Sunday, February 28, 2010

going cold turkey

I've decided to take a step back from this whole process and just relax for a while and enjoy my last semester of college. Since I could potentially be waiting until June (6 weeks before departure) before I find out, I think that I'm just going to have to select to be patient and just wait it out. It definitely doesn't help my stress levels to be constantly thinking about my future home. I am deciding to live in the present! My boyfriend is coming to visit me in 3 weeks, so maybe once he leaves, I'll get back into the Peace Corps mindset. Until then, I'm going to focus on marathon training and getting good grades and hanging out with friends, and planning Colt's visit!

So if you don't hear from me for a while, consider me (at least temporarily) cured from RAS and enjoying life! I'll be back in a few weeks =D

-Elaina

Friday, February 26, 2010

You must be the change...


So I am thinking about getting a new tattoo (since speculation on my invitation seems to be pointless at this point). It would probably be the quote by Mahatma Ghandi, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world" and I would be getting it lettered on the inside of my upper left arm, Lady Gaga style. Here's a picture of her location...just think Ghandi quote instead of German philosopher. I guess I am more sure of the location than the quote. There's also a slightly longer one by economist Jeffrey Sachs that I really like: "Let the future say of our generation that we sent forth mighty currents of hope, and that we worked together to heal the world."

Which is better?

(Keep in mind I probably won't get it until I get back from PC since I don't think you can have a healing tattoo before you leave for a third world country. that's probably a good idea :P )

Elaina

Monday, February 22, 2010

Bummer!

So I finally got up the courage to call the Placement Office and found out some disparaging news. Apparently the health desk a)hasn't begun issuing invites for my program and b)probably won't get to it for another month at least. The health desk rep said that the latest I could expect to hear could be in APRIL.

It was actually really stressful because at first she said "oh it looks like only people who are leaving in the spring and summer are being considered for invitations right now and you are leaving in the fall." And I was like "what?!" July is in the summer! She quickly apologized and said yes, I was still nominated for July and medically qualified for that placement. Whew!

I think I am going to update my resume and send an updated email to the placement office with that as well as copies of my CPR certification which apparently is a helpful piece to my nomination that I did not include the first time around because I hadn't gotten the card yet during the application process. Maybe I'll mention the marathon business as well. I just really want this to go quickly. I could use some good news in the next few weeks, but she specifically said "do not expect the invite in the next three weeks." So we're looking at mid March at the earliest, she said.

UGH! I almost wish I didn't know! Looking forward to the next two to three weeks sounded really refreshing...and now my deadline has been extended to April. That's a long time to deal with RAS.

She also mentioned something sort of underhandedly like "...oh late July" which of course freaks me out because I've been assuming staging at the beginning of July...which would indicate Benin. I'll have to check the Peace Corps wiki about late July African staging dates. It looks like Mali is also in July...the Cape Verde islands actually have staging in mid July but they are definitely not a French speaking country...so that's probably out. There really aren't any other countries that seem to be leaving around that time...so right now the only two that fit my original nomination seem to be Benin or Mali. Either one would be awesome. I just want to know haha.

Even the health desk rep knew I was being antsy. She recommended patience and said everything would work out. She's probably totally right.

-Elaina

Sunday, February 21, 2010

A friend in Africa

Well, my friend who was leaving in June that had yet to receive her official invite...just received her invitation! She's leaving June 14th and it turns out that she didn't meet all the medical requirements of her original program so now she is going to sub Saharan Africa like me! She doesn't have the French background, so she thinks she'll be heading to Tanzania. Which is like massively cool...especially since I can now visit her and climb mount Kilimanjaro. Tres cool. I'm definitely glad to have a friend in Africa!

Well, that's it for me. She suggested I call the Placement office with an update to my application, no matter how trivial because that could boost my place in the pile...but I can't really think of anything that they don't already know, except that I'm running the Boston marathon and am raising money for Boston Children's Hospital. Maybe that could work as an update. I guess if I haven't heard anything by Wednesday, I'll give 'em a call. It's worth a shot.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

The Rumor Mill

Word on the street is that the education desk has gotten out its invites up until the month of June. Now, I know that not everyone who is nominated for June has gotten an invitation, at least not a friend of mine nominated for Central/South American in the environmental sector. Soooo, I suppose I cannot really speculate about the progress of the health extension sector. They may or may not be up to speed. For some reason, the Benin wiki maintains that staging is in Philly on July 6th. Since no one to my knowledge has actually gotten an invite to Benin yet, I really don't know how they could be sure of that. Oh well. Assuming other placement offices are shortly behind the Education folks, they should be starting the July stagiers pretty soon...which means, I'll probably find out for sure in the next two weeks or three weeks. Since that's right about when I'll get my MCAT scores back, it had better be good news to make up for the bad I'm expecting haha.

In French today my group presented on Benin. It was sort of luck of the draw what francophone country we were assigned. Quelle coincidence! Our presentation was pretty ghetto...just some translated wikipedia facts and some random pics from some PC blogs. It was pretty funny because I already knew a hilarious amount of information about the country just from obsessively reading blogs. Someone mentioned the city Cotonou and I was like "oh, it's very dirty there." Haha

Apparently there is a bit of freedom in getting to select your placement in country. I think the regional directors give a questionnaire and your preferences are taken into account. I, for example, really would like to stay near a bigger city with electricity if possible. I know, I know, don't I want the REAL experience? Well, yeah. I don't think being able to charge my cell phone, have an electric fan, or a lamp is really going to diminish the fact that I'll be living in freaking Africa. I already know I'm hardcore. Running water is slightly less important to me. What IS important, maybe even more so than electricity, is access to vegetarian food stuff. I really do not want to have to sacrifice this part of me if I can avoid it. Maybe fish. I have acquiesced that much. Actually, if I am being really super honest, the idea of a little meat in a situation where I cannot really avoid it is actually a bit appealing. I haven't eaten meat in almost 6 years; maybe a couple years of a change wouldn't be so bad. But, if it's possible to stay totally vegetarian I am definitely going to do it. I'm just not going to starve myself or offend people to avoid meat. Beef, though? I don't think I can handle that. Fish is okay for now I think. We'll see.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Tres Cool!


We watched a video in my french class today about the francophone country of Senegal.


I am usually pretty nervous about speaking in french class, but this prompted me to say:
"j'irai en Afrique francophonie, peut etre Senegal, pour deux ans avec le corps de paix americain"

Everyone thought that was way cool. Me too! I am so excited to get to have this adventure!

The music in the video was so powerful, I was so full of this indescribable surge of anticipation knowing that in a few months I will be living a life with that soundtrack. Part of me thought that it must be some sort of sign and that I'd return to my room and find an email telling me about an updated toolkit...alas, no such message!

The prospect of being trilingual upon my return is pretty cool, too...considering now I speak only english and broken french. I wish I could figure out how to do accents on my computer...

Ahhh, I want an invite!

Patience is a virtue, right? haha

~Elaina

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Counting Down

I am trying to not have Restless Applicant Syndrome. It is not an easy condition to avoid, however. I wake up each day and check my email to see if there is the foreshadowed toolkit update message. But alas. I feel like I just want to know so that I can go buy a bunch of books about the country and learn its history and its people. I want to start creating a picture in my mind of what this experience will be, but I just think its too premature to begin doing that unless I have a country name and a specific date when I'd be leaving.

Benin. Staging dates in the beginning of July according to the Wiki and also doing some clever PC journals reconnaissance makes this West African country the most likely. I know this by spending way too much time at Peace Corps Journals.com, and looking at the Benin health extension volunteers' dates of staging. It seems like the most recent one was July 2009...which suggests a repeat performance this year. OF COURSE, I don't want to get my hopes up or anything and honestly I'd be happy anywhere in Africa, but if this is the place, that is seriously awesome. Birthplace of voodoo, beautiful beaches, history of Marxist-Leninist dictatorship?! What is there not to love?

I am so grateful to have a relatively obstacle free process going on here. There are so many potential applicants who don't get to this point or have to fight hard to get to where I am. So I am grateful for my waiting. I am glad to have the chance to have to fight off restless applicant syndrome!

Honestly, I am just anxious to be finished with college and I am ready to move onto my next adventure. If that experience can impact the lives of others in a positive way than I am even more anxious to begin. This is the opportunity of my life here and not something that realistically I will ever be able to do again in the same way. I am not naive and don't plan on saving the world or anything. I am well aware that the person who will most be impacted by my service is myself and I am okay with that. We are a global society, but we know so little about each other. If I can represent America to a few people, perhaps some of that misunderstanding can be alleviated. I guess that's what peace really is.