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Slaan posted:
Congrats. Why do you think it's Benin? I guess you'll know soon. I think they told me I was going to Ukraine the day after they told me I was going to Eastern Europe. Do you have long to wait before you start?
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Mar 2, 2012 07:32
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I finally got my placement. I don't have the formal papers yet, but the departure date and region, Sub-saharan Africa, seems to indicate Benin. Environmental Education.
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Mu Cow posted:Ukraine Who is your peer advisor? I applied to be one, but people from older groups get priority, and your group is so small this year. Let me know if you want an unofficial, goony advisor!
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Mar 2, 2012 08:35
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Mu Cow posted:Congrats. Why do you think it's Benin? I guess you'll know soon. I think they told me I was going to Ukraine the day after they told me I was going to Eastern Europe. Do you have long to wait before you start? The Peace Corps wiki has a timeline of departures to training coming up in the next 2 years. The only departure on the day they told me is in the region my placement officer told me. It sounds like there is an RCPV somewhere in my school who did Benin, and I know people who did Togo and Niger. Time to organize some coffee hours.
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Mar 2, 2012 16:51
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Pocket DeSade posted:Who is your peer advisor? I applied to be one, but people from older groups get priority, and your group is so small this year. Let me know if you want an unofficial, goony advisor! Ha, cool. My peer adviser is Blakely. I think they paired us up because neither of us drink alcohol, which has been one of my main concerns about being in Ukraine. It hasn't been a problem when I've travelled before, but you never know. Do you know how many people are in my group? I know that there's at least three University of Denver MI students coming (including myself), so I figured it was a pretty big group. Send me an e-mail sometime, darrell dot francis at gmail
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Mar 2, 2012 18:23
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Mu Cow posted:Ha, cool. My peer adviser is Blakely. I think they paired us up because neither of us drink alcohol, which has been one of my main concerns about being in Ukraine. It hasn't been a problem when I've travelled before, but you never know. It averages about 100 per group, but I hear yours is going to be half that. Other than that, they usually keep us in the dark on new groups!
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Mar 2, 2012 20:11
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NBC News ran a story on older volunteers joining the Peace Corps: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40153870/vp/46634019#46634019
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Mar 6, 2012 02:43
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Moon Slayer posted:NBC News ran a story on older volunteers joining the Peace Corps: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40153870/vp/46634019#46634019 I met a guy recently that went into Peace Corps when he was 55 where he met a PCV who was 78 and had served four times since retiring.
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Mar 6, 2012 16:34
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Yep, my packet came in today. I am serving in Benin starting in late June. Looks like I'll be either working with a conservation NGO/government agency of some sort or teaching environmental science in a high school. Sounds like its a 50/50 shot between an urban area or the most rural places. Either is cool with me. Also better start working on a tan so I won't burn as easily. Bloody equator.
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Mar 6, 2012 21:53
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Alright, my wife and I have our interview in a few weeks... a total of 3 months after submitting our applications! Is that a really long time for this stage, or the norm? Roughly how long after the interview do people get sent out? Is there any chance for the end of 2012, or are we looking at at least another year? Have any other married couples done the interview? I understand that we have to interview separately and then together, and I'm not sure what the dual-interview will look like. My wife and I both have an MA in English Lit and several years of teaching experience at the university level. Do you think this will somewhat determine our assignment or country? Finally, anyone have experience with the CLEP Spanish exam? I'm taking it in two weeks. My wife has the clasroom Spanish experience they want, but I'm self-taught. Also, I have taught Latin at the college level, but will the Peace Corps even care about that (as a sign that I could learn another romance language, or something)?
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Mar 8, 2012 22:52
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This is a crazy question, but does anyone know whether it's possible to get access to weight lifting equipment in any of your assignment areas? I'm a pretty regular weight lifter (powerlifting). I imagine that larger cities might have some gyms. I'd happily give it up for two years to join the PC, but I have a fantasy about getting posted in the Ukraine or some other post-Soviet country where I can cobble together some sort of old-school soviet era weight barbells, start a community gym, and pump iron with the locals in some sort of Rocky IV inspired montage. Eastern European countries have a reputation for being beasts in weight lifting competitions (Romanian Deadlift anyone?), so there must be some hope. Thesaurus fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Mar 8, 2012 |
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Mar 8, 2012 23:07
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You'll always be able to cobble something together. I know some people would fill old detergent bottles with gravel and use them, and you'll be sure to find somebody that knows how to weld. Maybe you could piece a barbell together from an old axle.
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Mar 9, 2012 00:03
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Thesaurus posted:Alright, my wife and I have our interview in a few weeks... a total of 3 months after submitting our applications! Is that a really long time for this stage, or the norm? That's really, really quick. Keep in mind that the average time from submitting your application to leaving the country is 9 months to a year.
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Mar 9, 2012 01:34
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Thesaurus posted:This is a crazy question, but does anyone know whether it's possible to get access to weight lifting equipment in any of your assignment areas? I'm a pretty regular weight lifter (powerlifting). I imagine that larger cities might have some gyms. Our PCMO actually paid for several of us to get sets of dumbbells as a "health" measure. My host brother used to LOVE struggling to lift the lightest one while I was working out, it was really cute. I don't think most PCMOs will cover it but its worth looking into when you're out there.
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Mar 9, 2012 11:40
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Thesaurus posted:My wife and I both have an MA in English Lit and several years of teaching experience at the university level. Do you think this will somewhat determine our assignment or country? Thesaurus posted:Finally, anyone have experience with the CLEP Spanish exam? I'm taking it in two weeks. My wife has the clasroom Spanish experience they want, but I'm self-taught. Also, I have taught Latin at the college level, but will the Peace Corps even care about that (as a sign that I could learn another romance language, or something)? I think it's a bit different with Spanish because there are so many Peace Corps countries where Spanish is the official language. That said, I have a friend who speaks Spanish, got sent to Paraguay, and ended up in a village where everyone speaks Guarani.
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Mar 9, 2012 17:54
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Thesaurus posted:This is a crazy question, but does anyone know whether it's possible to get access to weight lifting equipment in any of your assignment areas? I'm a pretty regular weight lifter (powerlifting). I imagine that larger cities might have some gyms. I'm in Ukraine, and I'm actually trying to start a village gym right now. I'm trying to do it through grant writing. Weightlifting equipment does exist here, and it varies from old soviet cast-lead gear, to 2am-informercial crap that's oozed over from the West. The PCMO has given us all resistance-bands to work out. I personally love them, but someone who is serious about weight-lifting might not be as into those. Also, kettlebells seem to be the default weight in Eastern-Europe. My village had a strong-man competition on Maslenitsa, which involved climbing telephone poles and lifting kettlebells the most amount of times. Good stuff! Pocket DeSade fucked around with this message at 07:02 on Mar 10, 2012 |
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Mar 10, 2012 06:46
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(My apologies if this is the wrong thread, It seems to be the closest in A/T) Hello, I'm interested in volunteering overseas this summer for 1-2 months (possibly the peace corps at a later date) and I've been looking into my options. There are tons of great opportunities that seem to be about really helping people. Unfortunately I'm still a minor for one last summer and due to legal reasons around this they are pretty much all 18+. The programs that do take those under 18 seem to all be pretty scummy 8k for a month pad your college application type deals. Anyone have any experience before they joined the peace corps with this/know of any good programs?
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Mar 10, 2012 20:20
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My staging event was yesterday. In case Pocket DeSade was curious, there's 62 people going to Ukraine. We've had fun so far. We fly out this afternoon. Profondo Rosso posted:(My apologies if this is the wrong thread, It seems to be the closest in A/T) I've only done one other volunteer trip, but it was to help out on a farm a friend of mine owned. Personally, I'm wary of organizations that say they'll send you overseas for a couple of months and ask for no farther commitments. I think your best option is to find a non-profit in your area that does work overseas and just volunteer with them stateside this summer and see about going overseas later. Another idea, large churches often send youth groups on service trips. If there's a large, mainstream church in your area you could check that out. It isn't completely what you're looking for, but a lot of churches do good work, you just need to avoid the ones that are just trying to proselytize.
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Mar 13, 2012 14:42
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You can add me to the OP, my wife and I are Agriculture volunteers in Ecuador (Feb 2011 - Apr 2013) Ask me about being an Agriculture, Health, or Natural Resource volunteer in Ecuador. Ask me about being married in the Peace Corps. I saw a few questions about these things at the beginning of the thread but pages 10-25 were TL;DR. My wife and I applied in February of 2010, and had our interviews out of the way before graduation in May. We got our med stuff done in the summer and then heard nothing until Christmas. We were offered Ag positions in Ecuador and, of course, accepted. Our original group, omnibus 105 it was called, was 42 Ag and Natural Resource Conservation (NRC) volunteers. Training was three months near the capital city. We moved to our site in rural, tropical, coastal Ecuador in mid April. Recently the Agriculture program was cut and so we're now considered "Food Security" volunteers under the Health umbrella. Our projects include advising a young farmers association and helping them with pig raising, beekeeping, seed saving, and tutoring kids in English and Math. My wife is going to start volunteering in the hospital soon just to do something new.
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Mar 13, 2012 20:13
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the shill posted:Ecuador stuff. Hey man, been really interested in all things Ecuador lately (fueled by my Intercultural Communication class' assignments) and if you have a blog or anything of that nature, I'd love to follow it.
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Mar 14, 2012 01:00
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Sex Reflex posted:Hey man, been really interested in all things Ecuador lately (fueled by my Intercultural Communication class' assignments) and if you have a blog or anything of that nature, I'd love to follow it. here's my blog. I write it mostly for my family to read so it's pretty PG. Also, I don't update it very much. the shill fucked around with this message at 01:14 on Dec 25, 2012 |
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Mar 14, 2012 01:29
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Mu Cow posted:My staging event was yesterday. In case Pocket DeSade was curious, there's 62 people going to Ukraine. We've had fun so far. We fly out this afternoon. I've volunteered stateside before, I guess I just want something different this summer. I live right near a major city in the north east so there's no shortage of opportunities. I've heard of church groups going to haiti or somewhere to help out, but I was under the impression that was for members of the church. It's an interesting idea though, could someone who's not religious/not a member go with one of those groups?
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Mar 14, 2012 03:04
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Profondo Rosso posted:I've volunteered stateside before, I guess I just want something different this summer. I live right near a major city in the north east so there's no shortage of opportunities. I've heard of church groups going to haiti or somewhere to help out, but I was under the impression that was for members of the church. It's an interesting idea though, could someone who's not religious/not a member go with one of those groups? I know it's very specific, but I volunteered on a farm here in Ecuador about 4 years ago where it would be no problem that you were 17 as long as you could get there yourself. The down side is that it will cost you 10 dollars a day for room and board and you need to know a little Spanish. The farm is called Finca Sarita and it's run by a guy named Servio Pachard <emailto:serviodecalceta@yahoo.es> They have an abandoned website (blog) that some volunteer made for them that you'll find if you google it. Also, I connected with Servio through the Yanapuma foundation based in Quito that has plenty of connections for short term volunteering, but they'll charge you over a $100 for their "services." Another great short term volunteer experience here in Ecuador is with Fundacion Runa, an organization that is helping Kichua communities in the Amazon rain forest grow and process Guayusa tea for export to the US. I have some PCV friends working with them, but they usually have volunteers for 1 to 4 months (costs $220 per week according to their website). They all speak English. https://www.runa.org About paying for volunteer experience: Finding short term volunteer opportunities in the 3rd world that you don't have to pay for is hard because volunteers usually don't know what they're doing and need to be babysat, whereas the people running these operations (volunteer farms, hospitals, schools, etc.) know exactly what they're doing and could get locals to do the same work for a lot less hassle. It's best just to accept that and recognize the money is going to a good cause. More specifically concerning the farm I mentioned above, my wife and I live on about $10 a day including food, rent, and electricity, so it's not too unreasonable.
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Mar 14, 2012 13:24
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Profondo Rosso posted:I've volunteered stateside before, I guess I just want something different this summer. I live right near a major city in the north east so there's no shortage of opportunities. I've heard of church groups going to haiti or somewhere to help out, but I was under the impression that was for members of the church. It's an interesting idea though, could someone who's not religious/not a member go with one of those groups? It really depends on the church and your relation to it. I belonged to a small Methodist church as a kid, but often took part in activities organized by the local First Baptist church and First Methodist church. It helps if you have friends or family who attend the church. That said, I think The Shill's ideas are better.
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Mar 14, 2012 17:53
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I'd love to add my name to the list of goon volunteers. I also, like Mu Cow, offer my help/advice on anyone interested in the MI program. PCV Environment Malawi (2010-2012) Masters International Texas Tech University (Master of Agriculture) I'm CoSing end of April. I had a loving fantastic experience, my site mate (Masters International, Monterey Institute) had an awful one. Now, I'm going to catch up on this thread!
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Mar 14, 2012 21:10
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SlantedTruth posted:I'm CoSing end of April. That's what I've noticed- even though you may be in the same country, same region, and even same site, everyone comes out with a completely different experience. It's all what you make of it. If you guys are interested, there's going to be an online class next month, lead by my friend and RPCV, all about Peace Corps and the entire PC process, from application to job resources/life after PC. I'll be helping out with questions and such too. Check it out here: http://www.entheosacademy.com/courses/Peace-Corps-101?c=advancehumanity
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Mar 15, 2012 12:13
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Updated the OP with the new people. The shill, do you mind if I link your blog in the OP? And just a reminder for everyone, if you want something added/changed in the OP, let me know!
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Mar 15, 2012 15:14
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SlantedTruth posted:I'd love to add my name to the list of goon volunteers. I also, like Mu Cow, offer my help/advice on anyone interested in the MI program. What sort of projects were you both working on and what were the differences between your sites? El Mero Mero fucked around with this message at 17:23 on Sep 3, 2017 |
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Mar 15, 2012 15:24
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the shill posted:Ask me about being married in the Peace Corps. I saw a few questions about these things at the beginning of the thread but pages 10-25 were TL;DR. From earlier on this page: quote:Have any other married couples done the interview? I understand that we have to interview separately and then together, and I'm not sure what the dual-interview will look like. Also, did you find that the whole application process took longer, or was it about normal? I know the PC warns that it can take a lot longer... Did you get to stay together during training? I could handle being separated, given that my wife and I used to be in a long distance relationship, but it would definitely suck to have to spend the first two months apart. Were your living quarters any different because there were two of you? I understand that some countries have homestays, and being married would probably make that an interesting situation.
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Mar 15, 2012 21:35
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Thesaurus posted:
You'd be in the same cluster, but not necessarily in the same house. You'd probably be neighbors at the very least.
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Mar 15, 2012 21:46
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Moon Slayer posted:Updated the OP with the new people. The shill, do you mind if I link your blog in the OP? Feel free. Thesaurus posted:From earlier on this page: The interview was exactly as you say, the recruiter was on campus doing interviews all day so our individual interviews were scheduled in the morning at different times and then we came back for our joint interview in the afternoon. An hour each and an hour together, 3 hours total. The recruiter told us that living in a different country would bring new pressures on our relationship, that we would be successful and home sick and angry at different times and we'd have to deal with that and much more, but being married in the 3rd world is normal whereas being single and 23-26 years old is definitely not normal so there would be some pressures we wouldn't have to deal with that other volunteers would. EDIT: I think the time the whole application process takes differs from case to case. As a couple you have to medical reviews so the chance of delay is higher, I suggest finding a doctor or doctors who have seen Peace Corp aplicants in the past. For us, it was three months after applying that we were interviewed, another three months to finish medical, and another three months of just waiting before we got our invitation to serve. Since we were both Agriculture volunteers we were training in the same place and we stayed with the same homestay family. When I say family though, I mean grandma. We've actually had 3 homestay "families" now and they've all been widowed old ladies, I guess they're the only ones who care to take in couples? While we were together during most of training, we had two tech trips where the trainees were split up and taken to different parts of the country to learn hands on and about Ecuador's different regions. For the first one we were put on separate lists and I think the staff was really waiting to see how we'd react to this. We were totally fine with it of course and so we were apart for the second one as well. For the first four months at site we were living with another old widow, but technically married couples are entitled to move into their own place right off the bat if they can find a house/apartment on their site visit. We decided to go with the flow though because the only eligible house in our village was inhabited by the previous volunteer who extended for four months, overlapping with us. At our third and final homestay (the one here in site) the walls didn't go up all the way to the ceiling and our host grandma slept on the other side of the partition. That made for a lot of "interesting situation[s]" as you say. the shill fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Mar 16, 2012 |
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Mar 16, 2012 00:24
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Thesaurus posted:Also, did you find that the whole application process took longer, or was it about normal? I know the PC warns that it can take a lot longer... I wasn't part of a married couple, but I was good friends with both married couples in my group, so I can answer these I think... 1. I know for one of the couples it took a bit over a year. But I think part of that was because they were engaged when they applied/interviewed, got married shortly after the interview, and then had to wait about a year. I think processing the marriage stuff just makes things take longer. I'm not sure about the other couple, who had been married for a decade or more at that point. 2. Both couples stayed together through training and through service. In each, the wife was a teacher trainer and the husband a regular English teacher, so the wife worked at the provincial teaching university while the husband taught at a high school. 3. Both couples stayed with a family for PST. On moving out to site, one couple immediately moved into their own house, while the other lived for a few months with a host family until they moved into a house nearby. Both had their own houses for the majority of service, though, even though all the rest of us were with host families.
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Mar 16, 2012 01:20
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the shill posted:I know it's very specific, but I volunteered on a farm here in Ecuador about 4 years ago where it would be no problem that you were 17 as long as you could get there yourself. The down side is that it will cost you 10 dollars a day for room and board and you need to know a little Spanish. I have some spanish (4 years of classes, who knows what stuck with me) and I'm definitely going to get into contact with both of these. It's not the money that's the issue (if its reasonable) if its going to a good cause, its just looking around/reading reviews a lot of programs take all your cash for themselves while claiming to be non-profit. I've seen a couple horror stories of people spending like 5k then getting placed in an underfunded location and pretty much abandoned quick edit: looks like runa has a minimum age of 18  still going to check out the farm/yanapuma though
Tolkien minority fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Mar 16, 2012 |
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Mar 16, 2012 03:11
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Profondo Rosso posted:
Yanapuma probably has a minimum age as well but don't bother with them. If you're really interested about working on this farm with Servio, I can do for you everything Yanapuma did for me (pick you up from the airport, ride with you to the farm) and not charge you $160. Servio doesn't speak English, but he's used to really bad spanish from volunteers to write him an email (in google translate if need be) and ask him anything you want to know. Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions, I'm glad to help and I'll be here.
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Mar 16, 2012 04:01
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Okay I have a really time sensitive question (like need to make my decision by Friday at 4) but I just got an email offering a nomination for the summer group (September-July, didn't specify region or anything other then that I would be an English Teacher) after being told that I was looking at a winter 2013 departure. I am really excited about receiving the potential nomination however I had been planning for a much later departure date so I had applied for a few summer internships. Most of them I would drop in a heartbeat for the nomination but there is one that would make me seriously consider putting the Peace Corps on hold. I don't think I will get the internship but if I was to get the internship and ask for a deferral how would that affect my candidacy going forward? Would I still have a chance at the winter group or would I be pretty much out of luck? I guess my question is is there any benefit to simply waiting for the winter group over going through with the nomination, getting the medical/whatever then asking for a deferral or seeing if they can push it back? U definitely would prefer to leave in the summer especially if I don't get the internship but I just don't want to lose an opportunity for the winter if I have to defer. My recruiter has already said she doesn't have a problem moving me to the winter group right now, but would having to ask for the deferral later in the process screw things up? I apologize for the word salady question, I am kind of all over the place right now. Swarmin Swedes fucked around with this message at 05:40 on Mar 16, 2012 |
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Mar 16, 2012 05:18
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Swarmin Swedes posted:Okay I have a really time sensitive question (like need to make my decision by Friday at 4) but I just got an email offering a nomination for the summer group (September-July, didn't specify region or anything other then that I would be an English Teacher) after being told that I was looking at a winter 2013 departure. My guess, based on the information you got is that this is just a recruiter pressuring you to say yes without really giving you anything to go on. Feel free to play along because your actual invitation is not up to them and it depends on how long your medical review takes, which is up to you. If you've already jumped through the hoops of medical review and you're really ready to go, then you're too valuable to them for them not to give you another invitation. On the other hand, if you actually received an invitation, it would say where you were going and exactly when and be accompanied by a phone call from your placement officer. This is the person to talk to about perhaps getting a later staging date. Check out this calendar on the Peace Corps wiki for what countries they're possibly talking about : http://www.peacecorpswiki.org/Calendar?title=Calendar&month=9&year=2012 Narrow it down by clicking each of the countries in your window and seeing which ones are for English teaching.
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Mar 17, 2012 00:31
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Hey Moon Slayer, possibly add me to the list of current PCVs? I'm currently serving in Vanuatu (2010-2012), a south pacific island chain east of Fiji. I'm a Business Development volunteer on the island of Malekula. If anyone has any questions about living in the South Pacific or serving in a county where nobody works and the challenges that come along with it.  I live in a bamboo hut, i poo poo in a hole, take showers with a bucked at a cup, cook over fire, and drink kava every night. Ask away!
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Mar 17, 2012 02:23
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the shill posted:Yanapuma probably has a minimum age as well but don't bother with them. If you're really interested about working on this farm with Servio, I can do for you everything Yanapuma did for me (pick you up from the airport, ride with you to the farm) and not charge you $160. I don't have pm's, do you have an email I could shoot you some questions at?
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Mar 17, 2012 04:06
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framcodtheshill at gmail
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Mar 17, 2012 12:55
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I was nominated, yay. Now I start the medical stuff. My legal status has already been checked off on my application toolkit. Is that normal?
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Mar 20, 2012 17:39
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i see things posted:I was nominated, yay. Now I start the medical stuff. My legal status has already been checked off on my application toolkit. Is that normal? Yay! The same thing happened to me this morning. Nominated, my legal status is already checked off... but I haven't heard a thing from my recruiter. So I guess I've been nominated, but only My Toolkit and I know about it? Monkey Fury fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Mar 21, 2012 |
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Mar 21, 2012 17:31
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