receive all of the necessary vaccinations. But alas, I could not provide documentation of this in the short 24 hour period the program was closing and the Peace Corps doesn't take any risks with these things anyway. They offered me an assignment and then told me not only was I not fit to serve in that country, I couldn't serve in the entire continent of Africa specifically because of that allergy. Needless to say, I was devastated.
I then received another call in early July asking if I would be interested in an assignment in Sub-Saharan Africa for HIV/AIDS development leaving on August 9th. Apparently OMS informed my placement officer that they were going to medically clear me after all (after receiving new information pertaining to my egg allergy) but that they also needed some additional documentation resubmitted because portions of this paperwork were left blank with a "please see attached documentation" referring to medical records my doctor attached with the PC forms, but PC wanted their forms filled out in their entirety. It appeared now my egg allergy wasn't an issue, and the additional paperwork didn't seem to be an issue either. Extremely skeptical, I decided to sleep on this one. I mulled it over and of course, accepted with great excitement. This again got complicated. Turns out they had offered this spot to someone before me who had several years HIV/AIDS specific experience, but when they did not hear back from that person they contacted me. That person contacted them accepting right before I did and thus the spot went to them. Africa fell through for a second time. This time I was really devastated. Talk about taking candy away from a baby... TWICE.
About a week after the second major Africa disappointment my placement officer called me regarding a Community Health assignment in the Pacific Islands. My immediate response: Pacific Islands? Pffff, no way. Send me to Africa. My placement officer did not seem to enjoy this very much... and I can say without hesitation I was quite a handful for him. I'm incredibly grateful for the patience he had with me, and after actually considering the Pacific Islands and realizing that the Peace Corps didn't intend for the two previously failed assignment offers to happen the way they did, I ceased my personal vendetta and accepted the assignment with growing excitement.
As the last few weeks have progressed and I received my infamous blue packet in the mail my excitement is hardly even containable. I'm bursting at the seams with it. My departure date is 38 days away (9/10/2010) and I have so much to do and so little time! I'm completely thrilled I get to serve in a unique and beautiful place like the Pacific Islands, specifically Vanuatu.
I'm not completely in the clear yet though, and that does make me incredibly nervous and anxious and is the reason why it took me so long to get this blog up. At present, I'm neither medically or dentally cleared... so things still have the potential to fall through. I can't imagine things falling through again, especially not at this stage. I'm currently not medically cleared because of the aforementioned paperwork I had to resubmit. I can't imagine anything would go wrong with that as it's the same information already presented to them, just more formally. But I still can't help fretting about it and wondering if they'll find something glaringly rejectable about it this time around. Before they offered me the second Africa assignment they did say they were going to medically clear me once they received the additional paperwork. It makes me nervous though... like REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY nervous. Especially since I can't even get anyone to return my calls saying they at least received my fax with the updated paperwork. As far as dental goes, well... that's not even my fault so if something goes wrong with that suffice to say I envision blind rage. The dental office somehow lost my x-rays when I originally submitted them. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, they LOST a major portion of my dental file, and not a cheap one. So after a few months of trying to sort that out and getting the rest of my dental file returned to me, my dentist's office was nice enough to send them additional films and I just mailed out the rest of my file that they returned to me just last week and I have no idea if they've received them.
So anyway, fingers and toes crossed that everything goes smoothly this time. My two weeks are in at my job and I've started packing things away at my parents house, budgeting, gathering supplies, and so on. FINGERS AND TOES CROSSED, EVERYONE. please :)
I applied for the Peace Corps in September 2009 after graduating with a degree in Communications and Political Science from Western Washington University last June. As with most hopeful volunteers, the application process was a long, tedious and incredibly stressful one; and unfortunately, is not quite over for me just yet... but I'll touch on that later.
I was originally nominated for Youth Development in Eastern Europe leaving September 2010. Post interview and just slightly pre nomination, in attempt to become a "more competitive applicant" I began to pursue all things medical/health care related. I began volunteering with the American Red Cross of King and Kitsap counties as a youth basic aid and disaster preparedness instructor and went back to school for a short program to become a Certified Nursing Assistant. After completing the program I began working as a nursing assistant at a rehabilitation and nursing facility and eventually moved to the cardiac care unit of my local hospital. It seemed my new found experience wasn't going to apply to my assignment at all until I got a call in late June asking me if I would be interested in leaving for Sub-Saharan Africa on July 19th for HIV/AIDS development. I was completely caught off guard with this. For starters, I hadn't even been medically cleared yet. The Office of Medical Services had not even begun reviewing my file. This potential assignment was nothing like my nomination and it was leaving very soon. Most surprising to me, a placement officer had come across my specific application and essentially seemed to have hand picked me for this assignment. I felt honored and was bursting with excitement, so naturally I accepted. My medical file was then expedited. The backwards nature of this is where things got complicated. To make a long story short, some inaccurate paperwork filled out by my doctor stated I had a very severe egg allergy and could not receive the proper vaccinations (which contain eggs) to serve in Zambia (which the OMS slipped to me by accident was the country of assignment). In the past I had a very mild egg allergy, with no reaction to any vaccines like the flu shot and could have/can receive all of the necessary vaccinations. But alas, I could not provide documentation of this in the short 24 hour period the program was closing and the Peace Corps doesn't take any risks with these things anyway. They offered me an assignment and then told me not only was I not fit to serve in that country, I couldn't serve in the entire continent of Africa specifically because of that allergy. Needless to say, I was devastated.
I then received another call in early July asking if I would be interested in an assignment in Sub-Saharan Africa for HIV/AIDS development leaving on August 9th. Apparently OMS informed my placement officer that they were going to medically clear me after all (after receiving new information pertaining to my egg allergy) but that they also needed some additional documentation resubmitted because portions of this paperwork were left blank with a "please see attached documentation" referring to medical records my doctor attached with the PC forms, but PC wanted their forms filled out in their entirety. It appeared now my egg allergy wasn't an issue, and the additional paperwork didn't seem to be an issue either. Extremely skeptical, I decided to sleep on this one. I mulled it over and of course, accepted with great excitement. This again got complicated. Turns out they had offered this spot to someone before me who had several years HIV/AIDS specific experience, but when they did not hear back from that person they contacted me. That person contacted them accepting right before I did and thus the spot went to them. Africa fell through for a second time. This time I was really devastated. Talk about taking candy away from a baby... TWICE.
About a week after the second major Africa disappointment my placement officer called me regarding a Community Health assignment in the Pacific Islands. My immediate response: Pacific Islands? Pffff, no way. Send me to Africa. My placement officer did not seem to enjoy this very much... and I can say without hesitation I was quite a handful for him. I'm incredibly grateful for the patience he had with me, and after actually considering the Pacific Islands and realizing that the Peace Corps didn't intend for the two previously failed assignment offers to happen the way they did, I ceased my personal vendetta and accepted the assignment with growing excitement.
As the last few weeks have progressed and I received my infamous blue packet in the mail my excitement is hardly even containable. I'm bursting at the seams with it. My departure date is 38 days away (9/10/2010) and I have so much to do and so little time! I'm completely thrilled I get to serve in a unique and beautiful place like the Pacific Islands, specifically Vanuatu.
I'm not completely in the clear yet though, and that does make me incredibly nervous and anxious and is the reason why it took me so long to get this blog up. At present, I'm neither medically or dentally cleared... so things still have the potential to fall through. I can't imagine things falling through again, especially not at this stage. I'm currently not medically cleared because of the aforementioned paperwork I had to resubmit. I can't imagine anything would go wrong with that as it's the same information already presented to them, just more formally. But I still can't help fretting about it and wondering if they'll find something glaringly rejectable about it this time around. Before they offered me the second Africa assignment they did say they were going to medically clear me once they received the additional paperwork. It makes me nervous though... like REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY nervous. Especially since I can't even get anyone to return my calls saying they at least received my fax with the updated paperwork. As far as dental goes, well... that's not even my fault so if something goes wrong with that suffice to say I envision blind rage. The dental office somehow lost my x-rays when I originally submitted them. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, they LOST a major portion of my dental file, and not a cheap one. So after a few months of trying to sort that out and getting the rest of my dental file returned to me, my dentist's office was nice enough to send them additional films and I just mailed out the rest of my file that they returned to me just last week and I have no idea if they've received them.
So anyway, fingers and toes crossed that everything goes smoothly this time. My two weeks are in at my job and I've started packing things away at my parents house, budgeting, gathering supplies, and so on. FINGERS AND TOES CROSSED, EVERYONE. please :)
2 Response to so it begins.
Good luck with all of your clearances- I know how nervewrecking it is. I can't imagine having gone through two disappointments like you did! Hope to see ya at training!
I'm going September 10th as well!! I'm sure we'll meet at staging... Melissa is my name :)
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