Disclaimer

This website reflects my own personal views and not that of the U.S. Government nor, more specifically, the Peace Corps.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Good-byes and Hellos.

It has been an interesting past couple of weeks: weeks of discovery. You never really recognize the strength of the friendships you currently have until time and fate (circumstance) threatens to pull you away from them like clock whose ticks grow lowder and tocks race closer to the hour of reckoning. Maybe it is because we take the friendships we have and situations and circumstances we've been given for granted when we are able to settle back into life's comfy brown leather couch. You tend to looks past its slight tears and minute flaws. It just becomes a brown leather couch the more and more you sit on it. As I've noted these circumstances of life in my head, I feel a need for much more active appreciation; an active appreciation of all of my surroundings: objects and people. So, as time creeps closer for me to embark on my journey, I grow closer to those I love and appreciate, and oh how I appreciate them so much more. Just the other day, I was at a sort of "send off" party for my friend who's leaving for Central/South America, when I noticed my friend Kristi had the same bag as I had recently ordered online. I asked her about it, and instead of continuing on with her conversation elsewhere, she took the time to explain everything about it to me. Not only was she excited about her bag, but she was excited to share it with me. It took me aback. I, and everyone else, know that she is an amazing caring person, but it takes moments like that for you to realize how lucky you are to have the friends that you do. I'm leaving for another country and so is one of my friends, and together we realized that it is not a sad event but a happy one. All of my close friends are leading their lives to very exciting places.

On the other end of this odd spectrum, I have for some reason barraged and been barraged by countless posts/messages/statuses on facebook about, from and to all of these new people who I am soon to meet. Never have we met face to face. In fact, we have barely known eachother's names for more than a week, I'd guess, yet we are all so excited about this new adventure half-way across the world, that we cannot contain that excitement and feel the utmost need to ask the most ridiculous of questions: "Should I buy the $52 English-Khmer dictionary or the $14 concise version?" How often in your life do you ask that sort of a question to someone you barely know. I can tell you; it's at the moment when life not threatens, but gives you a sm...big push into a scary, exciting, adventurous, unknown path filled with 600lbs cat fish and sting-rays with 14ft wingspans. Now, that is a path you don't head into very often. But, it's here, and I'm ready for it, and, so it seems, is everyone else joining me.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Official


It is now official. I have received my invitation and sent in my letter of acceptance to the Peace Corps Placement Office.
I will be a Health Education Extension Agent in Cambodia.
Staging:
San Francisco: July 20 - 21st
Pre-Service Training:
Cambodia: July 22nd - September 30th
Peace Corps Volunteership (fingers crossed)
Cambodia: September 30th 2010 - September 30th 2012
Talk to you soon.


Monday, June 7, 2010

The Beginning

So, as many of you who know me understand and many who don't do not, I am not currently in the Orient. I am in the United States awaiting such an adventure, such an opportunity.

So, let's start from the very beginning:

2009

January

- I begin my application for the Peace Corps

June

- All of my recommendation providers complete their online recommendations for me (thanks, guys!)

July

- I am contacted by my recruiter stating that he would like to meet with me in person, if at all possible, to conduct an interview.
-I arrive at the LA Regional Recruiting Office and my interview begins. Before our conversation ceases, my recruiter states that he would like to nominate my for Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) in Eastern Europe (that part was my guess). The stipulation is that he would have to continually have to pull my file so that it is not tossed aside due to the economic condition of our country and the availability of programs.

August - January

- Severe doubt sets in about whether or not the Peace Corps is for me. I wonder why I should be teaching English to citizens of third-world countries. Am I impeding on deep-rooted cultures that should be left alone. What am I to accomplish?

2010

February

February 7th:
- I have an epiphany that these countries request help from the Peace Corps, not the other way around. I realize that not only are these projects real issues that need tending to but that I am ready to do what is needed

February 11th:
- I receive a call from my recruiter notifying me that he is officially nominating me for Water Sanitation Extension in Central/South America departing August 2010

March

I receive my medical packet.

March 7th - 21st:
- I complete a rigorous amount of medical and dental tests and procedure including the extraction of 8 viles of blood. Medical Packet is sent in.

March 31st:
- Medical packet is received by the Office of Medical Services (OMS)

April

April 7th:
-Dentally cleared!

May

May 27th:
-Medically cleared worldwide!

June

June 3rd:
- I follow up with my Placement Officer (PO) about some updated materials requested only to have that followed by, "What have you done to prepare yourself for the Peace Corps?" An invitation was now in the mail for "Water Sanitation/Health Extension" for Southeast Asia departing July 20th.


I am currently awaiting my invitation to come in the mail. I am thinking that it will arrive either tomorrow or Wednesday. My guess: Cambodia. Why? Because the Peace Corps Wiki says so, and it's pretty accurate.

So, now you are up-to-date. The only thing I have left to do aside from await the opportunity to call my PO and say, "WHY, YES! I WOULD LOVE TO SERVE IN THE ORIENT! It's only my dream to do so." is figure out whether or not I can return to the U.S. in December for my only brother's wedding. So, let's cross our fingers on that one.

"Yet half I seemed to recognize some trick
Of mischief happened to me, God knows when--
In a bad dream perhaps. Here ended, then,
Progress this way. When, in the very nick
Of giving up, one time more, came a click
As when a trap shut--you're inside the den!"

- Robert Browning

--I'm really going to the Orient...