Pre-Departure: Peace Corps Latin America

As many of you know by now, I have applied to the Peace Corps and hope to fulfill the 3 months + 2 year service commitment in my community. This was not a choice I made out of the blue, because I couldn't find a "real" job, nor was it because I don't know what to do with my degree. I started my application over three years ago, this is exactly the kind of work I want to be involved in both short and long term, and I believe that with my degree and my interests, this is the best thing I could do with myself, gaining experience first hand by teaching people while learning about myself, my abilities, and being able to learn a language or two in the mean time.

I completed the application process while I was still in Hungary, had my interview there and received my medical paper work shortly thereafter. Due to the fact that the lab reports would have been issued in Hungarian, and also that it would have cost me about a billion and a half dollars to get them officially translated (not to mention the standing in queues for hours Hungary is known for), I opted to wait till I got back to Buffalo to get everything done.

It hadn't even been two weeks after I had gotten back when I managed to get everything taken care of; eye doctor, physical, dentist, lab work, the whole nine yards. I sent in my paper work, which I was clearly anal about looking over about five hundred times to make sure every last "i" was dotted and "t" was crossed, as to avoid any annoying delays that the Peace Corps (PC) Medical Office is known for.

I sent my paper work out Thursday afternoon and the Medical Office received it on Friday before noon, and for some reason they decided to grant me my dental clearance on Sunday at 5am. Now I just have to continue playing the waiting game, be patient and merry and try not to go crazy as I keep playing guessing games as to where I'm going to live in August for the next two + years of my life, not that that really makes a difference or anything.

So a lot of you may be wondering, why all this medical mumbo jumbo? As I just mentioned, you sign up for over two years, so as any employer, PC wants to make sure that 1) you're healthy and that 2) if you run into any medical problems, they'll know your full medical history and place you in a country where they would be able to treat something that might not be treatable in other countries (eg, certain medications may not be available in some countries, or a certain kind of medical service may be of low standards or completely unavailable, so in those cases they wouldn't place a volunteer with restricting medical cases in a country that wouldn't be able to provide for that volunteer. It's very intricate paper work, and according to the Medical Office, over 75% of the medical paper work is sent back to the applicants due to something being incomplete or just completely missing. So this is why I made endless amounts of visits to my doctor's office (to whom I apologized about a million times for leaving messages, or just rocking up and requesting signatures, etc.).

Where will I be stationed? Well, as soon as I find out, I will let all of you know. But while I wait in much anticipation, please take some time to read more about the PC to understand it more if you have any questions. Click below on "Resources for Family and Friends" to find out more

Resources for Family and Friends