Winding Up

I am going to wind up this blog with an account of my last few days in the States.

The road trip was a great way to spend my last days with Mark. Along the way, I started to get to know this new camera I bought.

We started out in Palm Desert, drove to Santa Fe to visit my sister, then drove north to Minnesota, via Deadwood SD.



Mark and I made it to Deadwood just in time for a street show for tourists: A re-enactment of a gunfight, complete with real guns (loaded with blanks, of course).

Mark was not terribly impressed with Deadwood after all. The whole town has become a tourist trap of casinos lining both sides of the main drag, with a few moth-eaten museums and souvenir shops. Even the Gem Saloon has been converted to a full-out casino. About the only historic thing that hasn't been turned into either a museum or a casino was the Bullock Hotel. Gambling has ruined this town.

We did go up to the cemetery to see Wild Bill's grave. It was peaceful up there, with deer grazing on the graves and the wind blowing through the pines.

What Mark really did enjoy was Wall Drug. Maybe the fact that Deadwood should have been a historic place but instead was a tourist place, while Wall was quite obviously nothing if NOT a tourist place? Anyway, we ate breakfast at Wall Drug and toured the premises, enjoying the displays of dinosaurs and jackalopes, and bought a few postcards.

Then it was on to Minneapolis. We arrived just in time for a party at my sister's house. Just a small party on her patio, but she had invited my old best friend (my longest active friendship!) Hamsa and her sweetie, Cindy. Of course, my mom was there too.

Mark and I got a chance to tour around St. Paul a bit while we were in town. Then unfortunately he had to fly off back to Seattle, while I repacked everything for Morocco, trying to fit all my stuff into my three bags without overloading.

Then on Tuesday, it was off to Philly for Staging. One bag did come in overweight; I had to pull out my blank books, journal and sketchbook, and hand them to my Mom to take back to her place.

In Philly, I met my fellow trainees. There are 63 of us; 25 in the Small Business Development program. Staging was mostly about breaking the ice and getting to know each other. These other volunteers will be my support network here in Morocco, so it's a good start. Tuesday night a bunch of us went for dinner at an Italian, family-style restaurant. The proprietors treated us to free wine when they found out we were headed to Morocco for service. Last alcohol for a long time! The food was delicious.

This is my last entry in this blog. My next one will be in a new, Moroccan blog, and it will be published as soon as I can think of an appropriate title. It may be awhile, and when I do inaugurate it, there will be several posts at once, as it may be awhile between Internet access times.

I will miss my family and friends, but look forward to the adventure that lies ahead.

Somewhere in Eastern Wyoming

Mark and I are on our way to Deadwood, South Dakota. He has been jonesing for a visit to Deadwood since watching the HBO series about three years ago. We’ve traveled here from Palm Desert, California, where all of my worldly goods are presently stored.

Getting my apartment taken apart and all my things packed and transported to storage was a huge task, requiring a Herculean effort on both our parts. Terry helped too. Prior to the big move-out weekend, my sister came and helped me stage a moving sale, which was another huge effort, and had disappointing results, as I was unable to sell any of the larger items; furniture I did not want to store. Much of that stuff – sofa, armchair, 8-drawer dresser, TV stand, storage cabinet and shelf unit – ended up unsold, going instead to charity, along with an enormous pile of boxes filled with stuff I wanted to part with.

Even so, the sheer number of items to be packed and stored was overwhelming. At times, while Mark contemplated bolting for the airport and leaving me to my unwieldy task, and Terry complained and threatened to go home, I, like a robotic automaton, just kept stuffing things into boxes, one thing after another thing after another, thinking, I should just walk away from it all, forfeit my rental deposit and plan to live like a monk upon my return from the Corps. Such grief my materialism is causing me.

In the end, we did get everything stored, though my planned 10' x 7.5' space grew to 10' x 10' and then to an additional 5' x 5' space for a few remainders that just wouldn’t fit in the main space (though I’m quite proud of how little was actually left over once the larger space was filled). It will cost me about double what I’d planned to spend on the smaller space. There is no getting around the price I’ll be paying for my acquisitiveness. What is really shocking is, even though I got rid of so much, I still had so much left over! I admit this surprised me. I guess, when you live in a place for 12+ years, accumulation is the usual case. Acquisitiveness is an American disease; I think it would be safe to say that I have far less stuff than many in similar circumstances, especially in California.

In fact, it was partly my discomfort with living a life that is based on working to get money to acquire more and more consumer goods that predisposed me to look for radical change. I know my earlier cross-cultural experiences changed me; I can only hope that Morocco will effect a change in this aspect of my life.

So far the road trip has been pretty nice. The highlight was Prescott, AZ. We stayed at the Hassayampa Inn, a beautiful old historic hotel in the middle of downtown. Prescott is charming, with lots of nice restaurants and lovely old buildings. The Hassayampa was like a luxury hotel, but actually quite affordable. We visited my sister in Santa Fe and then made our way up through Colorado and Wyoming. Tomorrow we should be in South Dakota, then it's on to Minnesota to deliver the car to my mom. Hi, Mom!

Vain Hope

In my last post I wrote, "As my staging event approaches, I hope to be able to write blog posts more frequently..." Ha!

Life has been so hectic, and I've had so much to do, felt so much stress, that I cannot remember a more difficult time. I wish I could say I'm handling it with grace, but I am not. I'm peevish and snap at the people I love, and I know I'll regret this even more later, feeling their absence from my life. I already do feel bad, as soon as my temper calms. Then I shift to feeling sad, about the loss of my home and my routines, and at my own imperfections. My orderly, boring little life is disintegrating, and my unease is causing nightmares for the first time since I can remember.

I wonder if I've made a huge mistake. I wonder if I'm really as resilient as I thought. What was I thinking? I also know that I'm my own worst enemy when I cheat myself of the necessities of exercise, rest, meditation and good nutrition (I've been eating a lot of hurried, fast-food meals: NOT my usual fare!). Yet this is the time I'm least able to give myself permission to take these things. I'd better turn over a new leaf, and fast. Starting tomorrow, I am going to get at least a half-hour a day for the exercise, at least 15 for the meditation, and I will make a greater effort to get to bed early. As for the food, it will be a little easier now that the madness of the last sale is over.

Speaking of the sale, I have to say it was a mixed outcome. I did sell a lot of junk for nickles and dimes, and yes, I got rid of a lot of little things, which is nice, but I had hoped to sell the larger things too, which would have made the huge effort worth the outcome. As it is, I still have most of the furniture I'd hoped would go. A couple hundred dollars for three days work is hardly a good return, and I'm left thinking I would have been better off giving that junk to a charity shop and focusing on selling the larger items -- yet I have listed all those larger items on classified ad sites as well, so perhaps that isn't the right way to think about it.

Anyway, what's done is done. I have one more day to pack, four more days at work and perhaps a few hours of evening time on three of them, to finish getting everything ready to go into storage. God bless my wonderful family and friends, who are all so supportive! My sister is leaving tomorrow, having helped me with the sale, and my dearest good buddy Mark will be here on Thursday night, to help me get the remainder done, the van loaded and the apartment cleared. I'm treating myself to 90 minutes of professional cleaning service to finish up my obligations to my landlord, and once all my belongings are in the storage locker, Mark and I will leave for our road trip. That time will probably be the biggest blessing of all: One week with no obligations and plenty of time to catch all the little tasks I may have missed in my rushing around.

Tonight is also the last night I will spend with my little furry friend. My sister is taking my cat back to my mother's townhouse. She will live there while I'm in Morocco. I feel very sad about saying goodbye to her. I know she'll be well taken care of, but I know it will be hard on her, and she will wonder why her life has suddenly been so disrupted, with the loss of home and companion. I will feel very bad if her health suffers, as it well may. She is 13 years old, and although healthy, she's had a pretty stable life and has lived 11 of those years in one apartment, which she's now going to leave forever.

Well, I do need to get some sleep now so I will write more later.

As my Staging event approaches, I hope to be able to write blog entries more frequently. These last few weeks have been more hectic than I would have believed, but I think I'm "over the hump" now. So I'll first update readers of this blog on my last three weeks, and then hopefully add new entries as things proceed.

I am now only 4 weeks from departure. So much still to do! It has been a busy few weeks. I can't tell you about it all, too much has happened. So here are some of the highlights:

First of all, I think there is an angel looking out for me. In mid-July, I went to see the dentist because I felt a small, slightly painful lump on just below my lower molar on the right side. I had had a root canal there a few years ago. Anyway, the dentist wanted me to go on penicillin and "wait and see" if it would go away. When I pointed out I didn't have the time to wait and see, he referred me to a specialist. Well. It is a darn good thing that that little bubble appeared when it did. It turned out I had a "failed root canal," with lots of infection, leading to oral surgery. It wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't exactly painful, either, what with Novocaine and all. The infection has been cleaned out, the cause of the problem removed, and healing is now proceeding. The endodontist tells me that all that's left to do is heal up. No problems on the horizon. What a blessing that this happened BEFORE I left for Morocco! Anyway, the surgery and the post-op healing have been just one more thing in my life, so I guess that's at least some excuse for why I'm behind in my blogging, no?

Then the week following the surgery, my mom arrived for a good long weekend of packing. We got my entire library packed (which was a VERY big job)! In addition, we packed up some of the kitchen stuff, and she spent at least an afternoon wrapping sweaters for storage in a cedar-enhanced storage bag. Thanks, Mom! We also got to spend some great time together just enjoying each other. Goes without saying that was the best part of the visit.

While she was here, I mentioned that I was going to sell my car, and named the price I was planning to ask. Mom has an elderly Toyota that is suffering from "salt cancer," that bane of Minnesota vehicles. A California car with less than 50K miles, no rust, with a price of only $2K, sounded too good to pass up. So she is buying my car! I'm happy to have one less thing to sell, but how to get it to Minnesota? After some consultation with my best friend Mark, who knows about cars, and who would be my number one choice in the world to Road Trip with, the decision was made. Mark and I will DRIVE THAT CAR TO MINNESOTA! Woo-hoo! Road Trip! I'm so thrilled! Mark and I had talked about "some day" doing a road trip through the midwest. Mark's especially interested in visiting Deadwood. I haven't seen Deadwood myself, since the '70s (hopefully it hasn't changed much since then), but I LOVE traveling the highways of South Dakota, and I'm so psyched I'll be able to show Mark some of my favorite roadside attractions. It's another world up there. Most importantly, I'll get some quality time with my sweetie and best friend in the world, and Mom will get her car.

Meanwhile, I finally found a storage space I can afford. After much research, I found a small business with owners who wrote me that, "We can certainly help with your storage needs... We usually only guarantee rates for one year but we would definitely extend that for someone volunteering for such a worthwhile cause!" The space is out in the desert town of Palm Desert. It turns out the desert cities are the best storage bargain in Southern California, but more to the point, the climate there is much better for storage than out here on the Coast, where mildew is always a problem. So, that deal is sealed. Things are coming together! I feel so blessed!

So now I just have the grind of packing ahead of me. Also I have to purchase insurance, for stuff left behind and the equipment such as my laptop that I'll be taking with me, and making my travel arrangements. While there's still a lot to be done, I do feel on track. I've even started packing the stuff I've been setting aside for the journey.

Stay tuned; it only gets more interesting from here on.

My Santa Monica Life

I can't believe I am only 7 weeks away from my departure. How quickly the time has flown! I have been very busy, as you might expect, but it is no excuse for not keeping up with the Blog. I had hoped to do better, keeping a record of all that I had to do to transition myself to this new life, but the only thing to do is to renew my efforts to do more. In the past weeks, I have cleaned out more cupboards and sold more of my things. Some problems cropped up with my dental work and I have had to schedule some oral surgery for this week — best to get it done BEFORE I am in Morocco. I've gone through my wardrobe and found every single item that requires dry-cleaning and taken the lot to the cleaners (I won't tell you what the bill will be — I have to think of it as just another cost of storage). I've also had some blessed time to be with family and friends. I passed a milestone on Sunday: 58 years old now. Still more to do: research into storage options, scheduling of pet care and travel and notifications to just about everybody of my upcoming address changes.

I've been wanting to write a bit about what my life is like now, so that I can look back on this time when everything has changed. So I will do that now.

I live in Santa Monica, California. It's a nice little community in a big urban area. Mostly, Santa Monica is a very well-to-do place, so I'm something of an anomaly, in my little rent-controlled one-bedroom apartment. When I leave here, I will have to give up this apartment, because my landlady refuses to allow me to sublet. She wants to get more rent for it, I imagine. She has many properties and is very rich, and old, and I had hoped she wouldn't mind letting me keep my home while I'm serving my country for two years, but it didn't work out that way. So I must leave this apartment, and this community, most likely forever.

I work in Santa Monica, too, for a company that makes a great product. The company is Dakim, Inc. (www.dakim.com) The product is a Brain Fitness System. It's designed to help older people stave off dementia, while having fun playing games and puzzles, on a computer system that requires no keyboard or mouse, and is super-easy to use. The people who work at Dakim are some of the best people I've ever worked for (though I have been very lucky in my work-life, and have mostly worked with wonderful people). With my extensive background in computer games and multimedia, the work is very easy for me, and I'm delighted to be able to contribute to such a terrific enterprise.

Because I live and work in the same small community, I am able to ride my bike to work. Every workday, I get up, shower and dress and ride to work. In the afternoon, I often spend my lunch hour walking around the neighborhood. I ride how at night and spend the evening doing chores, watching the news, fixing dinner, and often spend time visiting with a good friend. On Saturdays I go to the Farmers' Market, where I buy fresh produce and other tasty treats. Every service and need is nearby, and I hardly need to drive my car anymore Since the economic downturn, my income has fallen quite a bit from where it was with my last job, but the income I make is quite sufficient to meet my needs and still put a little away for retirement. I have access to books and cable television and many other entertainments and distractions.

So my life is very easy and comfortable. I sometimes wonder why I'm so willing to give it all up for the unknown adventures of Moroccan Peace Corps service. It seems I have adventure in my soul, and whenever things are getting too comfortable and routine, I get restless and want to shake things up. The restlessness seems to come from some inner need to contribute something, to add my efforts to get this mixed-up world to spin in the right direction. I'll just end this post by saying that I feel strongly that I am making the right decision, even if I am somehow sad to say goodbye to my sweet little apartment, my wonderful co-workers, and my peaceful, prosperous little community.

My Favorite Michael Jackson Tribute

When the Media tells you there were tributes around the world, they really MEAN around the world:

The Family Reunion

This past weekend I went back to Minnesota for a visit. My Dad's side of the family held a reunion, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to let everyone know what I was up to. The reunion was held at my Dad's cousin's house near Ham Lake. It was a lot of fun, even though rain came in and chased everyone under the deck for awhile.

My grandfather's generation is represented by only two remaining family members: My grandfather's brother, Henry (Hank), and another brother's wife, Dolores. So they are the elders now.

But there are lots of aunts and uncles and cousins, and it was a big group.

A few pictures were taken:

Uncle Hank and me

Uncle Hank and with my sisters and me

Uncle Hank, Aunt Dolores (front) and my Dad's generation

Uncle Hank, Aunt Dolores with my generation (and the youngsters)

Catching Up

As usual, I am behind on keeping my readers up-to-date on my continuing preparations. Last weekend I finally had the second of three yard sales. This one was not the biggest — that will come in August — but it went well despite the cold, overcast day. I sold nearly everything. Still amazes me what people will buy if you put a cheap enough price on it. After all the remainders were packed up for storage until the next sale or immediate transport to the thrift store, I counted the proceeds — about $250. Not bad for a lot of mostly junk. Later I listed on Craig's List a couple of the larger/better items that were still in the remainder pile. So far I've sold the old '70s Harmon-Kardon amp ($35) and the never-installed hanging lamp from IKEA (another $20). Meanwhile I listed the iSight camera (among other things) on amazon.com. It sold right away for $119, as did a software how-to book for another $12. All this is to finance the new, professional quality digital camera I want to take to Morocco with me. I'm about half-way now, and still have more stuff listed for sale. Progress on this fund-raising, stuff-divesting project will slow down for awhile I imagine, but I'm not in a hurry. I still have about 10 weeks (!) time left. Yikes! How quickly it flies!

I still have not heard anything more from the people who were putting together the news story about the Peace Corps. I've been told it MIGHT air this week, but that they would let me know when it was scheduled.

I am really behind on my Arabic self-study. It's not just the time. It's difficult to do something like this on one's own. But I have a goal, and am determined to at least get through the alphabet before I get to Philadelphia. This weekend I am flying to Minnesota for a family reunion and will take my book with me. While I plan to sleep through as much of my redeye flight as possible on the outbound leg of my trip, perhaps I will have some study time on the way back.

Breaking News!

Congresswoman Nita Lowey, chair of the appropriations committee that is handling the Peace Corps budget, announces that she will be increasing the Peace Corps budge to $450 Million, which will allow for an expansion of the program to 20 more countries! Watch the announcement on Chris Matthew's (RPCV of note) show here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/#31393992
(Sorry, you'll have to highlight, copy and paste the link as I do not seem to be able to get the "insert link" command to work.)

My New, More Public Self, Part II

Yesterday evening a cameraman and producer from Fox News came to my house and interviewed me about my decision to join the Peace Corps, and my plans and expectations for my service. The local Peace Corps Public Information person came too.

I think the taping went pretty well. They wanted to tape me against a background that lent visual support to the theme of Peace Corps preparations, so we went out to my garage, which is the staging area for my packing. So my ugly garage will be on the TV too. The news segment that this interview will be a part of will be aired on Wednesday or Thursday, nationwide. Wow. My fifteen minutes of fame has arrived (and who knew ugly garages get 15 minutes too?).

After the interview, they shot a bit of footage of me practicing my Arabic calligraphy. When the Fox people left, the Peace Corps person hung around for a bit and we talked. This was deeply interesting, because we talked about a wide range of things, including what kinds of things can cause a volunteer "to E-T" (ET means they file for Early Termination of service), and what kinds of things make Peace Corps service more difficult for older volunteers (not the things you might expect). Older volunteers, she says, are more likely to chafe at the bureaucracy and authority of Peace Corps rules. This rings true for me; I've always been a bit of a rebel when it comes to dealing with authority. So it's good to be psychologically prepared for these realities. Older volunteers sometimes have difficulty befriending and bonding with their fellow volunteers, and can feel left out when younger volunteers "clique up" and may seem to be excluding them. I am glad that I've had so much experience working with young people through the University. That may help, but again, it's good to know in advance that I should bring a thick skin with me to the training. Every group is different, and you never know. Instead of being snubbed, maybe I'll be treated like a big sister. I'll have to go the extra mile to waive these difficulties and form my own special bond with my fellow trainees.

Another VERY interesting part of the conversation concerns my work assignment. When I was nominated, I was told by the recruiter that it was for a "special" assignment, about which I was told nothing except that such assignments were for people with very special backgrounds, and in this particular case, for someone with a background in visual arts. Then, when I was offered the invitation by the Placement person this April, she told me the assignment was for Small Business Development, which is a regular, not special, assignment. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed that my assignment wasn't going to be "special," but I was quite content with the idea of doing SBD with women artisans in Morocco, which is what she told me about the assignment. When I received my Invitation in the mail, the Work Assignment booklet was a xeroxed copy of what appeared to be standard Small Business Development information.

Well, it turns out that the SBD designation on my Invitation is because these special assignments (she called them "one-ninety-nines") are so rare that it's not likely a country director would create a work assignment booklet just for the very occasional one that comes through in their region. In fact, she said, I WAS nominated for one of these 199 assignments; she told me she had seen this on her computer when she pulled up my file.

This part of the conversation came up in the context of another reason why older volunteers often feel frustrated, which is that their very richness of experience makes it difficult to accept the demands of entry-level training. I had told her that this wouldn't be the case for me, as I had ZERO experience with small business management. I would be a beginner like everyone else. She looked a bit puzzled, and then started talking about the special assignments. They're so rare, she said, that in her own three years as a recruiter, before she took the Public Information job, she had never had occasion to nominate anyone for a 199.

So, wow! Now I DO feel extra special and very very curious about what the assignment could be. She said they look for someone with a very particular background, but unfortunately she couldn't tell me any more than that. I guess I will just have to wait and see. As IF I needed anything more to be excited about!

New Post

Wow, it's been nearly two weeks since my last blog entry. Time is just flying by. Herewith an update on some things I've been working on:

Last weekend a friend came down to help me clean out the storage space in my garage. As you can imagine (just think about your own storage spaces) this was a big job. We got a lot done! This set the stage for a yard sale I am planning for next weekend. There is never enough time to prepare for such a sale, but with Mark's help, I have at least gotten the staging area ready to go. There's still a lot more to do, but the sale will happen and more STUFF will exit my life.

Any money I make on the sale will go to help pay for my new laptop. I've received it now, and have started to migrate my computing from my desktop machine to the laptop. I've been told that a laptop will be very helpful for the business development work I'll be doing, and so most SMD volunteers tend to be located close to Internet cafes. Many even have Internet in their homes. So far I've gotten all the applications moved to the new machine. Most of my documents will be stored online, which I haven't started yet. But this also feels like progress.

This weekend has been mostly eaten up by social obligations, errands, and the usual weekly chores that have more to do with keeping body and soul together in my present working life. I've also tried to tidy up the apartment a little. Tomorrow I'm going to be interviewed by Fox News. I never thought my face would appear on Fox, but it seems it's going to. The public relations officer told me they wanted to interview an older volunteer, and that I came very highly recommended by the local recruiter. My guess is that they didn't have a very deep bench of older volunteers, but the flattery helped, as I did consent to have the producer and her crew in my packing-box-littered home tomorrow. The piece will air on Wednesday night, so be sure to watch the news that evening. You may catch a glimpse of my face there.

My New, More Public Self

When you join the Peace Corps, two of the many forms they ask you to fill out come from the Press Office. They are the Release Authorization Form and the Hometown News Release Form. The former is a standard, brief legal waiver. It will take about 15 seconds to fill out. The second is basically a series of mini-essays; seven, to be exact.

I've procrastinated filling them out. Indeed, I've procrastinated making an official announcement to family and friends. Many know by now, but some of the dearest friends I have still do not know. Now I'm being asked to let the world know.

I've always been a rather private person. I am still adjusting to the realities of joining national service. Now I am going to become an individual who is part of a larger entity. I really believe in the mission of this entity, to the point where I'm ready to change; to become a more public, "out there" kind of person. I'm coming out.

I have an opportunity coming up to do some of my announcements in person, at a family reunion, for which I will travel back to St. Paul. This will occur in mid-June. That is also about the latest I can wait to release the news to the press there. Meanwhile I should release it here, where it is much more likely to be published. Even if it is published, however, I don't expect any real notoriety. Which is just fine. If I wanted a high profile, I'd create a profile on Facebook.

Once I am in the Peace Corps, I intend to continue blogging, as a form of communication with my family, but in the public sphere and therefore also as a form of citizen journalism. Part of the intention of this blog is to ease me into the public blogosphere. I'm coming out.

Goodbye, TiVo

Okay, I'm going to come clean about my most serious addiction.

I am a news junkie.

For the past decade, it has been building. It started with PBS: The News Hour, the year George Bush defeated Al Gore. An evening ritual for me was watching it when I returned from work. I'd relax, have a glass of fruit juice or sparkling water and maybe a snack, while I watched Lehrer and colleagues. When it was over I'd make dinner. After dinner, I watched The Daily Show if it was on. Yeah, I know it's not "news." Comedic commentary became part of the addiction equation early on. Another was the periodic scanning of Google News headlines, about four times a day.

As the Bush administration settled in, news seemed increasingly important. From the beginning, the new administration seemed a slow-motion train wreck. I couldn't peel my eyes away. After 9/11 I felt it important to broaden my perspective. I added the BBC World News to my nightly lineup.

The BBC came on early, though. Frequently I missed my fix. When, just as I took on a second job, a friend suggested getting digital recording capability, I went for it. I subscribed to TiVo. Evil TiVo. I do think it's evil.

"Time-shifting" was lovely, even if the TiVo is an inexact device. It misses its target nearly as often as it succeeds. Even so, that "on-demand" quality is seductive. I succumbed; slipped deeper into my addiction.

I started scanning other news services, briefly checking Fox to see if it was as bad as its reputation (it was) and, less briefly, CNN, to see if it lived up to its reputation (it did not) before settling, finally, on the VERY interesting MSNBC, just as Keith Olbermann started offering Countdown. That led me to Anderson Cooper and Chris Matthews and eventually, half-a-dozen more interesting points of view. I was taping the weekend shows, too: Tim Russert and George Stephanopoulos, The McLaughlin Group.

During my convalescence from surgery in the beginning of 2008, I started listening to talk radio. Thom Hartmann and Randi Rhodes; later Stephanie Miller, who has become a lasting staple since I returned to work. Eventually, I was watching more than four hours a day watching news, and countless more with the radio and the Internet, chasing news and commentary on news.

One of the attractions of the Peace Corps was the opportunity to radically alter the mediated experiences of my life. I hope to spend much more time face to face with people, and much less time face to screen. We'll see. Meanwhile, I am taking steps to reduce the screen time.

Or at least, I've been working towards thinking about the planning steps for eventually carrying that plan out. See the evasion in that sentence? Yeah. I'm still working on it.

But I'm hitting the wall of reality now. With all I have to do to get ready, I simply do not have the time to follow the news with this intensity. Lately, I've been realizing that the addiction is comprised more and more of habit, and less and less of any genuine passion. So it should be getting easier. As my service approaches, I find myself caring less and less about the minutia of current events. Now it is the force of habit that remains the only barrier.

So my latest goal is this: I am canceling the TiVo before the next billing cycle. I am cutting cable back at least to Basic, and if I can figure out how to get PBS without it, may cut it out entirely. Before the next billing cycle. A friend will take away the TiVo machine, gratis. I will return the cable box and be free of that expense. More importantly, I am going to reduce my viewing back to the one-half the original level: I will limit myself to The News Hour (forgoing The Daily Show).

Before June 9, I will have canceled the services, leaving a one-hour commitment to the screen, as much Stephanie Miller as I can hear before I leave for work in the morning, and the browsing of the Google News.

Step by step. Cold turkey is a nice, clean method, but I will ease myself out of this cloud of news slowly.

Spending more time with Arabic

Slowly, I am getting into this. LiveMocha is good, though I find tutorials on learning the script to be totally absent. I’ve sent away for some books on the script, because I’d like to know it before I get to Rabat. I’m not so concerned about Arabic itself, because I know I’ll be learning Darija. For those unfamiliar with these details, Darija is a variation of a dialect. The North African dialect is one of five major forms of colloquial Arabic.

To be truly literate, I must also learn some Classical written Arabic, but I’ve been told that French is used more than Arabic for business communications. My main reason to learn it would be to impress people, and I’m not sure that’s necessary for me to be successful in my work. Respect is more important than admiration.

So for now, I do the listening and speaking exercises and ignore the reading and writing exercises. I am using LiveMocha for French as well as Arabic.

So it’s a start. A toe in the water. shwiya b shwiya (little by little).

See more progress on: learn arabic

Blogs of My Predecessors

I have been starting to read, avidly, the blogs of Peace Corps volunteers who are already in Morocco. There are quite a few of these volunteers online, going back several years.

Through one of these blogs, I learned that there is a registry for Peace Corps volunteers who blog. You can add your blog to a "blogroll" which rolls up the latest entries from fellow bloggers and sorts them by country for you. So I will be able to get to know my predecessors, online, before I even get to the country. Is the Internet great, or what? I signed my blog up.

Reading them, I'm picking up a lot of interesting information about the early part of the process. My strategy is to go to the beginning of each blog, and work my way up. I've read through the first months of 4 or 5 volunteers. So far, I've learned where the Staging event takes place (Philadelphia) and that there are two training cycles for the Morocco program. One cycle starts in March, when Environmental and Health Education volunteers are trained, and a second begins in September, when Youth Development and Small Business Development volunteers are trained.

I'm thrilled to know I'll be spending at least some training time with Youth Development volunteers. When I heard about Youth Development, it sounded like so much fun. I've been volunteering with kids here in Venice, California, and really enjoying it. So I would be coveting that assignment, except that I know my strength lies in working with adults. It's always been that way. I've been in post-secondary education for most of my career, starting back in the 70s when I worked for the Minneapolis Area Vocational Technical Institute. Oh, my gosh, I'm really revealing my age, aren't I! But the truth is, as a teacher and a trainer, I relate very well to adults, and feel very comfortable in that role. So, while I'm very satisfied with my assigned progrm, I am happy to know I'll be getting to know the volunteers in the YD program. I hope to make good connections with those assigned in the near vicinity. I love hanging out with kids, and it'd be cool to meet the NEXT generation of small-business owners as well as working with the present generation.

I'm also learning it is not uncommon for volunteers to bring laptops, which makes me feel much more comfortable about bringing my own.

End-of-April Wrap-up

It has been an eventful week. I sent my Aspiration Statement and Resume to Morocco today. Tomorrow I hope to meet with the property manager about my tenancy while I'm serving. I've gotten my photos for my new passport and am nearly ready to send that paperwork in.

Meanwhile, it has been really sinking in that I'm going to be going to Morocco for 2 years! My life is going to be radically different than it is now. I've been telling people that the amount of time I now spend staring at electronic screens will instead be spent in face-to-face interactions. Staring at screens is something I do for at least 12 hours a day, if you count work, internet and television; often more. While I am looking forward to spending less time with electronic screens, I wonder what it will be like to spend so much time with people? I think I'm going to love it, but I know I'll miss having solitude, too.

Counting down: 4 months, 7 days 'til Orientation

Aspirations

I've been working on the Aspirations Statement, which really breaks down as five different statements:
A. The professional attributes that you plan to use, and what aspirations you hope to fulfill, during your Peace Corps service.
B. Your strategies for working effectively with host country partners to meet expressed needs.
C. Your strategies for adapting to a new culture with respect to your own cultural background.
D. The skills and knowledge you hope to gain during pre-service training to best serve your future community and project.
E. How you think Peace Corps service will influence your personal and professional aspirations after your service ends.

I've already spend quite a lot of time writing my answers. Should I post them here, I wonder? I notice if you Google "Aspiration Statement" you can find statements written by other volunteers. But I think rather than posting them, I'll just make them available for download for anyone who is interested.

I am amazed at how any obstacles are disappearing and things I worried about are proving to be much less problematic than I thought they would be.

The Invitation

The official invitation to join the Peace Corps arrives along with a packet of file pockets filled with work to do: everything from passport and visa applications to the personal, legal and insurance papers: Forms to fill out, reading, writing and thinking to be done. There is a telephone call at the end of this process, to make my formal commitment. I have only a few days to do the tasks that lead up to that commitment (which, at least, is only some of the things I mentioned).

I have been volunteering at a local arts organization that runs after-school classes in photography, film making, animation and digital arts, partly because I hope to be able to work with kids as a secondary project in my community. Today was the final class for our middle-school kids. We took Pierre, Maarten, Jeramiah, Tora, Larry, Kevin and Caitlin to an animation studio where they saw the workplace of animators working on a bunch of stop-motion productions.

It is unbelievably exhausting to put seven lively kids into a mini-bus and drive them through heavy L.A. traffic for nearly an hour, keep them well-behaved and in line during a 40-minute tour and visit, and then drive them back. The paid teacher did the driving and I was the back-seat "parent" enforcing seat belts and indoor voices. But I think it's worth it. Learning happened! Always a wonderful experience, being a part of that.

But I am beat. There will be no heavy reading for me tonight! With some planning, I can leave work a bit early tomorrow so I can finish the reading and get the essays written when I get home. I would like to plan on making that call on Thursday or, at the latest, on Friday morning. I also have to write an announcement or "press release" for my extended family and wider circle of friends. This needs to go out by the weekend.

How to join the Peace Corps

"Joining the Peace Corps is a serious decision, and so it requires much patience and persistence."

How I did it: The biggest obstacle for an older volunteer such as myself is the medical review. I had to get my doctors to write letters and fill out forms. Fortunately they are all very supportive of my decision and went that extra mile for me. I had to struggle past an initial decision for deferral of service. In the end, persistence paid off.

Lessons & tips: The Peace Corps requires documentations of every illness, every accident, every surgery, every chronic condition, every routine diagnostic procedure you've had going back at least 5 years, and every medication you currently use. The faster you can provide these things, the more complete your documentation, the quicker the process will go. Also: get to know the RN who is reviewing your file, and keep in touch.

Resources: My Peace Corps recruiter was a great source of morale boosts whenever I felt discouraged.

It took me 8 months.

It made me So happy!

Focus on Change

It's amazing how the knowledge that the invitation is in the mail has focused me on the many things I need to do to be ready. I have to shut down a home that's been my refuge for 11 years. There are a huge number of tasks right there. I believe there are lists of tasks arriving with the invitation. Gathering resources, practicing my French AND learning Arabic, yes! — I am looking forward to building on the foundation of the bits of Lebanese and Iraqi Arabic I picked up working with the language project for three years.

But it's that first big project, down-sizing and preparing to put personal stuff into storage, shutting down services and closing accounts, selling stuff, consolidating necessities and planning for management of legal and financial affairs, etc. — that is the monster I have to tame.

Right now I'm spending a lot of my spare time making lists.

INVITED!!!

I got a call from the Placement Office yesterday but didn't see the message until this morning. The Placement person had only one question she wanted to check out; having satisfied that, she went on to tell me she's sending out the Invitation today. I'll be working in Small Business Development with handcraft artisans! Woo-hoo!!! I'm so excited!

Time to start brushing up my French!

I can't wait to start telling the world.

My Recruiter

I had a conversation with my recruiter today. She encouraged me to make personal contact with the Placement people. She is going to send me contact information for someone in that office.

There is some competition, she tells me, because the Peace Corps deliberately "overbooks" the positions, though probably not on a one-to-one basis. The idea is to cover all of the positions because of course, some applicants will not make it through (not difficult to imagine) or will drop out in the process. Of late, fewer people are dropping out due to the economy. This makes sense, but it's all just idle speculation for me. The Placement process is different for each type of program. I understand, for instance, that nominations to agricultural programs is much less competitive than, say, nominations to educational programs. Apparently it's more difficult to find enough qualified people for agricultural programs, whereas the largest majority of applicants are qualified to teach.

I am glad now that I didn't choose to accept the nomination for teaching. I'm very happy with the "Special" nomination. I think I have a very good shot at it. The recruiter wants me to have a conversation with Placement about my language background. Her confidence in me is very high. I want to think that's because she knows more about the position than she can tell me. She denies knowing anything more than she's already told me: that the position is in the North Africa/Middle East, that it requires a (minimal) background in the visual arts, and that staging will happen in September. That was enough for me to decide I wanted the nomination. Now I just have to be patient.

The Placement Process

I am through the medical review process, but still have not reached the planning stage. The planning stage, as the Peace Corps warns us again and again, should not begin until after the Invitation is received. This is hard. No planning means: No planning. I can't make any real plans for the future while I await the Invitation. Living in limbo. As time goes on, the amount of one's life affected by this planning prohibition grows. Should I put my winter wardrobe away for one year or 3? If I do put it away, what things should I plan to pack instead of to store? Yeah, it gets that detailed, although that is just the latest. Many of the things that come up have bigger implications than that.

I got an email Friday from the Student Aide at the EMA Placement Unit. I have no idea what "EMA" stands for. She is requesting an updated Resume and any changes to contact info. Here's an interesting quote from her email: "Please keep in mind that this stage in the process can be competitive as there are typically two applicants nominated for each spot available. Given this, an invitation is never guaranteed and applicants should make no plans to go overseas unless an invitation has been issued and you have spoken to headquarters staff to accept your invitation. "

Two applicants for each spot available. Hmm... That means that about half of the people who make it through the medical review do not get invited. Wow. I had no idea. Imagine going through all this and then getting passed over for an invitation.

I'm not too worried about my own case, though. Where age was a bigger hurdle during medical review, I think it'll work in my favor in the Placement process. My volunteer work, teaching film and digital arts to middle-school kids, should also give me an edge in the case of the particular nomination I received. So I am optimistic.

Cleared!!!

Well, at last! I got a call from the medical screener. She told me my letter would go out today, clearing me for service. At last, at last, I can go on to the next step. The medical screening is definitely the longest part of the process.

The next step: Is 'Placement'. I am expecting to be asked for more documents. Definitely an updated resume or CV. Possibly I will be asked to write a few more paragraphs about myself, my expectations and aspirations.

At the end of this process, I will receive the coveted 'Invitation,' which will tell me exactly where and when I am going to serve, and what I'll be doing. I am hopeful that this part of the process will take only a few weeks.

Patiently Awaiting News

Hopefully my doctors have faxed the necessary letters to the OMS by now. This stage is a test of patience. I (my health-care providers) have submitted the final documents (knock-on-wood) and now I must wait. If I don't hear tomorrow, I will call them, but they should have all the items by now, so it is up to them and I'm sure I'll know very soon.

More and Better

I just finished watching some very interesting reports from the front-lines of change in the health-care system in this country. In the PBS Report, a health-care provider system is trying out a radical new concept: Pay for Performance. There are many interesting issues here, but the most relevant point to the process I'm undergoing right now is this: all of the varied points of reform involve electronic records. I thought again about how much easier it would be for the Federal Government, as an employer, to screen me for the service if I could have electronic records sent. I can't even email documents. They do have a fax machine.

I spoke today with the NP at my MD's office. She seemed to find the MR nurse's attitude a bit aggressive. I've gotten accustomed to it, but she was unprepared for it. She did her best to clarify, to interpret the doctor's scrawling handwriting, and to smooth out some of the contradictory information involved. I think, however, that I am going to write my own statement, to clear up any confusion and underscore how little relevance this particular problem has for my Peace Corps service.

I have to remember that the screener is just doing her job. She has to be sure I'll be all right out there in wherever, however far from modern health care. If I can make her job easier this will go smoother.

Incremental Progress

My health-care providers have been so gracious throughout this process, filling out endless forms. I've spent about $600 and so far have been reimbursed about $45. Another, much larger, reimbursement check was mistakenly sent to my doctor, whom I had already paid in full myself. The check-processing company just got it wrong.

The medical forms are not well-designed for the purpose of eliciting the kind of information I've had to supply after the fact. The Peace Corps expects applicants to disclose everything, yet that is clearly a formidable demand when you've lived for 57 years. I found I'd overlooked a common chronic condition because it was stable for over 30 years, a more recent surgery that had been routine, issues that had been resolved and forgotten, and minor complaints that were treated without prescription medications. Re-examining the forms now, I can see why they were missed. I was focused on that which was explicitly requested, drawing in my mind the limits of what "everything" was much more strictly than was actually expected. It was not that I had any reason to hide or protect any of this information. I was merely in the habit of doing so, and habit involves the unconscious mind.

We who have been discreet and private about personal information for all of our lives are especially unprepared for how thoroughly we must "undress" for the medical review. As a former Information Architect, I believe that a lot of time and agony for volunteers and reviewers alike could be saved through a more intelligent design of these forms.

Will the Peace Corps put its medical records into a computer? It's very likely that Mr. Obama's determination to put this country's medical records into electronic form will impact Federal agencies like the Corps in the next few years. Let's hope that whoever takes on the responsibility for collecting applicant medical information will do a good job of designing these instruments.

Frustration

I got a call from the medical review office today. It seems the information sent to them by my doctors is not enough for them to decide whether and where I can serve. This process is dragging out to the point of excruciation (is that a word? if not, it should be)! So now I need to ask one of my health care providers to call the medical office and speak to the nurse. Actually, the nurse asked me to have the doctor’s office release the entire file to them, but I think that would mean faxing pages and pages. So I’m going to ask my doctor to call their office directly. I hope this is the right thing to do. I just want this phase of the application process to be OVER.

(This is for the “non-routine” part of the new information.)

Officially back in Medical Review

I have 2 more documents to provide to the medical review, one of which is pretty routine. The other is a little more worrisome, but still manageable. On Monday I see the doctor that I will beg to do the latter of the two. She is a very kind person and she will do it thoroughly and well. The routine bit I’ll take care of a day or two later. After that, if they are going to pass me, it will happen quickly. Since all my other hurdles are cleared, I could know as soon as the end of the week. I’m very hopeful now.

Update

Medical office called me this morning. My deferral is gone! I’m back on track, though I still have a few more documents to send them. It remains to be seen whether anything on those documents will result in another deferral or any denial or restrictions, but at least I’m in the running again.

Progress on this

I mailed the forms to Washington on Feb. 22. However, because the 60-day deadline was approaching and I hadn’t heard anything back, I called yesterday and spoke to the medical screener. She said they’d never received the pages and told me to fax them. She also said since she’d spoken to me, she’d consider my request for review to be filed. True to her word: this morning I was notified there was a change to my status. I’m back in the review process!

I have a few more medical forms to get to her, but things are back in motion. It’s nice to see that red exclamation point is no longer on my status page.

Taking Action

My recruiter suggested I get a health-care provider to see me and write an opinion regarding my fitness and the unlikelihood that I’ll have a relapse. So I have gotten the names of two people and have called and left messages on their machines, with my name and number. Hopefully one of them will be the ideal person to do this.

This is going to cost money, but if it wins me a new assessment, it’s worth it. Even if it doesn’t, I will at least know I did everything I could.

They also want me to get another EKG, which seems very odd, since I have no history of heart problems. Another expense, involving an expensive office visit and an expensive test that the insurance company will not pay for.

This is ridiculous. I’m a VERY HEALTHY PERSON especially for a 57-year-old. I'm fit and have no movement restrictions, lift weights and do yoga and meditation, commute by bicycle, etc. etc.

But I understand they need all this information. I'm not trying to hide anything. It's just hard to think of everything. When your only connection to your disease is that you take a pill every day along with your calcium tablet and vitamin supplements, it's easy to forget that it's an important piece of information for your file. Still, I can't believe some of the things I inadvertently left out.

Work to Do On This

I’m progressing toward my re-review request. I have seen a specialist and gotten his ringing endorsement of my fitness for service. I now have to write a letter and a list of my current medications (unchanged since the last list). I need one more document: I need to call another specialist and get a few more forms filled out.

Getting Medical Clearance

I got a letter from the Medical Review Board on January 18. They want me to defer my service for 11 months. Yikes! I was really upset until the next day when I was able to talk to my recruiter about the situation. She said though it’s unfortunate it’s not unusual. Apparently it has something to do with the fact that the Peace Corps is struggling to keep up with applicants. (What is it going to be like when people who’ve heeded President Obama’s call to service start getting their applications in?)

Meanwhile, my recruiter wants me to request another review, and so I’ve started working on that. It means another round of gathering documents, begging doctors to take time out of their busy day to answer questions on forms and having them repeat some expensive tests; in one case I have to find a new doctor to write an evaluation. Then I have to write another statement and send it all in to Washington.

I have a good chance, I think. I’ve been honest about my medical history — and you don’t get to your mid-fifties without having something in your history — and she admits that probably bought me a few extra hassles. But it is important to be honest about the medical history, too, and she has seen many deferrals overturned in re-review.

The Peace Corps says it wants older volunteers. It’s important to challenge this decision and so I am going to spend the time, energy and additional money to get the necessary documents and request the review. I have 60 days to file this but I want to do it in 30.

Medical Review Question

Today I received notice through the Peace Corps “My Toolkit” Web page that “A decision has been reached regarding your medical review. Please look for a letter in the mail.”

Is this the usual message? Makes me nervous. They could just change my status to “Cleared” but instead I have to watch for a letter?

Has anyone else had this experience?

Medical File Complete

On December 8, the Medical office sent me a letter requesting more information, so I had to make more appointments and get more forms filled out. I got the last one on Monday and faxed them to Washington on Tuesday.

As of today, the My Toolkit page was updated to say that all my medical forms had been received.

Now all that’s left is to wait for my clearance.