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necrobobsledder
Mar 21, 2005
Lay down your soul to the gods rock 'n roll
Nap Ghost
I was involved in US intelligence for a while and because of that, my sister can't apply for Peace Corps for quite some time. Can you explain the reason why my liberal-as-gently caress sister will be rejected from serving in supposedly another part of the US government (as said in OP) because a close family member served in the army or the defense industry in general? I don't really believe the PR drone canned response is anything but BS, so what's the scoop?

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HeroOfTheRevolution
Apr 26, 2008

necrobobsledder posted:

I was involved in US intelligence for a while and because of that, my sister can't apply for Peace Corps for quite some time. Can you explain the reason why my liberal-as-gently caress sister will be rejected from serving in supposedly another part of the US government (as said in OP) because a close family member served in the army or the defense industry in general? I don't really believe the PR drone canned response is anything but BS, so what's the scoop?

The intelligence background questionnaire does say that having a close family member who served in intelligence may be disqualifying for a period of up to 10 years.

It's odd but understandable, the Peace Corps can't screen every applicant and right now they have more applications than positions to fill so it's easier to make overarching qualifiers than to expend resources on a case-by-case basis. It's the government, you should understand that.

v I think that's what he meant by 'the PR drone canned response' v

HeroOfTheRevolution fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Jan 14, 2010

RagnarokAngel
Oct 5, 2006

Black Magic Extraordinaire

HeroOfTheRevolution posted:

The intelligence background questionnaire does say that having a close family member who served in intelligence may be disqualifying for a period of up to 10 years.

It's odd but understandable, the Peace Corps can't screen every applicant and right now they have more applications than positions to fill so it's easier to make overarching qualifiers than to expend resources on a case-by-case basis. It's the government, you should understand that.

Well the other problem is theres a lot of conspiracy theories that Peace Corps is a secret intel gathering program under the guise of humanitarian work and they're trying to do everything to keep evidence of that away.

Still sucks dude.

T-Rex Money
Dec 10, 2009
Another Beach Corps signing in (EC80). I am in the tiny island of St. Kitts (and Nevis), and I love it so far. Hi EC buddies!

Do any other volunteers serve in countries where PC does not provide bikes for them? Here in the Eastern Caribbean, they will not provide bikes for us which ticks some of us off since it would save us a lot of money in bus fares to make it to our projects.

About the pessimistic views often seen on the internet, I can definitely see where those views come from, especially regarding primary assignments. Sometimes work is really slow and I feel pretty useless with very little to do. But it helps me to remember goals 2 and 3. Knowing that every time I hang out and talk with locals is reassuring because I am not doing "nothing". Even walking down to the local rum shop and drinking a beer and eating chicken with locals is technically doing PC work.

Winna posted:

Any of you guys currently in wanna share your living spaces with us? I'm curious how you guys live.

My apartment may not be the best example for "typical" Peace Corps housing, but St. Kitts has relatively high standards of living compared with most countries with volunteers. My apartment is probably over 1000 sq. ft., I have wifi, cable with 40+ channels (paid for by my landlord), a hot shower, a huge kitchen with two ovens, and the ocean in my backyard. I don't say that to brag, but most volunteers on my island have many of those amenities, while other islands in the Eastern Caribbean may have very few of those.

I don't have any pictures inside my apartment for now, but here is what it looks like from the outside. I live in the bottom.
https://wi.somethingawful.com/6d/6d465c6ada844a41d6d28f013231a302a751238c.jpg

My backyard
https://wi.somethingawful.com/a2/a2e33fb56a5fd278383a70af655d5cc42a040a09.jpg

https://wi.somethingawful.com/45/457b22028ec5f6e218a6763fc137783915a07c32.jpg

From the front.
https://wi.somethingawful.com/7f/7f36f6e483adfae145dfdda6e2a0f66c6e081ae6.jpg

It's not a bad place to live.

Also, my blog is here: http://kittsmet.blogspot.com/

Winna
Oct 10, 2004
_)_)====|D ~o ~o ~o
Your blog makes it pretty apparent you standards of living are much much higher than other locations. Also, you seem to be surrounded my lots & lots of westerners.

T-Rex Money
Dec 10, 2009

Winna posted:

Your blog makes it pretty apparent you standards of living are much much higher than other locations. Also, you seem to be surrounded my lots & lots of westerners.

There are definitely some very poor people in the area, some of the kids I work with and live a few houses away do not have a shower in their house and have to use a public "bath house", and some people down the road live in 10' x 10' shacks made from tin roof sheets. But there are also huge mansions on other parts of the island. Peace Corps really does make sure we live at the same economic level as the average local though.

Because the standards of living are higher for us, we sometimes get the feeling that other volunteers in "typical" peace corps settings look down on us because we don't have the struggles that they do. We just struggle in different ways. The standard of living here is kind of high, but we aren't able to indulge in a lot of it because of our low living allowance. Thousands of tourists come through every week from cruise ships, and they have money to spend which makes a lot of prices higher than we can afford. Practically everyone on the island has cars except for us, which makes getting places difficult. There are countless things like this which creates our "hardships".

A lot of my social time is spent with other volunteers, which of course is not always a good thing. I've had a difficult time making friends with locals, as have other volunteers in my group. Many of the volunteers that have been here over a year now still have very few close local friends. I'm working on it though, and am slowly making friends. Our island is so small that I could get to any other volunteers house within 45 minutes, and some of them within 15. This is great for a support system, but bad for integrating.

Miranda
Dec 24, 2004

Not a cuttlefish.

reddeh posted:

Surprisingly I missed sweet things, like sour patch kids or starburst that I would get in care packages occasionally. I never really ate them back in the states, but when your diet's sole sweet intake comes from the occasional coke they were little delicious treats.

Oh and a steak. The "steaks" you could get in the euro restaurants in the capital weren't even close to a medium rare ribeye with asparagus...mmm...

Haha yeah I send him all kinds of candies which is plows through. Anyone else got any ideas?

Winna
Oct 10, 2004
_)_)====|D ~o ~o ~o

T-Rex Money posted:

There are definitely some very poor people in the area, some of the kids I work with and live a few houses away do not have a shower in their house and have to use a public "bath house", and some people down the road live in 10' x 10' shacks made from tin roof sheets. But there are also huge mansions on other parts of the island. Peace Corps really does make sure we live at the same economic level as the average local though.

Because the standards of living are higher for us, we sometimes get the feeling that other volunteers in "typical" peace corps settings look down on us because we don't have the struggles that they do. We just struggle in different ways. The standard of living here is kind of high, but we aren't able to indulge in a lot of it because of our low living allowance. Thousands of tourists come through every week from cruise ships, and they have money to spend which makes a lot of prices higher than we can afford. Practically everyone on the island has cars except for us, which makes getting places difficult. There are countless things like this which creates our "hardships".

A lot of my social time is spent with other volunteers, which of course is not always a good thing. I've had a difficult time making friends with locals, as have other volunteers in my group. Many of the volunteers that have been here over a year now still have very few close local friends. I'm working on it though, and am slowly making friends. Our island is so small that I could get to any other volunteers house within 45 minutes, and some of them within 15. This is great for a support system, but bad for integrating.

Yeah I hear ya, definitely pros and cons and no matter where you are - there will be hardships. Chances are I'll be in either Tonga or Vanuatu and I have really no clue what conditions will be like.

Alpha
Dec 17, 2004

owned
I don't think I could cut it in the peace corps, I think the cultural isolation is the hardest part, can any of the volunteers comment on that a bit more?

RagnarokAngel
Oct 5, 2006

Black Magic Extraordinaire
Finally got to send my application in (Getting reference from my former places of employment was a nightmare, they were either out of work on sick leave or moved to other jobs) now I wait for an interview. Anything I should know? Even "obvious" stuff like dress, I've never had a real interview before, just bum jobs like gas station worker and stuff.

Omits-Bagels
Feb 13, 2001

RagnarokAngel posted:

Finally got to send my application in (Getting reference from my former places of employment was a nightmare, they were either out of work on sick leave or moved to other jobs) now I wait for an interview. Anything I should know? Even "obvious" stuff like dress, I've never had a real interview before, just bum jobs like gas station worker and stuff.

My interview was over the phone. There is a list online of what they'll probably ask you. My interviewer asked them word for word from the list. I don't have the document though.

Evil Adam
Jul 18, 2003

He's very good.

Alpha posted:

I don't think I could cut it in the peace corps, I think the cultural isolation is the hardest part, can any of the volunteers comment on that a bit more?

Well, can you be more specific? You mean like not hearing new music/seeing new movies for 2 years? Or not being a part of the culture you're in?

Winna
Oct 10, 2004
_)_)====|D ~o ~o ~o

RagnarokAngel posted:

Finally got to send my application in (Getting reference from my former places of employment was a nightmare, they were either out of work on sick leave or moved to other jobs) now I wait for an interview. Anything I should know? Even "obvious" stuff like dress, I've never had a real interview before, just bum jobs like gas station worker and stuff.

http://www.peacecorpswiki.com/Interview_Questions

Those are the questions they will ask you, as said above me, word for word.

I did my interview at the regional Los Angeles office and I wore a suit and a tie. Then again, I wear a suit and a die for every interview I go to and I recommend you do the same.

Evil Adam
Jul 18, 2003

He's very good.
I wore khakis and a polo shirt, if I recall. It was also like 100 degrees and I spent the day running around trying to find parking for the commuter line, running to catch a subway, wandering around Boston looking for the HQ, and got to the interview like 10 minutes late.

RagnarokAngel
Oct 5, 2006

Black Magic Extraordinaire

Evil Adam posted:

I wore khakis and a polo shirt, if I recall. It was also like 100 degrees and I spent the day running around trying to find parking for the commuter line, running to catch a subway, wandering around Boston looking for the HQ, and got to the interview like 10 minutes late.

Boston? Sweet that's where I'd be going if they call me in :respek:

HeroOfTheRevolution
Apr 26, 2008

RagnarokAngel posted:

Finally got to send my application in (Getting reference from my former places of employment was a nightmare, they were either out of work on sick leave or moved to other jobs) now I wait for an interview. Anything I should know? Even "obvious" stuff like dress, I've never had a real interview before, just bum jobs like gas station worker and stuff.

I had my interview last Monday and they asked me those questions word for word, so just prep answers but don't come off as too scripted. It's a pretty informal interview, to be honest. I wore the pants from my suit (though any dress pants would do) and a button down shirt and felt neither under- nor over-dressed; a full on suit with jacket and tie is probably unnecessary but don't wear jeans and a t-shirt or something, just go business casual.

Riven
Apr 22, 2002
My wife and I are thinking about joining in a few years when we finish our Master's in Educations. I'm getting mine in Special Education and she's getting hers in Early Childhood (PreK-3rd Grade) Education. I'm a Resource teacher at a middle school right now dealing with Learning Disabilities, Autism and Emotional Disabilities, she'll have a year or so of teaching (probably preschool or Kinder) under her belt by the time we would be going.

A couple of questions:

First, what kind of placement would I be likely get applying for a Special Ed position? I would guess that it'd be more urban than rural, that rural schools would be more focused on setting up a school period than diagnosing and accommodating disabilities. But that's an assumption. We'd really prefer a relatively developed environment, especially in Eastern Europe, although of course we're flexible.

Second, I've been trying to read up to see what would happen if my wife happened to get pregnant while we were serving, but most of what I've been able to find has been related to single PCVs getting pregnant by a local or a PCV getting a local pregnant. If we're a married couple of 5-7 years (depending on when we go) and we're in a city, would my wife have to go back home?

We're attending an info session soon to talk to someone official, but I just wanted to get some opinions here, too. Thanks!

reddeh
May 18, 2004

Riven posted:

My wife and I are thinking about joining in a few years when we finish our Master's in Educations. I'm getting mine in Special Education and she's getting hers in Early Childhood (PreK-3rd Grade) Education. I'm a Resource teacher at a middle school right now dealing with Learning Disabilities, Autism and Emotional Disabilities, she'll have a year or so of teaching (probably preschool or Kinder) under her belt by the time we would be going.

A couple of questions:

First, what kind of placement would I be likely get applying for a Special Ed position? I would guess that it'd be more urban than rural, that rural schools would be more focused on setting up a school period than diagnosing and accommodating disabilities. But that's an assumption. We'd really prefer a relatively developed environment, especially in Eastern Europe, although of course we're flexible.

Second, I've been trying to read up to see what would happen if my wife happened to get pregnant while we were serving, but most of what I've been able to find has been related to single PCVs getting pregnant by a local or a PCV getting a local pregnant. If we're a married couple of 5-7 years (depending on when we go) and we're in a city, would my wife have to go back home?

We're attending an info session soon to talk to someone official, but I just wanted to get some opinions here, too. Thanks!

Getting pregnant is a trip home, and medical separation. If she decides to abort, its a 3 week vacation in DC and then she can return to the field. I can't remember if PC pays for the surgery or not. Also, if you as the husband want to return home you have to ET, you don't get medical separation.

Riven
Apr 22, 2002
Ok. I thought I read somewhere that an option for her would be medical separation from her duties but she could stay in country until my service was done. But I wouldn't be surprised if that's not accurate.

Grammar Fascist
May 29, 2004
Y-O-U-R, Y-O-U-Apostrophe-R-E... They're as different as night and day. Don't you think that night and day are different? What's wrong with you?

reddeh posted:

Getting pregnant is a trip home, and medical separation. If she decides to abort, its a 3 week vacation in DC and then she can return to the field. I can't remember if PC pays for the surgery or not. Also, if you as the husband want to return home you have to ET, you don't get medical separation.
This is correct. PC will not pay for the procedure (government funds cannot be used for abortions), but they will give you an advance on your readjustment allowance to pay for it.

Stoner Boner
Sep 29, 2005

by Y Kant Ozma Post
Can more people post pictures of their villages or surrounding area and living arrangements?

R2ICustomerSupport
Dec 12, 2004

Stoner Boner posted:

Can more people post pictures of their villages or surrounding area and living arrangements?

I am not in the Peace Corps but have one friend doing it in Paraguay and another in Ecuador

Friend's room in Paraguay


Friend's room in Ecuador

Moon Slayer
Jun 19, 2007

Stoner Boner posted:

Can more people post pictures of their villages or surrounding area and living arrangements?

Sure! Here's the house I lived underneath.



And my room.



EDIT: And some newborn puppies too.

Moon Slayer fucked around with this message at 23:36 on Jan 23, 2010

Evil Adam
Jul 18, 2003

He's very good.
Here's a link to pictures from my first year in Madagascar

Also:

My bedroom (bed, bookshelf/dresser)


Another room, where you would first walk into the house. On the right is my water filter and dinner table, in the background is where I kept my food, pots and pans, dishes, etc.


The food area and kitchen (you can see just about all there is to it, it doesn't extend to the right at all. It was about the size of a closet)


My backyard, with trash pit. Kids would stand outside the fence all day and bother me.


My "shower" hut, which I didn't end up using that often.


Front of my house, peach tree.


My desk.


There was another room in the back I left empty because the house was way too big for one person (especially me) to fill. They built it specifically for a Peace Corps volunteer so I guess they imagine we had a lot of stuff? All in all the house was pretty sweet, especially for my town. Most of the other houses were mud/clay. But, in exchange for a nice-ish house I had no electricity, no running water, no phone/cell phone service, barely any radio stations, and an outhouse (hole in ground) that I never took a picture of. You're welcome.

Evil Adam fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Jan 23, 2010

Evil Adam
Jul 18, 2003

He's very good.
Here are some picture from around town.

My school. It was funded by a Libyan bank and was brand new when I got there. I literally taught the first class in it. We even had solar panels thanks to a grant. I taught something like 9th/10th grade here.


The inside of one of the classrooms. This grade had about 55 kids per class, 3-4 per table.


My town! It's just this one road. It's kind of Wild West-ish


Same spot, looking the other way.


A typical side-of-the-road grocer. Beans, rice, candy, chalk, goose eggs, macaroni, popcorn (terrible), pot scrubbers.


From up on a mountain/hill looking down at my town.


The idiot kids.


The aforementioned mountain/hill, towards sundown.


My younger class. This is about half the room. There were 65-75 kids per class at this level.

melaneyelia
Apr 4, 2006

put on your adventure helmet, it's time for an adventure!

T-Rex Money posted:

Another Beach Corps signing in (EC80). I am in the tiny island of St. Kitts (and Nevis), and I love it so far. Hi EC buddies!

Do any other volunteers serve in countries where PC does not provide bikes for them? Here in the Eastern Caribbean, they will not provide bikes for us which ticks some of us off since it would save us a lot of money in bus fares to make it to our projects.

About the pessimistic views often seen on the internet, I can definitely see where those views come from, especially regarding primary assignments. Sometimes work is really slow and I feel pretty useless with very little to do. But it helps me to remember goals 2 and 3. Knowing that every time I hang out and talk with locals is reassuring because I am not doing "nothing". Even walking down to the local rum shop and drinking a beer and eating chicken with locals is technically doing PC work.


My apartment may not be the best example for "typical" Peace Corps housing, but St. Kitts has relatively high standards of living compared with most countries with volunteers. My apartment is probably over 1000 sq. ft., I have wifi, cable with 40+ channels (paid for by my landlord), a hot shower, a huge kitchen with two ovens, and the ocean in my backyard. I don't say that to brag, but most volunteers on my island have many of those amenities, while other islands in the Eastern Caribbean may have very few of those.

I don't have any pictures inside my apartment for now, but here is what it looks like from the outside. I live in the bottom.
https://wi.somethingawful.com/6d/6d465c6ada844a41d6d28f013231a302a751238c.jpg

My backyard
https://wi.somethingawful.com/a2/a2e33fb56a5fd278383a70af655d5cc42a040a09.jpg

https://wi.somethingawful.com/45/457b22028ec5f6e218a6763fc137783915a07c32.jpg

From the front.
https://wi.somethingawful.com/7f/7f36f6e483adfae145dfdda6e2a0f66c6e081ae6.jpg

It's not a bad place to live.

Also, my blog is here: http://kittsmet.blogspot.com/

Is yours the house Margo says has the best view in the EC? Another PCV a few towns away from me has "the second best view." I'm in St. Lucia (I was part of the welcoming group back in August or whenever).

And yeah, I live here pretty much as I would live in the States, but that's because I'm poor there. Seriously, they give us a little too much allowance, but at least I'm able to save some and put it toward debt back home. Then again my landlady is superawesome and hooks me up with cable and internet for free.



Tonight I got to defend my boyfriend and myself with "Ki te nou bat mi se nou!" when a drunk gason on the bus kept pestering us verbally and physically. It worked, and freaked out his friends. "They understand our language gason!"

Stoner Boner
Sep 29, 2005

by Y Kant Ozma Post
Thank you all for posting your pictures. I am supposed to leave in June and am getting more excited by the day :)

T-Rex Money
Dec 10, 2009

melaneyelia posted:

Is yours the house Margo says has the best view in the EC? Another PCV a few towns away from me has "the second best view." I'm in St. Lucia (I was part of the welcoming group back in August or whenever).
Yeah, that's probably me. There are a number of houses with great views, but mine is definitely one of the best.

You were at the airport when we were picked up? I might have met you. Wild. Will you be helping with the new group of volunteers in February? How do you feel about so many of them being 50+? I almost feel bad for the one that is under 50.


My island is currently getting ready for elections on Monday. The campaigning is really starting to get annoying, as they've stepped it up several notches since the new year. On the positive side, the party that is in power has hosted several free concerts the past month, ranging from Serani, to Wyclef Jean. We were able to sneak backstage for each concert. Definitely not an experience I was expecting for Peace Corps. I've heard that locals think the elections will turn violent, which means there is a chance we'll have to go to our safe houses until it calms down, and I suppose if it gets violent enough that they'll have to evacuate us. I'm not expecting that to happen though. I hate these elections.

melaneyelia
Apr 4, 2006

put on your adventure helmet, it's time for an adventure!

T-Rex Money posted:

Yeah, that's probably me. There are a number of houses with great views, but mine is definitely one of the best.

You were at the airport when we were picked up? I might have met you. Wild. Will you be helping with the new group of volunteers in February? How do you feel about so many of them being 50+? I almost feel bad for the one that is under 50.


My island is currently getting ready for elections on Monday. The campaigning is really starting to get annoying, as they've stepped it up several notches since the new year. On the positive side, the party that is in power has hosted several free concerts the past month, ranging from Serani, to Wyclef Jean. We were able to sneak backstage for each concert. Definitely not an experience I was expecting for Peace Corps. I've heard that locals think the elections will turn violent, which means there is a chance we'll have to go to our safe houses until it calms down, and I suppose if it gets violent enough that they'll have to evacuate us. I'm not expecting that to happen though. I hate these elections.

Good job getting backstage. I avoid talking to people as much as possible, so I didn't really meet anyone, I just told them where to go.

It is sort of weird that nearly all the new group will be 50+, and hopefully they'll be able to hack it better than a couple women in EC78 (my group). Half my cohort in St. Lucia is 50+ already, though, so I think the current older volunteers can help them adjust.

I'm excited because it's very likely there will be a volunteer in my town. Simone and my APCD were checking out one of the apartments at my host mom's house a couple weeks ago. I live in the second largest town on island but I'm the only one who lives and works here.

lucky garnett
Oct 14, 2003

Swing Time
I'm in Kyrgyzstan in a village outside Jalalabad City.

This is my school. I've been to a couple secondary schools in both the North and South. This seems to be a pretty typical classroom. I teach ages 12-17.


Here is the road up into my village. This is last November or maybe December.


My house on the right. For a village volunteer I have a pretty decent set up. I get my water from a well and I have an outhouse like normal, but I have a nice living space - a kitchen and two rooms to myself. I technically live with a host family, but they live in the city and only come out on some weekends.

Grammar Fascist
May 29, 2004
Y-O-U-R, Y-O-U-Apostrophe-R-E... They're as different as night and day. Don't you think that night and day are different? What's wrong with you?
For any (R)PCVs that have to file taxes this year, I just found this spreadsheet (.xls) to figure out taxable allowances. Last year it took until the end of February for our admin officer in-country to get this info to us, and then it was in a really confusing booklet. Hope it's helpful to you guys, too.

RagnarokAngel
Oct 5, 2006

Black Magic Extraordinaire
Welp. Resume got rejected. Guess they were being truthful times are tough right now and they have to be more selective.

I'm not giving up though, going to do some volunteer work this semester, get some cred under my belt and try again.

internetstuff
Dec 27, 2009

HeroOfTheRevolution posted:


According to the PC Wiki the two Eastern European countries with staging dates (likely) in September are Macedonia and Ukraine.

How did you find this information?

My nomination is Central Asia for September ... I have a "Program Number" too. I'd love to see which countries depart in September if there is some kind of listing.

HeroOfTheRevolution
Apr 26, 2008

internetstuff posted:

How did you find this information?

My nomination is Central Asia for September ... I have a "Program Number" too. I'd love to see which countries depart in September if there is some kind of listing.

http://www.peacecorpswiki.com/Timeline

Though it only has this year's up to the end of June, you'll notice that the dates tend to match up year to year (well, give or take a few days). The two Central Asia staging dates for September last year were Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

internetstuff
Dec 27, 2009
This is AWESOME. Thank you!

Winna
Oct 10, 2004
_)_)====|D ~o ~o ~o
So I've got everything in and I'm just now waiting for my invitation. I'm kind of nervous as in the email acknowledging my placement process it says that there are typically 2 nominees competing for every invitation. So what are the chances that i
we spent all this time waiting to go to the peace corps then to suddenly be told "sorry, try again?" I think i'd lose it.

T-Rex Money
Dec 10, 2009

Winna posted:

So I've got everything in and I'm just now waiting for my invitation. I'm kind of nervous as in the email acknowledging my placement process it says that there are typically 2 nominees competing for every invitation. So what are the chances that i
we spent all this time waiting to go to the peace corps then to suddenly be told "sorry, try again?" I think i'd lose it.

That happened to me. I was originally nominated to leave in January 2009, but December 2008 I got a call from my placement officer explaining that my nomination was pushed back until August 2009 (when I actually did leave). I think the other person who shared my original nomination was just offered a spot before I did. I was initially pretty upset with it because it meant I had to find another job to last through the summer as well as some other annoying things. Thankfully it's not "try again." it's "please wait longer."

So yes, it does happen. Just don't give up when it happens to you. The placement officer literally told me my options were to wait it out until August, or else drop out. I'm glad I chose to stay in.

Stoner Boner
Sep 29, 2005

by Y Kant Ozma Post

T-Rex Money posted:

Thankfully it's not "try again." it's "please wait longer."


This makes me happy. I was at dinner with my mom the other night and she said, "Is there a plan B?" I sat there for a while and was like....poo poo, no? Now I realize I can just keep working until I leave. But she said she gave me a great recommendation, so hopefully I won't have to.

Oh, and did you go to the same location you were originally nominated for?

lucky garnett
Oct 14, 2003

Swing Time

Grammar Fascist posted:

For any (R)PCVs that have to file taxes this year, I just found this spreadsheet (.xls) to figure out taxable allowances. Last year it took until the end of February for our admin officer in-country to get this info to us, and then it was in a really confusing booklet. Hope it's helpful to you guys, too.

This is a big help, thanks. Our tax sheet just said something like: There's more you have to do. Go figure it out.

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Dance McPants
Mar 11, 2006


lucky garnett posted:

This is a big help, thanks. Our tax sheet just said something like: There's more you have to do. Go figure it out.

They just gave us our W-2s, then turned around and said "oh, we screwed up on those, the taxable allowance was too low. Go find out how much you really need to claim" or something like that.

But, we got a new batch of PCTs flying in in three weeks, and I'll be at the airport to meet them. I kinda want to screw with them, just a little. I think I'll practice my patois and speak only that for a while.

  • Locked thread