|
Grimson posted:Hey congrats, I'm staying on for a third year in Cambodia myself. Also, I happen to know your incoming Country Director! She was in the year just before mine, and she is one cool lady. She's got a great sense of humor, great work ethic, and a great presentation style (she was a professor and associate dean of social sciences). You guys are lucky to have her, and I hope she serves you well. Congrats to you too! And that's awesome! We were all honestly a little worried because we heard she had just finished and we didn't know what kind of experience she had coming into the CD role. I'm glad to hear such good things about her! Me and the other PCVLs were really sad that our CD is leaving so soon (she's been in Mongolia as long as my cohort), but she's going to bigger and better opportunities so we understand.
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2012 14:10
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 22:47 |
|
|
When to the doc today for my medical test and everything is falling into place... ...except that my tuberculosis QuantiFERON blood test came up as "Positive."  Same for my wife. Me: "Positive, that's good right?" Doctor: "No, in medicine we like negatives." Me:  I have the arm dot thing going on now and I go back in two days to see how that turns out. I'm hoping that I had a false positive. Anyone have experience with (latent) TB? Poking around online reveals that it's pretty common for PCVs to end up with it, and it's not totally unheard of in the general population. If I do in fact have it, are we in for a world of hurt from the Peace Corps medical office? Browsing their secret medical documents seems to reveal that I'd be on a six month regime of anitbiotics or something, which doesn't sound horrible but I fear it delaying us. If I have latent TB, I blame it on the crowded minibuses in Bolivia where last summer I was sitting right behind an old campesina woman who was throwing up periodically into a bag.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2012 21:22
|
|
|
Thesaurus posted:If I do in fact have it, are we in for a world of hurt from the Peace Corps medical office? Browsing their secret medical documents seems to reveal that I'd be on a six month regime of anitbiotics or something, which doesn't sound horrible but I fear it delaying us. I know 2 or 3 PCV's in Ukraine in this boat, and I don't believe they had any problems (they're here, aren't there?)
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2012 03:46
|
|
|
My brother in law has been considering this for quite sometime and I have a few questions to ease my concerns. 1. What is it like for openly gay people in the PC? 2. Reading through this thread, I've noticed that people are sad that they can't be home for some holidays yet you get a vacation. Are you not allowed to go home for vacations or something? 3. Is being fluent in spanish required to go to Central/South America?
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2012 23:30
|
|
|
Thesaurus posted:When to the doc today for my medical test and everything is falling into place... I had a positive TB result, but mine was from years before I applied. I did the 6 month regimen of Isoniazid when I first discovered it so all they needed from me was a chest x-ray showing I was clear. My guess is that if you show up positive again, they'll ask for a chest xray to show you aren't currently infected, and if that's the case then they'll ask you to take the antibiotics and you should be fine. They might not even delay acceptance in that case- I knew a PCV who had to start taking them while in service and he didn't have to do anything special besides avoid booze.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2012 09:21
|
|
|
Pillowpants posted:My brother in law has been considering this for quite sometime and I have a few questions to ease my concerns. 1. In some countries being openly gay at one's site is not an option; Peace Corps is present in many countries where homosexuality is illegal. Being outed is often enough to force a PCV to change sites. Outing another volunteer is punishable by administrative separation. 2. While PCVs do accrue vacation time which could be used to visit home, it's up to them to pay their way. You get a small amount of cash each month for travel - plenty for in-country travel, but going home isn't possible for all volunteers.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2012 16:44
|
|
|
Looks like I'm TB free, at least according to the arm test thing! My doctor may have marked "positive" for the blood test on the form AND "0 mm" for the spot test, which I'm hoping doesn't cause anyone's head to explode when they review my forms. Can't wait to send out my medical forms this weeks and put the ball in their court. quote:3. Is being fluent in spanish required to go to Central/South America? Fluency is definitely not required. As discussed recently, you need to prove that you have some proficiency in Spanish. Depending on your assignment/situation, you may need to prove somewhere between 2 and 4 semesters worth. In my case, I scored 4 semeters worth on the CLEP Spanish placement exam to satisfy my recruiter. With that said, it sounds like they are flexible. I think they make exceptions for in-demand skill sets. I was recently talking to a married older couple who returned from Honduras a few years ago. The woman knew lots of Spanish before they went (not fluent, though) and the guy didn't know jack. He says he was put in the "special" learners group during training where they received an hour or two of extra practice a day. Another returned volunteer from Paraguay said that she only had 3 years of Spanish in highschool, which apparently satisfied the PC even though she said her Spanish was really bad when she got there (on top of that, she also had to learn Guarani, which was only taught through the medium of Spanish, because the Guarani teachers didn't know English!). My wife and I were told that we only needed two semesters worth to qualify for our nomination, but that if we weren't married it would have been four (it's harder to find two volunteers who share higher qualifications). Thesaurus fucked around with this message at 17:08 on May 7, 2012 |
|
#
?
May 7, 2012 17:06
|
|
|
Hey guys, first post here (hopefully out of many). I just have one question for now which I don't believe has been discussed yet (If it has just ignore it). I'm just about to graduate from college and seeing as I've been busy with finals, the peace corps app has been on the back burner. Obviously once I get the application in, I'm going to have a lot of free time on my hands. I was just wondering what other people, who might have been in a similar situation, did during this time. What kind of jobs did hold down? How much did your job and the application requirements (such as tutoring ESL) conflict? Is the Peace Corps looking closely at what you're doing during this time? Am I making an issue out of nothing?
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2012 21:38
|
|
|
thepettifogger posted:I just have one question for now which I don't believe has been discussed yet (If it has just ignore it). I'm just about to graduate from college and seeing as I've been busy with finals, the peace corps app has been on the back burner. Obviously once I get the application in, I'm going to have a lot of free time on my hands. I was just wondering what other people, who might have been in a similar situation, did during this time. What kind of jobs did hold down? How much did your job and the application requirements (such as tutoring ESL) conflict? Is the Peace Corps looking closely at what you're doing during this time? Am I making an issue out of nothing? As someone in the application process, my impression is that the PC won't care as much about when you do things so much as your experience in general. If you have the relevant volunteer experience and skill sests, they'll probably take you on without issues. If you don't have enough experience, they'll tell you to keep working on it and get back to them. If you don't have previous experience teaching or with ESL, I'd keep working on it so that when you meet with a recruiter you can say that you have x months experience at that time. I'm working a normal desk job and not volunteering while going through the process, and I don't think it's affected anything. But I did have lots of relevant teaching experience before I applied, so I didn't need to add more credentials to qualify. If I wanted to get nominated for another sector (like agriculture), I'd definitely want to spend this time volunteering in that area to convince the recruiter.
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2012 22:01
|
|
|
Pillowpants posted:My brother in law has been considering this for quite sometime and I have a few questions to ease my concerns. 1.I'm Transgender myself (pre-op so I'm still a dude physically) and it's "fine" if you can tolerate having to be closeted at site. Most Peace Corps volunteers and staff are going to be fine with it, since Peace Corps tends to attract some of the more liberal minded people you'll meet. At site...it's gonna depend, some countries in southeast asia like Thailand are cool with it but in 95% of cases homosexuality is either illegal or very looked down upon so I keep my mouth shut and grin and bear it. Getting asked if you intend to marry a local girl really sucks. 2.You get vacation but have to pay your own way and for me a plane ticket round trip from Indonesia would be $2000 so no dice there. thepettifogger posted:Hey guys, first post here (hopefully out of many). I buffed up my experience while I was waiting for the application to go through. I applied a year before I finished college so I actually got shipped out 3 months after finishing school. Peace Corps will let you keep updating your resume and submitting it so submitting new stuff all the time is not only permitted but encouraged. Your recruiter will defintely tell you to keep adding on to remain competitive but don't sweat it too hard, just do the best you can to fill the tutoring requirements and stuff.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2012 12:13
|
|
|
I leave to Benin in a month!  Oh god, I leave to Benin in a month. 
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2012 17:05
|
|
|
This might be of interest to those of you waiting to do your dental stuff: I went to a dentist who does free exams for PC applicants, and they said that they can now directly email in your xrays (assuming that the dentist using digital imaging). This came as a surprise to me because the medical packet makes a really big deal about including the original xray films. However, the dentist showed me some secret comunique that they had from the PC with an email address, and the dentist also just received a confirmation that my x-rays were received by PC... one less thing to worry about! The dentist even said that some applicants have successfully faxed in all of their dental docs, but I don't know if this only applied to applicants who need to expedite things to meet their departure timelines. It would be nice if there were a network of PC affiliated doctors, too, because the dentist was ultra efficient and immediately took care of all of the forms, while the doctor was like, "uh, what's all this now?"
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2012 17:42
|
|
|
Federal Hospitals (read: Veteran's Affairs) will do it for free. They also are more used to doing these kinds of forms as well. Otherwise, I'd say go to your campus health center (if its big enough for an actual physician). They get several forms at year for most public/large private schools.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2012 05:04
|
|
|
It looks like the PC isn't actually pulling out of El Salvador and Guatemala. New volunteers ariving early 2013. Honduras is still a question mark. http://multimedia.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/policies/CentralAmericaFAQs-051012.pdf Mailed out medical packet today. Fingers crossed...
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2012 19:58
|
|
|
Do older people have a better or worse chance on getting assigned? I graduated in 2006, and will be 29 years old this July. I do have lots of real world work experience (in two different, unrelated fields). I'm looking to do something different as a change of pace.
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2012 18:26
|
|
|
how!! posted:Do older people have a better or worse chance on getting assigned? I graduated in 2006, and will be 29 years old this July. I do have lots of real world work experience (in two different, unrelated fields). I'm looking to do something different as a change of pace. I think the average age of PC volunteers is 28, so I wouldn't sweat it. Also, the more experience you have, the better off you'll be. At the end of the day, you need some sort of relevant experience (volunteer or working) for one of the fields that the Peace Corps works in. Even if you didn't have it now, you can volunteer locally for a few months to get it.
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2012 20:15
|
|
|
If I get an invitation, I'll be 28 when I begin my service. I would not be concerned about age at all. They want diversity in all aspects of candidates' lives.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2012 14:38
|
|
|
Does it take long to receive notification that your medical/dental packet has been received? I sent mine almost two weeks ago and haven't heard anything. Should I expect to see an update on my application status when it's received?
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2012 17:18
|
|
|
Thesaurus posted:Does it take long to receive notification that your medical/dental packet has been received? I sent mine almost two weeks ago and haven't heard anything. Should I expect to see an update on my application status when it's received? They have to review it, make sure you got everything (it's pretty common to miss something), so dont worry too much.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2012 05:18
|
|
|
RagnarokAngel posted:They have to review it, make sure you got everything (it's pretty common to miss something), so dont worry too much. Of course, after posting my question yesterday, today I received confirmation of receipt! Patience and flexibility...
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2012 15:57
|
|
|
I've got about three to four months before I plan to apply for an engineering related position with PC. I've already had one engineering internship for eight months in Shanghai and worked at a summer camp in New York. I consider these my two most important experiences thus far that are relevant for applying. For the summer, I will most likely be working a second engineering internship and doing volunteer work with Engineers Without Borders for a Kenya project. I've already finished three years of high school Spanish and will be taking one more year of Spanish. I have to do a senior design project and I've decided on an alternative energy project. Does this sound like enough for PC to consider me for a alternative energy assignment in a Spanish speaking country? Any other things I should try and squeeze in these last few months/next year of school?
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2012 05:58
|
|
|
I'm not sure there are engineering jobs in PC. Mainly Education/Health/Business. Your work abroad and an engineering degree is more than enough to get you in. Spanish however, unless fluent is no gaurentee you'll go to a hispanophone. I took 4 years of Spanish in school and was nominated for the South Pacific. So instead I got the chance to learn a different language.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2012 04:37
|
|
|
Oh boy, got my staging event email. Can't believe I'll be starting Peace Corps in a month. Words can't describe how I'm feeling right now. Excitement and butterflies?
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2012 05:39
|
|
|
Me too! Where are you headed? I'm going to Benin on the 22nd.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2012 06:29
|
|
|
Slaan posted:Me too! Where are you headed? I'm going to Benin on the 22nd. Staging event will be in LA. I'll be serving in China. Where is your staging event? My LA to Chengdu, China flight will be a total of 22+ hours. Normally my flights to Asia is only about 12 hours... I have this ridiculous 11-hour layover in Bangkok. I guess Peace Corps really went out of their way to find the cheapest flights.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2012 07:53
|
|
|
11-hours in Bangkok airport will certainly make a hard man humble. I'm so jealous, I was kind of hoping to get China since I spent 6 months in Japan before, but I'm guessing you need to be nearly fluent in Mandarin beforehand to get in. I'm staging in Philadelphia. Flying to Brussels then to Benin. Two ~7 hour flights and a 12 hour layover. Maybe they'll let us see Brussels for a couple hours? 
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2012 17:02
|
|
|
FYI, the Brussels' airport has a train nearby that you can take into the city center. I was on a 24 hour layover and did that on my way to Rwanda (working for State, not PC).
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2012 17:27
|
|
|
Is there a time by which references need to be sent in? I'm not going to have two of my references until the summer is over but I need to apply by June 17th for a May 2013 departure date.
huhu fucked around with this message at 20:12 on May 30, 2012 |
|
#
?
May 30, 2012 19:22
|
|
|
Slaan posted:I'm so jealous, I was kind of hoping to get China since I spent 6 months in Japan before, but I'm guessing you need to be nearly fluent in Mandarin beforehand to get in. The people I've met who've gone to China didn't know any Mandarin before training, so I suppose it's just the usual vagaries of placement.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2012 20:22
|
|
|
Thesaurus posted:The people I've met who've gone to China didn't know any Mandarin before training, so I suppose it's just the usual vagaries of placement. That is what I got from the little info I have about the China program (mainly from the River Town book by Peter Hessler). Albeit, yes I do know Mandarin and pretty literate in Chinese. I think knowing Chinese does help in placement to China, unless you have relatives living there. Also I have experience teaching English, which also helped with my placement to China because the Peace Corps program in China is teaching English to students in teachers' colleges.
|
|
#
?
May 31, 2012 07:41
|
|
|
Slaan posted:11-hours in Bangkok airport will certainly make a hard man humble. I was about to be dismissive and go "pff, i'd take Suvarnabhumi for 11 hours no probs" but then realized that not everyone yet knows about how developed it is compared to places like phnom penh. Good luck on staging! Ours was something like 6 and half hours with no refreshments and a lot of talking. Grimson fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Jun 2, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2012 04:02
|
|
|
Winna posted:I'm not sure there are engineering jobs in PC. Mainly Education/Health/Business. Your work abroad and an engineering degree is more than enough to get you in. Spanish however, unless fluent is no gaurentee you'll go to a hispanophone. I took 4 years of Spanish in school and was nominated for the South Pacific. So instead I got the chance to learn a different language. uh Business and Information & Communication Technology I'm an IT volunteer, as are several others in my group alone. huhu, I know alternative energy and renewables is one of PC's secondary projects these days. Focusing on that should help you get into a related program.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2012 13:16
|
|
|
Grimson posted:I was about to be dismissive and go "pff, i'd take Suvarnabhumi for 11 hours no probs" but then realized that not everyone yet knows about how developed it is compared to places like phnom penh. Ours looks to be three 6-hour sessions spread out over a night and day. And yeah I know how developed Bangkok is. It was more for the joke and that even the best airports suck to stay in for long periods of time.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2012 17:48
|
|
|
I was wondering what you guys think of using a person who has English as their second language to write me a reference for my engineering internship in China? I would ask my old boss but he is very busy and I already got a reference from him to get college credits for my internship. The person I would be asking gave me some of the engineering tasks to work on, ran an English discussion/class with me, was my closest friend Chinese friend, and we helped each other improve our language skills. My only problem is this is his level of writing. (I copied this from one of our emails talking about internships/Engineers Without Boarders) "It’s like US society supplies many chance for youth grow before they get a job and start steady life, or maybe you want to take involve in these activities, to have a good accumulation at the beginning of your occupation. I would like to do the same as you too, but I think it’s hard to find a pure organization, and a lot of corporation and organization here are cheaters, or bad ending. I like the name "Engineers Without Borders", it sounds like the engineers are come from everywhere and reserch every secter." Do you think that's good enough? Or should I try and bother my old boss for another reference?
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2012 05:24
|
|
|
^^ I think it would be fine. I had one of my recommendations written by a Korean colleague, albeit he was an English teacher, although his new native-English speaking co-worker helped him polish the letter. Perhaps you can have your friend ask a native English speaker or someone who is an expert in English to help edit it. If anything, I think it would be a plus to have a foreigner to write a letter of recommendation for you because it shows you can work well with foreigners which is what Peace Corps is all about.
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2012 08:54
|
|
|
I got my nomination today!!! I'll be teaching English in a non-Spanish speaking post in Central/South America, departing in mid-April 2013. Apparently the health packet wont be sent until mid-August and the entire process is in the middle of being re-vamped.quote:In August, Peace Corps is transitioning to a new application process and the medical process will be changing as a result. In order to transition your application into the new system, we will not be sending you a medical kit at this time. Instead, you will need to fill out the new Health History Form (HHF) in August when we transition to the new process. You will receive an email in August with instructions concerning how to fill out the new form. Please complete the HHF as soon as you receive the email so that you can continue forward in the application process and be on target to be considered for your nominated program. The only thing we ask of you between now and August is that you please continue to gain any skills required for your nominated program. So what does it mean that I will be teaching English at a non-Spanish speaking post in Central/South America? Does That mean that the entire country doesn't speak Spanish or just the people at the site?
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2012 22:50
|
|
|
There was a push for more literacy teaching in Jamaica when I was there. I think "Eastern Caribbean" rotates between a few islands where most people speak patoi, could be there too. Good luck!
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2012 23:49
|
|
|
Borscht posted:I got my nomination today!!! I'll be teaching English in a non-Spanish speaking post in Central/South America, departing in mid-April 2013. Apparently the health packet wont be sent until mid-August and the entire process is in the middle of being re-vamped. Sounds like to me its either Brazil or a French-speaking island in the Caribbean.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2012 06:12
|
|
|
Borscht posted:I got my nomination today!!! I'll be teaching English in a non-Spanish speaking post in Central/South America, departing in mid-April 2013. Apparently the health packet wont be sent until mid-August and the entire process is in the middle of being re-vamped.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2012 06:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 22:47 |
|
|
People also need to take note that a lot of places in Central and S. America have indigenous people who speak an indigenous language that is not an European language. Also Brazil is not a destination for PC.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2012 08:29
|
|