Yes, no, I don't know!

I've changed my blog! Title, background, you know, the fun stuff.  I got bored and decided this needed to be updated. There's a good chance it will change again soon as I was having issues deciding which background I liked....

I've started buying everything I think I need to take with me to Guyana.  At this point I'm only slightly worried that everything won't fit and my luggage will be too big/heavy and I'm sure as it gets closer to the time to actually start packing I'll worry more about this.  Getting ready to go is rough. I'm already going through the 'Yes, no, I don't know!'s of packing. I don't know where my permanent site is going to be or if I'll have running water/electricity there, so I feel the need to take everything that I might need if I don't have the general comforts of life in the U.S. (ie running water/electricity)  with me. Though, in truth, when applying for PC I didn't really expect to be going somewhere with those luxuries. Or internet access.  I pictured myself in a mud hut in the African bush, but if you give me the option of having electricity and running water or not, well, I'm probably going to chose to have them, though it would definitely be interesting to live without for 2 years.

I go shopping every 2 weeks and promptly run out like the shopaholic I may be to spend just about my entire paycheck.  This needs to stop.  I might need stuff to take with me, and there are still some necessities (bathing suit, bug spray, anti-itch, cream, you get my drift) that I need to buy.  But I need to save money so I actually have some when I get there, can travel, and go on vacation.  Otherwise I really will have to subsist, food, vacations, and all, on my Peace Corps stipend.  That's fine when in country and in my community, I really am going to try to live off of it and live like the locals.  But I know myself well enough to know that I'm going to not only want, but most likely need a vacation out of country.  On a nice beach somewhere, just to relax.  Unless I want trek through the jungle and camp for my vacation, which is also a possibility.  Chances are, I'm going to want to do both: trek and beach. Perhaps, if I have electricity, I'll get internet or a refrigerator.  Which will surely cost money.  So the spending needs to stop. And I plan to stop spending, really, I do.  My next paycheck will pay off my credit card (YAY!) and be the last one I use totally for buying stuff to take with me. Seriously, I'm not going to have room for or want to lug around everything I've already bought anyway.

For my friends who are thinking of coming to visit, well, you may be 'roughing it' a bit compared to American standards, but there are things to see and do to make up for it. Like visit Kaieteur Falls, the largest single drop waterfall in the world. And yes, I really do want you to come visit, hence the pretty picture :-)

The fact that the temperature in my house usually hovers around 59, which, for me, is way to cold, makes me even more excited to get to Guyana!  The volunteers who are there now have also been super helpful with answering questions and making Guyana seem like an awesome place to be, so shout out to them! Time is really flying.  This holidays make time seem to go so much faster and I feel like I'm going to be leaving for staging before I know it.  It's going to sneak up on me, like a spider in the dark, but less terrifying....I hope....

Things I'm enjoying and going to miss later: getting clothes straight out of the dryer, all nice and toasty warm, and putting them on...MmMmm warm....Grapes. Oh, how I'm going to miss grapes...Is it possible they have grapes in Guyana...? Something to look into....

I came across the Prayer of St. Francis recently and though I know I've heard it before, this time it struck me differently.  I don't think I'd ever really paid much attention to it before, but I'm going to do what someone else I know does everyday. Read it. It's motivational and helps me to remember what I want to do with my life and why I do the things I do.  Now, the church I've been volunteering at is a Franciscan church.  And most of the volunteers, including Yanil, who I teach with, are all part of Franciscan organization.

How I haven't heard this prayer in the last few months or made the connection between them and St. Francis and this prayer, I don't know. For those of you who don't know, I'm not particularly religious. That's not to say I don't have religion, or spirituality, or faith.  I just don't practice religion in the traditional sense.  This prayer really makes sense to me, and I'm going to remind myself of it daily so that I can strive to be more positive in my daily lifeand to be inspired by its meaning.

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

INVITE!!!!!!!!

My invite arrived yesterday!!!!!! I turned into a little bit of a crazy person with the shrieking and jumping up and down when I saw it outside my door, but oh well!  I did startle my step-father though.  He was in the house and thought something was wrong when I started freaking out. Ooops. Anyway, onto the important stuff.

I'm going to GUYANA!!! 

I've been invited as a Community Education Promoter.  As far as I can tell this means I'll be teaching literature and working with PTAs, but I'm still pretty vague on what it is I'll really be doing.  Guess I'll find out when I get there! I leave January 30th.  I was actually kind of surprised to get Guyana.  I work with a woman from there and asked her a bit about it when I found out my time of departure and thought it might be there.  She said they really only speak English there and as I had been told there were indigenous languages, I crossed it off.  Not a bad surprise!

Guyana is in South America, above Brazil, and is culturally Caribbean.  Best of all: its warm all year! Right now, when I'm pretty cold, this is even more appealing.  Hopefully I'll still appreciate the warmth once I'm there, in the humidity, and most likely sweating like crazy.  I've already been shopping too. I've got 3 new pairs of sandals and some summer/early fall clothes that were on sale. I figured I better get what I can now while it's still around.  If I tried getting this stuff in January I might have a little bit of trouble....

My aunt was doing some research and found that 90% of the population lives on the coast.  From what I've seen online from volunteers who are there now, most of them are also on the coast.  And apparently PC tries to group people together, so no one is totally alone.  I'm personally hoping to be placed on the coast with a few other people near by. But I won't find out until I've been there for around 3 months, so expect another post with lots of !!!!! around April. 

SO EXCITED!!!!

Final Interview!!!!!!

I just had my final interview. My invitation is being mailed today!!! AHHHHH!!! SO EXCITED!!!!  I'm being invited as a Community Education Promoter!!! To somewhere is C/SA leaving in late January! So maybe El Salvador or Guyana?  My PO said somewhere Spanish speaking, but where there are local, indigenous languages.  Where volunteers are usually placed in the interior of the country, probably with little access to electricity.  Not thrilled about that bit, but it would definitely being interesting and a learning experience!

How long does it take to get mail from DC to Delaware? Maybe I'll have it by Saturday??? I can always hope...

For those of you going through the process my interview took about 30 mins and here are the questions I was asked:

1. What are your reasons for wanting to join PC?
2. How does your family feel about your decision?
3. How would you cope with living in an isolated area? Without structure in your day?
4. When can you leave?
5.  How have you been preparing for PC since you began applying?

There may have been more, but I think  that was the biggest part. It's really not bad, really just a conversation. Though, if your anything like me, you'll have butterflies anyway :-)

SO EXCITED!!! I can't wait to get my invite!!!!

Can I do what?!?

I have my final interview on Wednesday! SO EXCITED! I emailed my placement assistant last Wednesday since it had been 6 weeks since I had sent in my updated resume and I hadn't heard anything. She emailed me back saying I would hear from my placement officer in the next 2 weeks.

He emailed 30 minutes later and I set up a time for my final interview. I received another email from him today with some questions:

1. What's your phone number? Please update you'r toolkit.

2. Are you able to bike? Yes.....(here I can sense what the next question will be. Getting prepared)

3. If you can ride a bicycle, would you be able to ride, say 7-10 miles per day? Yeah, probably....maybe....

4. Would you be able to ride up to 20 miles per day? (i.e. 10 miles each way to your work site) Ummm....I'm sorry? Yeah, probably not.

I actually started laughing when I read the last question. I made the mistake of emailing him back saying that I could do it.  I'm going to have to retract that statement.  I'd love to be able to and I think I could work up to it, but I wouldn't be able to right when I got there (wherever there may be).

For anyone who is waiting to hear something, I encourage contacting them. It can help. More to come on Wednesday....

Jobs, Volunteering, and Contact

Sitting around, relaxing, doing nothing is all well and good for a little while.  Unfortunately, it can quickly become pretty boring.  So far I've been doing just this for about 2 weeks since I got home.  I'm not bored yet and I've managed to give my self at least one thing productive to do everyday, but I will be glad when I become busier.  Which should be pretty soon.

I've been extremely luck where jobs are concerned.  I don't need anything great since I'm hoping to only be home for 6-7 months and just want something with decent pay.  I was offered a job catering and was just offered the opportunity to return to the bank I was working for last summer before I left for Korea.  I'm taking the bank job as I loved it there and the pay was better. Having a job is such a relief and I'm really happy to be going back to somewhere I enjoy working.

I'm also set to begin ESL teaching 2 days a week with Spanish speakers beginning next month.  This is perfect! It's a church in the city for 2 hours a night, 2 nights a week.  I'll get to listen to/practice some Spanish while volunteering.  I'm also hoping to find someone there who would be interested in doing a language exchange with me so I can get some additional practice and help with my Spanish.

In addition to this I think I'll be volunteering at the ACLU starting next month.  For this, I have to thank my incredibly kind neighbors.  They invited me over for dinner last week with them and the director of the Delaware ACLU.  For someone who eventually wants to go to law school, this would be an amazing experience and a great opportunity to be around lawyers.

Now, to totally switch topics, I had contact from the placement office today! They asked for my updated resume, which I sent and which included both volunteer opportunities above.  I'm hoping it was in the right format, there are no problems, and that I'll here from a placement officer soon.  As much patience as applying for PC takes, when you do get news it's really exciting! I'm hoping things keep moving forward and I'll have some real updates soon!

Cleared!

I've finally been given medical clearance! A couple of years ago I was having some major family problems and was prescribed anxiety/anti-depression medication by my primary physician.  Well, since it wasn't prescribed by a psychologist I was told I needed to get a mental health evaluation done.  My pre-service nurse emailed me at the end of July with this information.  At the time I was still in South Korea where I called around to see if any English-speaking doctors could do this.  I found one who was willing, but he was going to charge about $700 to do it.

Needless to say that was way out of my price range, so I decided to wait until I went home in a couple of weeks to do it.  I returned to Delaware at about 11:30pm on August 13th and was able to get in to see a psychologist on the 18th.  He's someone who is familiar with me and my family and knew what had happened and what my father is like.  I faxed in his evaluation, which was glowing, the next morning.  Less than a week later and I've been cleared! Another step closer to hopefully getting an invitation!

I noticed in the meantime that invitations for programs departing in February, my nomination month, have started going out, which has made me nervous.  I'm really hoping to talk to a placement officer really soon so my program doesn't get filled up before I'm ready.  Hopefully it will all work out on time, just have to wait and see!

Anyway, I've made it back home! Been here for a little over a week and am loving it!  The weather is amazing and I've been enjoying spending time with family and friends and reading/tanning on my deck.  Looking for a job though.  That's not so much fun.  I'm hoping to go back to where I was working last summer, but for now I'm enjoying relaxing :-)

Delay's Suck

I'm now under medical review.  Yay! I'm excited to have things moving forward.  Almost exactly 3 weeks from submitting my medical kit and I'm under review! However, I'm already facing a delay.  They want me to see one additional doctor and get some more paperwork done.  And, of course, I can't do this right away. And I hate being delayed :-p

I'm leaving Korea in 2 weeks.  What I need to get done would cost about $700 here, mostly because I need someone who speaks English fluently and they can charge more.  Sooo not paying that much. Which means waiting at least 2 weeks until I get home to do it.  Plus the time it takes to have the paperwork filled out. Probably another 3 weeks until I can send it in. Delays SUCK.

Invitations are being sent out now for my invitation time and this delay makes me nervous.  What if my program is filled by the time I have all my info in? I'm going to try not to worry and work on being patient.  It's practice for if I am invited and go. 

I have 2 weeks left in Korea, so I'm going to try to make the most out of it.  Most of it is going to be spent desk-warming at school with nothing really to do, so I'm going to apply for jobs at home.  Wish me luck!