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Tuesday, May 26, 2015

"At the end of all of this [work] is your 27 month service. Before you know it, you'll have just a few short months before you fly out."

A fellow invitee, whose staging is actually in just a few weeks, wrote this on reddit, and I thought it was such a great view on this time, post-invitation. I was talking to a different invitee who is going to Uganda with me, and she and I are still just baffled that we've been invited! Even with all of the paperwork we're doing, the doctor's appointments that I will be doing later and that she is wrapping up, it just keeps hitting us over and over again. I am an invitee! In... *checks phone* 166 or 167 days (I'm not counting or anything...), I'll be on a plane to somewhere, probably on the east coast, for staging. Then in 169 days, I'll be on a plane to Uganda!! Everything is still so surreal, even though I've spend hours upon hours in the last week submitting paperwork. I'm simultaneously excited and terrified for what service will bring. Now I just have to figure out how to put that into professional wording for my aspiration statement....

Sunday, May 24, 2015

First Steps as an Invitee

I've only been an invitee for three days now, but I've already finished nearly half of what is supposed to be done "within the first 30 days." I guess you could say I'm an overachiever. I also really want to get all of this done as soon as possible so that I can just focus on my summer job. It's been great to get to know people, but if I just had a day to sit and finish all of this stuff, I would be much more relaxed. Hopefully I'll be able to get it all done here soon and spend some quality time with my camp family.

So what have I been doing? Well to begin with, the "classes" I have to do are finished. They were about the core expectations of Peace Corps and a preview of safety. I've also been making hard decisions about life insurance, whether I want a press release, among other things. I'm still waiting on my legal kit, which should be sent to me soon, and on medical clearances to be sent to me. I already know for medical clearances, though, that I'm just going to be making appointments during my break week. It'll be lovely!

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Passport and Visa Applications

This is my second view of the annoying process that can be doing things for Peace Corps. I really should have looked at the information for submitting my passport and visa applications yesterday, but I was so excited about telling everyone that I just couldn't! Pretty soon after I woke up, I started on the applications. Two hours later, I had two applications for passports (I'm choosing to have a personal passport as well as my PC passport.) and a visa application in hand. I headed to the post office, only to be told the guy I needed to talk to was at lunch, so I would have to wait. When he got back, I had to listen to him say MULTIPLE times that he had never heard of a such thing as a shortened passport, a PC passport, how confused he was, etc. Finally he got over that and just processed my applications. He wasn't too happy when he had to give me my PC passport application back in a sealed envelope, but it's all fine. Then when I got home, I realized I couldn't take my PC passport to the UPS store in town because, well, it closed a year or so ago. After a mini-freak-out, my wonderful father offered to take it to the UPS store for me. So now I have both my passport applications on their way!!

I GOT A FREAKING INVITATION OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!!!

To say today has been interesting would be the understatement of the year. My plan for today was to spend the entire afternoon and probably evening packing for my summer job, as I leave tomorrow. Everything changed when I woke up this morning with emails. My heart began racing, just like it has multiple times every day since April 2. The first email was a response to an email I've had going with Peace Corps: Uganda since early March. In the preview for the email, however, I could see the word "invitation." My heart skipped a beat. A couple of emails down, my official invitation!! I RAN up the stairs (I had spent the night at a friend's house.), and told my other friend who was actually awake. Then I called my mom, then my dad, and began the process of telling EVERYONE.

What does this actually mean in the long run? I now get to begin another hurry-up-and-wait cycle that is medical and legal clearances. During this time, I will be working on "classes" to prepare for service and doing things like applying for my passport. Once those are through, I can depart for training on November 9. We will begin with staging, meeting in the US, and then our entire training group will continue to Uganda on November 11. From there, Pre-Service Training begins. I will spend time with a host family, learn a new language, learn all about Ugandan culture, and most importantly, learn how to be a Teacher Trainer. I will essentially be a teacher's college professor in Uganda, a position I'm am equally excited for and intimidated by. My service will officially begin January 22, 2016, and end January 21, 2018.

I may post more details about my job description in another post, but I still need to wade through all of this information...and pack more!!