My February 14th departure is 7 weeks away. I can't wait to get to Africa and start seeing, hearing, and smelling a new landscape and meeting new people. At this point, I'm concerned mostly about getting all of the paperwork done, figuring out what I'm going to bring with me, and getting rid of stuff. Now that I'm in Los Angeles instead of Portland, it is a lot harder to get rid of things. In LA, you just have to throw everything in the trash and hope it gets reused or recycled. It's insane.
For those interested, my timeline for applying to Peace Corps looks roughly like this...
April 2009 - Started an application on the Peace Corps website. I had been thinking for a long time about traveling to the developing world before this. I didn't want to go for a short time because I wanted to do something useful and attempt to integrate myself into the place I went. Peace Corps seemed like a great way to do some environmental work, help some people out, learn, and see some new birds.
September 2009 - Submitted my application after working on it all summer. I kept getting warnings that the application website was going to be updated and all outstanding applications would be in danger of being deleted. This was the bug in my ear that encouraged me to finally get my application in. The application requires three written references. It took a long time for my references to write for me, so I was glad that I started as early as I did.
Late October 2009 - Received a phone call from the Seattle Peace Corps Office. They were impressed by my application and wanted me to schedule an interview with a recruiter.
November 1, 2009 - I drove to Seattle to interview with the recruiter. It was well worth the drive from Portland to do an in-person interview. The interview was actually fun. I didn't prepare much ahead of time because I had been thinking about Peace Corps for so long.
January 15, 2010 - I received a phone call from my recruiter in Seattle. She wanted to place me in the Peace Corps Mexico program. Programs in Mexico are designed for people with more professional experience. Volunteers usually commute daily to sites. I was very surprised to get recommended to the Mexico program because I have no Spanish background other than growing up in Southern California.
January 19, 2010 - I interviewed over the phone with two representatives from the Peace Corps Mexico office in Queretaro. I must say that I hate phone interviews. This interview was productive, but we realized on both ends of the line that this was not the placement that I was looking for. Besides, this placement was to begin in August. I was looking for something that began in January or later. I called my recruiter and told her that this placement wasn't quite what I was looking for and that my departure date should be pushed back to January due to my Americorps term ending in December.
March 3, 2010 - I received a call from my recruiter. I was nominated to a program in Water Resources in the Caribbean, leaving March 2011.
April, 2010 - Went to get my physical and lab tests. Received results a month later.
June, 2010 - Dental Exam, x-rays and cleaning.
July 22, 2010 - Mailed Medical and dental packet to Peace Corps office.
November 2, 2010 - Received word from D.C. that my program in the Caribbean had been cancelled.
November 3, 2010 - Received a suitability screening call from my Placement Officer in D.C. She told me that there was a new placement for me in Sub-Saharan Africa in the Agroforestry/Environment sector.
November 13, 2010 - My invitation kit arrived in the mail. I was invited to Zambia to be a Forestry Extension Agent in the Linking Income, Food, and the Environment Program.
November 17, 2010 - I accepted my invitation to Zambia.
I'm starting to get a better idea of what my living arrangements will probably be like. Most houses in rural Zambia are made of mud bricks with a thatch roof. Living room and bedroom areas are inside the houses. Kitchen and bathroom areas are outside the houses. I may even get my own building. It seems like most villages are made up of small houses with one to three rooms. Most of my cooking will be outside over a wood fire. I will get better at cooking nshima quickly without a nice gas stove.
