Good day friends & family, mostly family. Sooner or later I’m going to tell people I have a blog, so I might have a few more followers. I guess in the back of my mind I still have that “what if they turn me down” feeling, which may sound crazy, but after a 10 month application process you feel like another essay or blood test can be expected at any moment. I think I’m safe now. The day after my last post they emailed me my staging information. I actually know now all my flight info & itinerary for orientation. I’m flying to Philly on Monday Oct. 3rd for orientation, then flying out of JFK on the 4th w/ a layover in Frankfort, Germany, then on to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I’m scheduled to arrive there on Wednesday Oct. 5th around 9pm local. I also set up for my cable, phone, & power to be cut off at the end of the month, and let the landlady know I’m moving out…so, if they back out on me now, I won’t be very peaceful w/ the Peace Corps. Before I get too sidetracked, let me finish up explaining the application process w/ the medical/dental.
Once you’ve been nominated they send you a packet in the mail w/ everything they need you to do. One portion is on immunization. You have to send them your shots record, as well as get any that are missing & send those records as well. I had to request them from my college, & high school, since some were missing from the college records. I still had to get a Hepatitis test, MMR(mumps, measles, & rubella) shot, adult polio booster shot, a tetanus shot, & a yellow fever shot (this was specific for Ethiopia after being assigned). I had more needles in me than your local neighborhood dope fiend. Getting all those shots around the same time, I was either going to be very immune or very high.
The other portion is a detailed physical exam, which may be even more detailed depending how you answer the initial medical questionnaire in the online app. I mentioned a heart murmur some doctor said I had in one physical over 20 years ago & had to send in 2 letters from a doctor saying I don’t have one. That’s what I get for full disclosure. Other than that the doctor just follows the checklist provided by the PC, which is fairly standard aside from the blood test, AIDS test, & the dreaded rectal exam. Of aaaall the stuff I had to go through, the rectal exam had me the most nervous. My friends didn’t help w/ the jokes…make sure he has one hand on your shoulder & not two, or beware of the “David Blaine” (For those of you not familiar, David Blaine is a magician. The maneuver is when you bend over only to have someone else slip in from behind & when you look up you see the Dr. waving at you from out the window & the person from behind says TADAA!) Needless to say everything was fine, except for my blood test. I had a low red & white blood cell count. The PC sent my physical back requesting a 2nd blood test. Since the results were the same I had to go to a blood Dr. Same test, same results, so I finally ended up having to get a bone marrow biopsy. They laid me on my stomach & put an extremely long needle in my pelvis up my back to draw bone marrow & analyze it…& I was still more nervous at the rectal exam. Anyway, they did all that to basically tell me your blood count is different b/c you’re multi-racial. Thanks doc! After that I passed the physical.
The dental is a lot simpler. You go get a normal check up & x-rays at a dentist, following the PC dental checklist of course, & send the x-rays & results back. You can even get it done for free, b/c certain dentist give free exams to PC applicants. The PC dental examiners look at the data & either pass you or send a document back w/ requested dental work. Being that I hadn’t been to the dentist since Reagan was president, they had a few request. I had to get my bottom wisdom teeth pulled & one tooth drilled & filled. The good thing is you don’t have to get the dental work done until you’ve officially been medically cleared & been assigned your country. That way you don’t get your wisdom teeth pulled for nothing.
Ok, so once you’ve passed medical, you have to send in your resume again w/ any updates & any certificates of completion, or any other data, related to the language study agreement signed after nomination. Then they set up one more interview, really just to see if there have been any significant changes in your life that have occurred since the beginning of the application process that would effect you serving 27 months. It’s not long, maybe 20 minutes. Then they tell you right there if they have an assignment for you. They can’t say the country over the phone, just the region, your field of work, & when. All I knew was sub-Saharan Africa in Oct. doing business analysis for conservation & natural resource management (CNRM). I actually had to wait 3 days for UPS to deliver the welcome kit to me before I knew what country I was going to. It kind of had that game show feel to it, like what's behind door number 3?!.....ETHIOPIA!! I did have a little Price is Right come on down type reaction, doing Tiger Woods fist pumps all over my apartment. It was a pleasant surprise. The process still wasn't over though. I had to send a resume to the Ethiopia country desk & write an Aspiration Statement, which is another essay saying what your plans are during and after service in the selected country & how you plan to adjust to life there, as well resolve some of their ongoing issues. Then I had to send my passport & some photos in, for a specialized PC passport & VISA for my country of service.
FINALLY, that’s it. No more long post guys I promise. Summing up a 10 month application process can get a little wordy. From now on post will be strictly about my assignment & Ethiopia. The blog IS titled Mission to Ethiopia, not Mission to bore the hell out of everyone w/ long ass post.
You know when you think about it, Peace Corps starts to give you peace, even before you complete the journey. Think about it. With all you went through to get accepted into the PC, i.e. application, health screening, recommendations and help from friends and family, you begin to see where all your education, work/volunteer experience(s), physical/mental/spiritual fitness, and personal relationships has sculpted you into this worlds most precious gift--a giver. I can only imagine feeling that "the processes of my life has created within me the ability to share with others what I have been blessed with--love. Sorry man, I don't want to get all emotional on ya. However, you aint got to be no @$! no punk to dive deep, and express your feelings wicha' boi(lol). No but really, you should feel good. Correction, you need to feel good. And any regrets or guilt you ever felt in life, should be destroyed. Reparation comes in the form of atonement (being grateful for what we have, giving back what you feel you have taken, and/or what has been taken from you).
ReplyDeleteWhen you are in Ethiopia please use that time to..."painfully dig up that entire field so that you can plant your own crops." Come back home and show us the soul of a true MAN. For you will be our example. Can you dig it?
We will now have a selection from the choir.
-ELH