"Do you know where you are going?"

That's the first thing that people ask when you say you are going into the Peace Corps. Ironically, it is the last thing you know! It's funny, because as many of the Peace Corps folks out there know, Katie and I are well along the process after clearing Medical, Dental, and Legal, but to someone outside the process, it sure seems like we have hardly started.

You start to say that you know that you are going to Latin America...but then you find it hard not to caveat that with some statement that even that could change. You've read too many accounts of people getting nominated for one region, then invited to another.

I'm hoping that we do know something by around the end of April. That seems realistic based on how invites are processed. It wouldn't be surprising if it were later though. Everything about the PC has a caveat :-) Still, it will be nice when we have an answer the THE question.

The Joy of Giving

An unexpected benefit of planning to join the Peace Corps, and needing to get rid of three quarters of your "worldly possessions", is that you get to give things away to family, friends, and even random passersby. It's a good lesson in economics. Our need to get rid of stuff is much greater than any artificially imposed pricing scheme. So right now, the best price that people can offer to us, is really just to take more stuff! "You want that chest of drawers...well ok, but you have to take that fake ficus in the corner". So far, I feel that most of our stuff is going to really good homes, where people will use it. Even stuff that really was junk is being well used.

The process of "shedding" all of our stuff has been very revealing as to what's really important. It's easy to get rid of most of the big, nice furniture... it's typically the small things like slides or photos that you have to keep. The process really does turn economics on it head.

On a side note, Katie made it safely to Guatemala, and is begining her Spanish classes this morning. For those that don't know, as part of our nomination to Latin America the PC really stressed the need for Katie to bulk up on her Spanish as best she could. Sure, she could have just taken classes at the JC, but it's more fun to have her go to Guatemala for immersion...especially when we are in the middle of selling the house...huh?

Oh Bountiful Day...

Actually it has been a pretty amazing week! Regardless yesterday deserves special notice. Sure, it was my last day of work (Katie's was on Tuesday), I had a nice going away lunch at Chevy's, and an excellent celebration dinner with Larry and Dana at a Korean BBQ...but the real news of the day was that both Katie and I are MEDICALLY CLEARED FOR PEACE CORPS SERVICE!That's a big deal because it's the last big hurdle and the burden lies with the PC now, not so much on us.

In order to really understand why this is a big deal, you'd all have to go read an on-line PC forum (Yahoo Groups), or google a few PC blogs and see how many times the medical clearence process becomes a complete nightmare for so many potential volunteers. It can be very frustrating and drag out over a long period.

Our story becomes a bit better by telling you that I actually called our medical screening assistant yesterday morning, just to follow up and ask if there were any questions. We talked for a while and he said that since we weren't leaving till September (news!), they probably wouldn't get to it for a few months...or it could be tomorrow, hard to say. He was very nice and took down all of our change of information (address, e-mail, phone) for our file. Then the strangeness... Katie comes home to a voice message on our answering machine from the screening assistants supervisor who is congratulating us on our medical clearance! He went on to say that he had been "bragging" about us and our very organized submittals to the assistant who said that he had just talked to me. That prompted him to try to call us in person and give us kudos.

Bottom line, while we probably didn't set any records with how fast the PC can clear folks...I'm sure there have been a number of priority/emergency clearances... but I bet we did damn well for the "normal" process by being cleared both medically, and dentally eight days from their receipt of our submittal! Que suerte!