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You know, I should probably jump into this thread. I'm in the middle of my application process, with my interview  This Thursday. I've done International aid work and lived abroad 3 times, so I think I'll have no problem with it. The Medical though? My family has mental health issues, so I have a feeling that will be a pain to get through.I am also doing it through Masters International at Indiana University, so I can also answer questions about the application processes for MI. Slaan fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Sep 20, 2011 |
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Sep 20, 2011 15:01
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So I did my interview today and I think it went well. I'm supposed to hear back on my nomination around Tuesday/Wednesday so this weekend will suck.  But she said that I will be placed in the Environmental Education group. Has anyone here done that particular kind of position? The OP doesn't list anything for it. 
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Sep 22, 2011 22:27
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I just did the physical exam for the medical portion. They make you do the tests. All of the tests. So many needles  At least it is over with. Just need to get dental and eyes done, and I'm through. Here is hoping to a fast placement.
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Nov 2, 2011 23:05
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^^ It probably means "has attacks even with medication, and attacks can cause hospitalization." It is about your safety when you are too far from most doctor's offices/hospitals and can't deal with an attack yourself. If it only pops up when you are doing heavy lifting/running, it will probably be fine. You could also call up medical services and ask.gimme the lute posted:I have my interview today! So how did it go?
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Nov 29, 2011 23:52
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I have been practicing ways of inserting "patient and flexible" into ordinary conversation, do any of you have any other last-minute tips?
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gimme the lute posted:It went pretty well, I have now been nominated for a math education position! My only comment is that apparently "30 hours of relevant teaching/tutoring experience required" is now more like "6 months of relevant teaching/tutoring experience preferred." I'll keep all of you updated as my application progresses. I can barely tutor others in math and I'm taking advanced statistics. I can't even fathom doing it in a second language 
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Nov 30, 2011 16:34
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Well I apparently need to send in about 5 
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Jan 7, 2012 01:44
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They had me fill out an extra form when I did my medical documentation due to having Acid Reflux. I just received a letter from them saying they want a personal statement regarding it, and several other things, even though my Doctor signed off on all of it. If they needed me to write something up for them as well, they should have told me to do so in the first place.
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Jan 7, 2012 06:51
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I finally got my second set of medical stuff sent in. I'm supposed to be in a April-June group, so hopefully I will hear back from them soon. If I don't get in, I have no idea how I'm supposed to find an internship on this short notice.
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Jan 22, 2012 20:06
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What. The. gently caress. Peace Corps!? So they wanted me to send them extra information on a few things for the medical process. Ok, fine. I wrote about my medical history for a tonsilectomy and mole removal, as well as a couple moderate digestion problems. They take the tonsilectomy and digestion problems without batting an eyelash, but they want me to get my dermatologist to sign off on the mole removal even though I told them it was completely negative on everything? Priorities here, Peace Corps. I doubt a mole is a bigger problem than loving eating troubles. If anything is making me want to quit its the bloody medical process.
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Jan 27, 2012 20:31
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Oh, I know. This is just the third 'extra explanation' letter they've sent me, and I've starting to get fatigued. And since I'm doing Master's International, I have to leave June/July at the latest. All my other colleagues have gotten their placements already.
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Jan 27, 2012 20:56
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No, no particular reason to leave then. Its just that I would rather finish my service and my final semester earlier rather than later. If I start in May/June then the timing should be able to get me back for the Fall semester once I'm done.
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Jan 29, 2012 16:12
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International development at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. How it works here is that you do 2 semesters, then your Peace Corps service, and then one more semester plus presenting your thesis paper which is based on your service. I get one semester less of classes and a TA position in exchange for the paper and Peace Corps service. So if I return in like September, then I'd have to wait a good 8 months to graduate instead of just the 4 for the semester. vvv Nope, all of us are Food/Environment guys Slaan fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Jan 30, 2012 |
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Jan 30, 2012 07:53
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Woohoo, finally let me through medical. My reward? More forms and bureacracy! 
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Feb 1, 2012 19:17
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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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Feb 29, 2012 22:29
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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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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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I started with my home address and then changed my address. Its no big deal and they basically ask you every new step to confirm your address. So go ahead and put your current address on there now and change it when you move.
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Apr 7, 2012 01:03
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You should probably just call the medical office with these questions to be sure but from my experience a few months ago; 1. Tell them its a Peace Corps exam. Its basically a general exam plus a lot of blood work/tests. They will want to know it will take a while and get everything ready. 2. Yeah, you need to have your test results to send in with the rest of your stuff. My Doctor's office just kept all the forms with them and called me back in a few days later to pick it all back up. Make sure you go over it yourself, AT THE OFFICE, to check. Doing it again would be a pain in the rear end. 3. I believe so.
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Apr 12, 2012 21:08
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I leave to Benin in a month! Oh god, I leave to Benin in a month. 
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May 9, 2012 17:05
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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.
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May 10, 2012 05:04
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Me too! Where are you headed? I'm going to Benin on the 22nd.
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May 30, 2012 06:29
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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? 
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May 30, 2012 17:02
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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.
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Jun 2, 2012 17:48
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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.
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Jun 13, 2012 06:12
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My staging to Benin starts today, and I'll be in West Africa sometime Tuesday. Thanks for this thread guys! The OP can officially put me down as an EA trainee for Benin.
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Jun 24, 2012 06:14
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4 days in, 4 hours of sleeps so far. We've been doing nothing but paperwork and basic training after landing, but the food and staging group are amazing, to say nothing less of the PC staff. My post is one of the few allowed to ride motorcycles(as taxis).  Oh, Moon. I'm also doing Masters International in the Public Policy/Health field.
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Jun 28, 2012 15:33
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OmNom posted:For some small world fun, there is a Korean girl, Cara M. on your deployment to Benin. She is the sister of my girlfriend. Yes there is, and she is awesome. For a TEFLer. Not posted anywhere near me though. I guess there is always the Halloween/Xmas/etc. workstation parties to look forward to!
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Aug 25, 2012 12:54
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I think its an actual law where PC will not ever take anyone who has had intelligence training and the various alphabet soup bureaus are legally required to wait 5 years before recruiting RPCVs. Though I believe its often a longer wait due to said understanding. vvv Yeah, I think its the "unless they really want you" deal. Though I wouldn't doubt if the CIA had a special 10 year limit as it does all of the out-of-country shenanigans. e: Also, two weeks into actual volunteer life in village. Accomplishments: Day 1: Local gendarme (police) got me and my close mate wasted for free Day 4: Food poisoning Day 5: Gendarme got us wasted again Day 13: Got some local clothes made. Yay West African tissu! Day 16: Volunteer party I sure hope I can start actual work soon because all the welcome-to-village parties are going to rupture my liver. Slaan fucked around with this message at 15:58 on Sep 28, 2012 |
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Sep 28, 2012 15:38
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Thesaurus posted:Medically cleared! I took five months, redone tests, various confusions, and as noted above, nine months of antibiotics to start taking for TB... but god drat does it feel good. Congrats! Hopefully you'll be able to leave relatively soon.
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Oct 11, 2012 08:03
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bow chicka wow wow posted:How much leverage do volunteers have in pushing for a certain location? I speak good intermediate Spanish and I'd really love a site that would let me turn that into perfect Spanish; I'm an English major and I want to teach English to Spanish speakers, but I've done enough research to know that 1) that's a pretty small percentage of sites, 2) okay Spanish isn't that special of a skill, and 3) they kinda send you wherever anyway. Plus it goes against their whole "flexibility" mantra and makes me seem like a huge diva if I out and out say I have "conditions." Spanish is probably a bit harder to get into than other languages just because so many of us Americans speak it as well. But as long as you make it clear you are already quite knowledgeable in Spanish but are willing to go to other places, you have a good chance of going to a Spanish speaking country. A lot of it is due to the fact we get placed in rural areas where the local language predominates; the PC wants to teach you the local language as quickly as possible, because that is what you will use at post. At least from my experience in West Africa. But don't worry about the language training. They are very, very good at teaching you languages. My French teachers here were a local Princess-lawyer and a Prince-NGO director who had been doing this for 10+ years. Between the extremely well-educated teachers and the constant immersion almost nobody has troubles picking up languages. It would likely be different in a place like Kazakhstan with non-Romantic languages, but those places probably have 4 months of training rather than 2.5 months like I did. Also, one month at post down. 23 to go! Also, 40 pounds lost over 4 months... Most of it do to parasites I think.
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Oct 16, 2012 10:13
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If by 'love' you mean 'oh god my intestines', sure!  About to start a World Map project next week. I'll see if I can't get some photos and methodology up next time at a workstation.
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Oct 16, 2012 16:24
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Moon Slayer posted:http://whatshouldpcvscallme.tumblr.com/post/33183677098/when-i-go-to-an-all-you-can-eat-buffet It took 3 training groups/years and 2 ambassador changes before they would let us do swearing in at the ambassador's mansion again. Still not allowed to use his pool like we could before or go to the July 4th party.
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Oct 17, 2012 10:20
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I remember hearing that they were changing the recruitment policies thanks to budget cuts (way to apologize for America Obama  ). Instead of having officers placed locally in each 3-5 state region which travel around to cities for 4-10 interviews in a day (especially for college campuses) they are switching to major regional hubs and telephone/email interviews because they can't afford the travel costs anymore. So unless there are a good 10-20 potential recruits in an area (read: colleges in November) they just use the email questions.I actually had all three. I had a small phone interview before the actual interview where they asked a few minor questions while trying to set up the interview time. And then they emailed me extra questions after the interview to answer for questions I didn't quite nail. But re-reading it, the placement officer is a completely separate person than the interviewer, based in DC. The recruiters say yes/no, and then you answer the same general questions to the placement officer who says region/nation, and then you do it again for your national chair. And then when you arrive at your training site, guess what you get to answer again to find your actual post?  PC has so much redundant paperwork.Basically, rephrase and repeat your previous answers. They got you through before so that is what they want to hear.
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Oct 25, 2012 08:31
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No clue. Call Medical and ask. They've probably gotten that question a thousand times; if its a difficult thing you might be able to get an extension, if not then you should be able to do it quickly or send you a new form over email/fax.Thesaurus posted:Holy poo poo. Disregard my previous post. Wife and I just got invited to the Dominican Republic as Primary Literacy/Education Promoters in March! Eat nothing but pizza, hamburgers and buffalo wings for the next 6 months and gain like 30 pounds. You'll thank me later. 
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Nov 2, 2012 07:58
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They are supposed to switch to different kinds of pills if they make you super paranoid. Malarone(?) the expensive one that PC Medical HQ has to approve isn't supposed to make anyone paranoid. Doxy made me ultra-paranoid but they switched me to Mefloquine and now I'm just paranoid about forgetting my pill day. Slaan fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Nov 5, 2012 |
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Nov 5, 2012 09:31
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the shill posted:
Nope, Doxy to Mef. Though it might have been the stress of the first week of training and 3 days of no sleep. They gave us all Doxy the first week while the PCMOs sorted us into Doxy/Mef/Mal groups. I got the ultra-paranoia while I was taking Doxy that first week which went away as soon as I stopped taking it because the Docs said Doxy conflicts with another drug I take. Surprising too, because my family has a history of bi-polar/depression. I should be crazy on Mefloquin.
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Nov 5, 2012 21:31
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Finally got some projects getting set up. The problem is none of them are mine. A grant the previous volunteer put in a year ago only now got approved by this NGO, so I will be working with a random local group I've never met before. A French intern is dumping her work on me once she leaves in December; work I am not enthused about because its with bullshit traditional healers that can "cure AIDS!," and the pedophile high school english teacher is trying to rope me into doing an English club with him. Oh well, better than doing nothing all day for 22 more months, right? I'm sure I'll eventually figure out my own projects to do.
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Nov 17, 2012 14:24
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Yeah, I'm actually pretty optimistic about the projects now. The traditional healers project is a mess, but the French girl is now ~*My Girlfriend*~ so there is some positive there. But the well project the previous volunteer left me seems like it will go really well. The ONG was started by a bunch of ex-UN people and the local group that they should hopefully find worthy of funding are actually really well run. I attended a few of their commune-level meetings, which they, *Gasp*, actually started on time! And the project is really well designed too; they are digging a deep well with the Mayor's engineer's help, putting in a motor-pump and installing 2 basins that the women's group can use to hold water for their watering cans. Only $9,000 or so USD as well. Hopefully it will be approved and we can work on it. By the way, what kind of trees did you plant? I've been thinking about doing a tree-planting project myself. Wind-erosion is a huge thing here in the Sahel and so is a lack of shadows to nap under during the mid-day heat. I'm thinking about planting trees with beautiful flowers, like Flamboyants, at the town's schools and down the major roadway. I am hoping that the mixture of beautification and lack of other utility will keep the trees standing. I also just got matched through World Wise Schools to a high school teacher in Atlanta. Also hoping that will end well.
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Nov 29, 2012 17:50
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Yeah, Fruit trees were my second guess as well. I was going to ask the local forester his opinion on it once my 3-month restriction period is up. Either Mangos (easy to get and people like them) or Shea trees (take forever to grow, 20+ years) but a HUGE export).
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Dec 1, 2012 18:27
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| # ¿ May 12, 2024 11:35 |
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Yes, it is just to antagonize you. They want to make sure you can deal with tons of paperwork and long processes (because that is what 60% of PC is). For a serious answer, sometimes they need for you to return to a couple answers in previous parts to make sure you are sure that you want to do Peace Corps. If you are farther along in the process, they may have found a good posting site for you and want to make sure you actually fit the job qualifications.
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Dec 15, 2012 12:51
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