Thursday, October 28, 2010

Where I might go

So, today I decided to figure out which countries counted as eastern Europe and Central Asia. Apparently, in those regions are Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Macedonia, Romania, Kazakhstan, kyrgyz republic, and Turkmenistan.Those countries are arranged alphabetically except for the Ukraine and Moldova. If I could choose, I think I would choose the Ukraine in Eastern Europe and Armenia in Central Asia.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Application through Nomination

I started my journey towards a peace corps invitation in the fall of 2009. I finished my application in March of 2010. But the tricky part about the whole thing, independent of whether I get invited or not, has been waiting for information. After I applied, I interviewed with a recruiter who then nominated me. As part of the deal, I had to obtain 30 hours of ESL tutoring experience. From June to August I tutored people in English and by the first couple of weeks in September, I had surpassed the required thirty hours. Looking back on it now, volunteering for thirty hours was the easy part. Over those same months, I also completed the medical and dental paperwork. I had to get an in depth physical and the required blood tests. I also had to get various vaccinations. After I submitted the paperwork, it took about a month for it to be processed. I have now been medically cleared to serve if I am invited. When they were done, the medical office passed my file along to the placement office who will determine if I am competitive and suitable enough to receive an invitation. According the to the website, 8000 people are nominated and 5000 are invited. Hopefully, I will not be in the third of people who do not receive invitations. I have spent hours tutoring people in English, including someone who did not know how to read, and I think the hardest part of the whole process has been waiting for the placement office to decide one way or another. I knew I would get the necessary thirty hours, and I knew I would be medically cleared. Since I don't really know the background of the people I am competing against or the background of those who have not received invitations in the past, I have no way of determining the probability of being invited. So, the next month or the next months will probably be the hardest part of the whole process. I am sure if I get invited, serving overseas will be much more challenging, but as someone who likes to be able to plan, not being able to plan my future because I don't know where I will be in six months is difficult. It is hard to be motivated to find a full time job because I might be leaving the country soon, while at the same time it is hard to be content at the job I have because if I am not going to be leaving the country, I ought to be looking more carefully for suitable employment, despite the poor economy. I figured I'd start my peace corps blog now, in case I do get invited. Hopefully I'll be able to post good news soon.

-Courtney