I just recently received in the mail my medical kit for the Peace Corps last Friday, about a week after my official nomination. It arrived in a large envelope, and contained many, many forms. True to what any preliminary documentation states, anything you marked “Yes” to on your medical checklist during the application phase will have follow-up documentation in this kit.
Read More…

So, I’m totally psyched right now, ’cause I just got off the phone with an official at the Boston office of the Peace Corps and woo! – I’ve been Nominated to a Computer Science program in sub-Saharan Africa!
Read More…

Again, I met with Carmen (my PC recruiter) downtown, but this time at another coffee shop due to Muddy’s being closed on Mondays. My intent in speaking with her this time around was to glean a better idea on the culture in Uganda (where she served) and the rest of Africa, with the hope that her response would prompt me to add Africa as a preferred region to my application. She was successful.
Read More…

I’m going to go and see Carmen (my PC interviewer) again tomorrow evening to talk about Africa. I have so little real knowledge about Africa, except for what I hear on the news, that I’ve developed a rather biased and, unfortunately, negative view of the entire continent. Conversely, I have more positive feelings about Eastern Europe, although I think that’s primarily due to not hearing about it much in the news.

It all comes down to what I’ve been spoon-fed by the media, and frankly, I don’t really trust it to give me a whole, unbiased view of anything, really. There’s always two sides to an equation, and most of the time, I think, we’re only ever shown one side of it. Anyway, moving on…
Read More…

So, I had my interview last night with the local Peace Corps recruiter. We met at a local coffee shop, Muddy Waters, where we talked for about three hours. Her name was Carmen, and she served in Uganda back in the mid 1990s. Very nice lady.
Read More…

Quick recap so far:

I submitted my volunteer application and health status review on June 20th. About a week later, around the 28th or 29th, I started receiving mail from the Peace Corps, including a large envelope containing fingerprint forms, skill addendums, background check forms, and so on and so forth. Included were two informational sheets on programs I had qualified for: Computer Science, and Health Extension.

Most of those forms were easy to fill out, but the skills addendum for the Computer Science program took several hours and 7 (yes, seven) pages, typed and single spaced, to provide all necessary information. In contrast, I was able to fill out the Health Extension skills addendum quickly, in about a minute. Needless to say, I think I know which position I’m most qualified for.
Read More…

So, I was out on a hike a couple weeks ago with some friends, and the topic of the Peace Corps came up. It was only a passing comment, and I didn’t give it much thought at first; I had considered the Corps about four years ago when I graduated from college, and at the time I decided it really wasn’t for me. But this time, the idea kinda, well, stuck.
Read More…