I finally got some good news yesterday when my placement officer returned my call. She said she had a placement for me and should have e-mailed it to me a month ago but had forgotten to! I'm leaving October 5 but she said she's not allowed to send me an invite until the last week of May. She said there were other programs leaving earlier but they didn't have any specific requests while this placement has requested volunteers with experience in the field and masters degrees. She seems to think I know what I'm doing! Those were the first two clues I got. The others are that I'm going to be an HIV/AIDS advisor and that its a relatively new program.
I'm about 95% positive that I'm headed to Ethiopia since they sent there first group after being closed for a while at the beginning of last October. All of the volunteers there are doing HIV work with PEPFAR funding. And lastly I just read an article last week that the Ethiopian government has requested experienced volunteers and that Peace Corps is specifically looking for older volunteers. I'm definetly not older and don't think I'm experienced but I guess that working on an MPH counts for something. Glad to know that being $40,000 in debt has come in handy already! Check out the article in the Christian Science Monitor!
I'm a little disappointed my specific job is with HIV since its really not my interest and I have a lot of issues with PEPFAR and how their work so far has been completely ineffective! I'm super excited to be in a newly open program though since I figure its less likely that I'll be compared to lots of other former volunteers and I'll have more opportunities to control what I'm doing. Since its new I figure I may be able to do other work that seems important in the community.
I asked if this date is set so I can make plans for August and September and she confirmed that it won't change. I guess its time to make plans for India, Florida, and everywhere else I need to go! I'm really excited about this date because it means I can attend my cousins' barn dance which is always the last weekend in Sept. I wasn't able to attend last year and have no idea when I'll be able to go again so it would be a great chance to see all the Krudwigs before I head out for 27 months!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Semester Ending
I'm sitting here on a Friday night trying to study for my Comparative Health Systems final next Tuesday; I've already reviewed the Canadian health system and need to move on to the British system. I have no motivation though since I'm living in this crazy city with so much to do and I'm stuck in my awful studio. There has been so much going on here yet I feel like I should be studying constantly. Jazzfest started today and my friend Ivy is coming down with her parents and sister! It will be great to spend some time with her. Last weekend was full of 3 different social events for us: a party for all grad students in NOLA at the House of Blues, Tulane's Crawfest, and School of Public Health party. It was lots of fun but sad to realize that we're almost to the end which means leaving lots of new friends. Two weekends ago was V^10th -- the tenth anniversay of V-Day and the Vagina Monologues which included big events at the Superdome and Arena. It was so exciting to be living just blocks from such an amazing event!
So I finished my first class today after turning in an assignment and taking our last quiz. Only four more courses to focus on. Classes end on Tuesday and I still have one more homework, a 20 page research paper (that I have failed to start), and 4 exams to go! I then head back to Wisconsin on May 8th and will see my eye doctor at that point to see whats going on.
Aside from the studying I should be doing, Peace Corps continues to occupy my mind. It has been five weeks since I was medically cleared for a second time and a month since I was told that I would receive an invitation within a month at the longest. Haven't heard anything during that time. I called my placement officer today to see if she had any news or I could provide any more info. After three attempts I gave in and left a message but with no return call. I really want to hear before I get back to WI since I'm so sick of telling everyone that I have no clue what I'll be doing this summer or what my plans are for the next 2.5 years!
So I finished my first class today after turning in an assignment and taking our last quiz. Only four more courses to focus on. Classes end on Tuesday and I still have one more homework, a 20 page research paper (that I have failed to start), and 4 exams to go! I then head back to Wisconsin on May 8th and will see my eye doctor at that point to see whats going on.
Aside from the studying I should be doing, Peace Corps continues to occupy my mind. It has been five weeks since I was medically cleared for a second time and a month since I was told that I would receive an invitation within a month at the longest. Haven't heard anything during that time. I called my placement officer today to see if she had any news or I could provide any more info. After three attempts I gave in and left a message but with no return call. I really want to hear before I get back to WI since I'm so sick of telling everyone that I have no clue what I'll be doing this summer or what my plans are for the next 2.5 years!
Saturday, April 5, 2008
The Waiting Game
I've been thinking about starting this blog for several weeks now but keep telling myself I should wait until I get my invite. I'm now feeling very discouraged and wonder if I ever will be going into the Peace Corps or at least how many more months it will be. It just seems like there is always another hurdle and each mountain is taller than the last. I've wanted to be a Peace Corps volunteer for so long. I have many memories in high school of saying that this was my goal for the future but I think it was probably in middle school that the dream was born. I remember meeting a returned volunteer at 4-H winter camp and writing about my goal of serving in Peace Corps in my Spanish autobiography and newspaper articles after I won Fairest of the Fair. I remember my mom sharing with me how she had wanted to serve when she was in college but it never worked out and my dad telling me how he thought about joining after he retired from the Marines but that they wouldn't take him because of intelligence work. As soon as I arrived at college in Madison I looked up info about the RPCV group and found the date of the next info session. I convinced my friend Ivy that lived down the hall and my RA Anna to come with me. Anna started her application a few months later when she wasn't sure what to do after college. She also struggled through a long process before leaving for Cape Verde a week before I returned from studying abroad in Kenya.
My time in Kenya was when I floundered in my devotion to this organization and began questioning if it was something I really wanted to do. There were two volunteers that lived outside my village and I got to know them when they came to the internet cafe or were hanging around town. I also spent a week in a very small town working at the dispensary. Another volunteer lived there and I spent a lot of time talking with her. All three of these volunteers were doing health work and were frustrated at the lack of things for them to do and lack of knowledge, ideas, and support they got from the Peace Corps. I wasn't so sure this was something I wanted to do. At the same time I was realizing that I really was interested in Public Health and wanted to go down this career path.
Fast forward a year and a half and I graduated from the UW in Dec 2006 with no real plan of what was coming next. That January I travelled to New Orleans with my boyfriend Ashu where I visited Tulane's School of Public Health. I decided I wanted to go there and was seriously considering their Master's International program after talking to a couple students. I spent the month of February on the island of Santo Antao, Cape Verde with my friend Anna and got to see what her PC experience teaching English was like. I knew that I wouldn't want to teach but thought that I still might be interested in PC if I could have the combined experienced with grad school which could give me the education to actually do something while I served and the support of the university during my time volunteering.
I'm now finishing up my second semester at Tulane with only 3 weeks of classes to go and impatiently wanting to know when and where I'll be going. I applied for Peace Corps in March 2007 and was nominated last June. I got medical clearance in October but then was medically deferred in January after I informed them of my Lasik surgery in late December. When I asked the PC nurse about the surgery back in August I was told that it wouldn't hold up anything as long as it was planned for 3 months before I was nomianted to leave. Turns out it did hold things up since I wasn't medically cleared again until March 21. Here I am 3 1/2 months after my surgery and I'm worried that my vision isn't as good as it should be. I'm also having issues with dry eyes that won't go away. I'm been on Restatis eye drops since mid January and as of this past Wednesday I started a steroid drop that I have to use for 2 weeks. If this doesn't work, I don't have any really good options. I'll find out more once I get back to WI and can see my eye dr.
Now I'm just waiting to hear from my placement officer about an invitation to serve which will let me know when, where, and what I'll be doing. I'd really like some answers after this long wait. It seems like it might continue for even longer though.....
My time in Kenya was when I floundered in my devotion to this organization and began questioning if it was something I really wanted to do. There were two volunteers that lived outside my village and I got to know them when they came to the internet cafe or were hanging around town. I also spent a week in a very small town working at the dispensary. Another volunteer lived there and I spent a lot of time talking with her. All three of these volunteers were doing health work and were frustrated at the lack of things for them to do and lack of knowledge, ideas, and support they got from the Peace Corps. I wasn't so sure this was something I wanted to do. At the same time I was realizing that I really was interested in Public Health and wanted to go down this career path.
Fast forward a year and a half and I graduated from the UW in Dec 2006 with no real plan of what was coming next. That January I travelled to New Orleans with my boyfriend Ashu where I visited Tulane's School of Public Health. I decided I wanted to go there and was seriously considering their Master's International program after talking to a couple students. I spent the month of February on the island of Santo Antao, Cape Verde with my friend Anna and got to see what her PC experience teaching English was like. I knew that I wouldn't want to teach but thought that I still might be interested in PC if I could have the combined experienced with grad school which could give me the education to actually do something while I served and the support of the university during my time volunteering.
I'm now finishing up my second semester at Tulane with only 3 weeks of classes to go and impatiently wanting to know when and where I'll be going. I applied for Peace Corps in March 2007 and was nominated last June. I got medical clearance in October but then was medically deferred in January after I informed them of my Lasik surgery in late December. When I asked the PC nurse about the surgery back in August I was told that it wouldn't hold up anything as long as it was planned for 3 months before I was nomianted to leave. Turns out it did hold things up since I wasn't medically cleared again until March 21. Here I am 3 1/2 months after my surgery and I'm worried that my vision isn't as good as it should be. I'm also having issues with dry eyes that won't go away. I'm been on Restatis eye drops since mid January and as of this past Wednesday I started a steroid drop that I have to use for 2 weeks. If this doesn't work, I don't have any really good options. I'll find out more once I get back to WI and can see my eye dr.
Now I'm just waiting to hear from my placement officer about an invitation to serve which will let me know when, where, and what I'll be doing. I'd really like some answers after this long wait. It seems like it might continue for even longer though.....
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