French

One of my goals is to be fluent in French and Arabic by the time I leave here. Now that I’m here I realize that maybe I set my expectations too high. French is so difficult and I have history with it. I took French in high school for two years and in college for two semesters. The foreign language you learn in a classroom is different from the foreign language you actually use in the field. School is good for teaching you the basics, the structure of the language. It is impossible to truly learn a language by sitting in class or sitting in front of a computer. You have to be able to talk to native tongues. You need to hear the accents. I was warned before coming to Benin that the French spoken here is ehm, special. So true.

Timeline

 

September 20th, 2012- Submitted application
I knocked it out in 5 hours in one night because I knew if it didn’t get done that night it wouldn’t get done at all

October 16th, 2012- Last recommendation submitted. Interview Scheduled.
The reason why it took so long for my last recommendation to be submitted is only one of the many reasons why I use the word friend very loosely. Also, it seemed like my recruiter was waiting at the phone for that last recommendation because no more than 5 minutes after it was submitted I was called and my interview was scheduled for two days later.

October 18th, 2012- Interview conducted. NOMINATED!!!
My interview lasted about an hour and during that same phone call she nominated me. I was only told that my nomination was for a health extension program, my program may entail some food security, I would have to bike long distances, and that if all the legal and medical goes well and timely I could be leaving as early as the day after my graduation, May 5^th.

October 31st, 2012- Legal Packet arrived
I'm staying on campus and so I have been calling my mom basically everyday making sure she checks the mailbox. Two weeks later it finally came! I worked a 7pm to 7am shift, and went home to pick it up that morning. No, I play no games with this. Time is of the essence and I know the sooner I get everything to them the sooner they will get everything back to me.

November 1st, 2012- Legal Packet sent out
The very next day I went to my campus police dept., had my fingerprints taken, filled out the forms, packaged, sealed and sent everything right back to them. This process requires diligence and commitment.

 

November 13^th, 2012- Legally Cleared

Checked my portal like I habitually did multiple times a day and discovered that I was indeed legally cleared.

 

January 4^th, 2013- Placement Interview

So the longest waiting period by far was between being legally cleared and actually receiving an invitation. I don’t want to give the impression that I did nothing in between these dates. Much nagging and many emails were definitely sent, but there was absolutely nothing to be done but to wait. I’m pretty sure that fact that this also fell around the time of the holidays didn’t help. Yet and still almost two months later I received a call when I least expected it and had my placement interview on the spot. I was told that next I would be receiving my invitation, through email WITHIN two weeks. More waiting…

 

January 16^th, 2013- INVITED

Opened my email to see the header “Peace Corps invites you to serve…”   as a Rural Community Health volunteer in Benin West Africa beginning June 24^th 2013. Celebration commences!!! I have to work that night but I read over the materials at work and confirm my invitation in the wee hours of the morning. The next day tasks are opened up on my medical applicant portal and I immediately get to work getting appointments set. The infamous big blue packet is received via airmail a few days later with hard copies of everything.

 

April 29^th, 2013- Submit final medical tasks

$800 dollars and three months later I am finally done submitting all of my tasks, now more waiting to receive my final medical clearance.

 

May 2^nd, 2013- Final Medical Clearance received

Only had an issue with one form that was missing a signature, hunted down the physician for that and finally received an email saying I was medically cleared. Ain’t no stopping me nooow, I’m on the move!

 

May 4^th, 2013- Graduated from Columbia College

Finally was at the 50 days left mark and was also able to submit my final transcript!

May 24^th, 2013- Received flight information from SATO

 

June 25^th, 2013- Arrive in Philly

 

June 27^th, 2013- Arrive in Benin

 

Updates, quick and thorough!!!

Hello fellow bloggers and bloggets!!!
It has been a while, i apologize for that. But insanity has insued since receiving my invitation and I've just been trying to maintain. But you don't care about that do you? Haha. Here has been my life for the last nine weeks in bullet formation:
-I have submitted all of my medical paper work and am about $800 poorer because of that
-I have been working insane hours due in part to my last bullet and because i had a hospital bill that needed to be dealt with before i left the country
-I was inducted into two honor societies (Omicron Delta Kappa and Chi Beta Phi), talk about better late than never ...
-Trying to keep all A's so that I can continue to be apart of said honor societies
- Running the Premed Club
-Trying to organize and plan a leadership project
-Became CPR/AED/First Aid certified
-Learning to play the guitar
-Trying to have somewhat of a social life and enjoy those around me before i leave for 2 years