Monday, August 10, 2009

Baxter Bark 3 times if your in Milwaukee!

The verdict: Lesotho! I recieved my formal invitation in the mail on August 5th to serve as a secondary ed science teacher. Staging date set for November 11th. I checked the mail on the way to band practice and there it was, I couldnt contain myself I yelled in my car for a few seconds. After a year in the application process the reward finally came. A thick blue packet contained in a FedEx envelope. I do find it very amusing that a government agency such as the Peace Corps uses FedEx instead of USPS, that must tell you something about the state of US mail. I spent some time reading over the large number of packets and called the next day to accept my invitation. The PO started asking me questions about what my job will entail and secondary projects I will be doing which kind of caught me off guard, but she seemed to be happy when I mentioned something about creating "income generating projects" score. Today I sent off the material for the Peace Corps passport which I will recieve at staging. Tomorrow I will write my aspiration statement and forward it along with "another" updated resume to the Lesotho PC office. This is quickly becoming a reality and day by day I realize more things I need to take care of. Someone created a Peace Corps Lesotho November 09 group so I have slowly been able to meet people I will be serving with which is pretty cool.





So I have been trying to decide when I'm going to leave my job. I'm pretty much set on leaving the last week of september. That will give me almost six weeks to get the last of everything in place and more importantly visit friends and family, without having to worry about working. Sorry if this post has been scatterbrained, way to much to process!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

If You've Got an Impulse Let it Out!

So Peace Corps Headquarters must have read my blog I published last night. No sooner than five hours after I posted it I recieved an email saying that my Peace Corps status has been updated. When I checked it said I had been invited to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer!!!!!!!!! I honestly have not felt so happy/excited/accomplished since I got my acceptance letter from the University of Florida five years ago. Now the waiting game and mail man stalking begins, waiting for the coveted FedEx envelope which will tell me the exact country and leave date. I have a strong feeling it will be either Kenya (Nov 2nd) or Lesotho (Nov 10th). Either way it leaves about 3 months left in the States. So much work to do... money to save, one last bill to pay off, friends and family to see, job to quit, and supplies to buy.
Thanks everyone for your support and if you have any questions about the process let me know. I'll post a blog in a few days when I get the information in the mail. From what I hear there is still a bunch of paperwork to fill out and visas/passport to acquire!

Where is my mind?

It seems completely surreal to me that its already August. It's hard to believe that I have been nominated for almost nine months, when I look back that seems so long ago. I have been fortunate enough to keep my most idle mind busy for the most part, which makes the weeks go by pretty fast, especially when you dont hear anything from PC HQ for months at a time. I hope to hear from Placement soon so I can start making arrangements or so I can atleast start making other career options for the future and get back in school. As I have heard from the beginning the entire process is truely a test of patience. If I get invited for one of the two November dates (Kenya or Lesotho) it will mean my entire application will have taken just over a year. In two weeks is the tattoo convention and i'm going to see the Counting Crows with the parents so atleast I have somethings coming up to keep me busy. 3 more nights at work and then 4 day weekend, let the festivities begin!