First Attempt

I have never been one to blog. Generally, I prefer to keep my private life...you know...private. Call me paranoid, but the thought of having my own inner thoughts floating around cyber space makes me a little bit uncomfortable. However, as I prepare to embark on the great adventure that is the United States Peace Corps, I find myself wanting to record every detail of this long, exciting, and at times, nerve-wracking and arduous journey (and maybe connect with current, returned and future PCVs along the way!). 

Before you get too excited. No. I'm not in country yet. In fact, I don't even know where I'm going...which is part of the excitement! Ah the great unknown. How fabulous it is to leave your life in the hands of fate!...(And by fate I most definitely mean the Peace Corps Placement Office...) 

Here's what's happened so far:

*End of July: Finally finished the long application--references, essays, and all--that I had been putting of for far too long. About two day later I was contacted by my recruiter and we set up a phone interview for the following week.

*August 5: The date of my official nomination (at least according to my toolkit. My recruiter had actually nominated me at the end of my interview several days earlier). The nomination? Sub-Saharan Africa, Health Extension, June 2009. Victory #1! *reenacts the screams of joy and silly victory dance.*

*August 8: The daunting medical kit arrives in the mail and my excitement slowly dwindles. Doctors. *sigh* I hate doctors.

*September 15: Finally ship off my completed medical kit, after over a month of driving my doctors nuts with pages and pages of forms.

*September 17ish: Dentally cleared! Victory #2!

*September 26: Toolkit update! OMS has officially received my medical kit. Victory #2.5!

*November 19: After 7.5 weeks of NOTHING, my nurse calls. MEDICALLY CLEARED! No additional info needed...VICTORY #3!!!!!!!!!!!!

...So that's where I stand folks. Medically cleared and ready to go...pending Invite. Which could come in a few weeks, or a few months. Or, if I choose to be a pessimistic...never. But I prefer to pretend that's not an option. So for now, I wait. So far, the June invites to Africa have been to Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar and Togo. While I wait,  its fun to watch the June invites slowly roll in and guess which country will be my future home for 27 months.

So it goes.