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
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, April 20, 2009
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!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
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.
Time to start brushing up my French!
I can't wait to start telling the world.
Monday, April 13, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
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.
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