Top Ten Things to Go Not Quite Right with Medical Clearance (So Far)

>> Friday, December 01, 2006

  1. We were caught in a Catch-22: The PC requires we get married six months before we are ready to depart, and we had to show that before we were nominated. Once we got married, we lost our parents' insurance and so would have to pay for medical clearance out-of-pocket.
  2. We tried to contact VA Hospitals to get our medical clearance done there since (in theory) they are partnered with the Peace Corps and will do it for free. But the VA hospitals in St. Louis, Kansas City, and Columbia, MO showed no interest in helping and were actually pretty mean.
  3. We finally contacted the DOD hospital in Fort Leonard Wood, MO. The woman there was really nice and agreed to help us, but they couldn't see us for two months--until October 20 at 8 am.
  4. Since the appointment on Oct 20 was at 8 am and I am about 3-1/2 hours away, we decided to go to Ft. Leonard Wood the night before and make a reservation at a hotel. But I had a night class the night before the appointment that I couldn't miss and so we didn't arrive until about 12:30 am. By that time, the hotel had given up our reservation to someone else and had no rooms left (we felt like it came straight out of an episode of Seinfeld); the hotel owner assumed that we would have arrived earlier if we were going to come because he saw that my cell phone's area code was from an area code not very far away. Instead of using my cell phone number to call and ask if we were coming, he just assumed we weren't.
  5. Neither of us had ever been on a military base before, and did not know that, post-September 11, it's a pretty big deal. We were required to show the original proof of registration for my car (which was at home) and proof of insurance (and I hadn't gotten my new card yet--the old one had expired not two weeks before). But we eventually made it inside after calling my insurance agent to get the insurance verified and looking up the car registration... that only made us about 45 minutes late for the appointment. :)
  6. The blood work took a few days to be processed, so the doctor kept our paperwork at the hospital and said he'd mail it to us, along with the blood work, once they received it. We did receive all the paperwork a week or so later, but failed to noticed for two additional weeks that he had forgotten to sign both of our packets and forgot to fill out the box on my paperwork that says I'm negative for all the infectious diseases.
  7. We mailed back the packets (after making photocopies of everything) and included Post-It tabs everywhere that the doctor needs to sign, a cover letter kindly explaining what was missing from the forms, and a self-addressed, stamped envelope for them to mail the paperwork back to us. We did not know that it would take 10 full days for them to receive the packet because of enhanced security or that they take an extended Thanksgiving holiday.
  8. I had received a dental checkup recently, so the dentist was just able to fill out my paperwork and include my x-rays from that. Paul, however, was due for a checkup and found out he had a cavity. The checkup, x-rays, and filling cost a whopping $488. Yikes!
  9. We mailed in our dental packets on Monday, November 27 and for some reason the tracking number isn't working...
  10. We haven't received the medical packets back from Fort Leonard Wood yet and still don't know if they're filled out completely. Then we have to mail them in and hope they arrive safely...

And then we actually have to get cleared medically. There's a long road ahead...

Read more...

We're Not Procrastinating (anymore)

>> Wednesday, November 15, 2006

All right, it's the middle of November and we haven't even sent in our medical packets yet. We got them at the beginning of September and after a month or so of fruitless calls to the VA hospitals near us, I finally had some luck at a military base about 2 hours away. We had to go to a federal facility because we didn't have the $1500 or so that it would have cost to get the tests done on our own (no insurance--sorry mom!). We had our appointment set for the middle of October and after an undue amount of bureaucratic fervor we made it onto the base late but in enough time for our blood to be drawn for the labs and for the doctor to see us before lunch. We considered ourselves lucky to be back home before dark, but we still had to wait for the lab results to come back before we had our forms filled out and mailed to us.

After we got our packets back Holly noticed (after I failed to for a week or so) that our forms weren't signed by the doctor. We are going to have to mail them back and cross our fingers that we can mail them to the Peace Corps sometime next week. Now I really regret waiting at all after we got the forms, but maybe this way we won't have the months of waiting that punctual volunteers complain about ;).

Read more...

No reservations

>> Wednesday, October 25, 2006

JERRY: I don't understand, I made a reservation, do you have my reservation?
RENTAL CAR AGENT: Yes, we do, unfortunately we ran out of cars.
JERRY: But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation.
RENTAL CAR AGENT: I know why we have reservations.
JERRY: I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don't know how to hold the reservation and that's really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them.

To be continued.

Read more...

Nominated!

>> Monday, August 28, 2006

When Paul and I first decided that we wanted to join the Peace Corps, we wanted to teach English in a Spanish-speaking country. When we first began looking into the Peace Corps, however, we quickly learned that Latin America doesn't request teachers and so there were no TEFL assignments in Spanish-speaking countries; once we learned that our top choice wasn't an option, we still remained excited about the Peace Corps and decided we'd just learn a different language and go somewhere else.

Though Paul and I were certainly disappointed in May when we weren't nominated, the wait was well worth it! Last week we received a call from our recruiter to offer us a nomination. Our recruiter began by saying that he was surprised by our nomination and didn't think this would have been an option for us, but that we were being offered a spot teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) in Latin America and leaving either in April or May 2007. This is exactly what we've been hoping for for nearly two years now and we could barely contain ourselves on the phone.

It turns out that there is just one TEFL program in Latin America and it is brand new; the first group of teachers left sometime in 2006, and we'll probably be just the second group to participate in the program. Right now we feel excited and very lucky because we've always read that the Latin America positions are some of the most competitive and coveted, let alone the one TEFL program in Latin America.

We were immediately curious where in Latin America we might be going; a nomination only provides the region, assignment, and month for departure; the specific country isn't known until the invitation is received only a few months before the actual departure. However, with just one TEFL program in Latin America, we thought we might be able to do some detective work. Eventually I came across this article, a press release on the Peace Corps website discussing how the PC program in Nicaragua is being expanded to include a TEFL program. We certainly don't want to get our hopes up on a hunch, but this seems pretty convincing! We're especially excited about a potential Central America assignment since we loved our trip to Belize earlier this summer.

From here our tasks our to fax in a copy of our marriage license, wait patiently for our medical packets, and try not to get too excited about our dream nomination!

Read more...

Oh yes. There will be waiting.

>> Wednesday, June 28, 2006

We heard back from our sincerely nice and helpful recruiter at the end of May who told us that they couldn't find a spot for us in the March/April/May slot, so they'll try again in August. The bad news is that we probably won't end up in Africa. The good news, however, is that we'll most likely be in Eastern Europe.

Read more...

Feeling Withdrawn

>> Tuesday, March 07, 2006


It's really scary to see on my toolkit that my application has been withdrawn, but I knew it was coming. Our recruiter e-mailed us yesterday to say that he was going to withdraw it because it might look bad for our applications to sit idle for so long since they can't be submitted until May 5 with placements to come in middle to late May. He will reactivate our applications just before he can submit them to DC for couples' placement. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me since there is nothing we could be doing to keep our applications from sitting idle (if it were up to us, we'd take a placement today!) and since it seems better for us to have applied early, but I think our recruiter knows what he's doing and is trying to help us out.

Paul still hasn't received his toolkit login information in the mail and is still waiting for two letters of recommendation that are supposed to be done over spring break, which is next week. So, those two things are really all there is for us (him) to do between now and May 5.

Read more...

Interview

>> Saturday, March 04, 2006

On Tuesday night, there was a Peace Corps informational meeting led by our recruiter. Although it was geared to people who just wanted to find out a little bit about the Peace Corps, Paul and I still went in hopes that we might get to see the same video that we saw a year and a half ago that really got us excited about joining. :) We did see the video and I got to scope out the recruiter before I had to meet him for my interview the next day (Paul had met him earlier in the day at the University's Career Expo). Two of my favorite professors, also RPCVs, were there to tell a little bit about their experiences and answer questions. Hearing about our recruiter's experience with his wife in Tonga, hearing more from Dr. Quinn and Dr. Shapiro, and seeing that cheesy (but very compelling!) video again really made us positive that we really were doing the right thing.

That boost of Peace Corps energy was really fortunate because that night we still had to fill out or skill addenda, our agency check form, our couples questionnaire, get all our other paperwork (transcripts, CPR/First Aid Certification, resumés, etc.) together and ready for tomorrow's interview, and we wanted to review the list of potential interview questions I found on the
peacecorps_2 Yahoo! group. The addenda in particular took a long time to complete, but we finished it all and were ready for our interviews the next day.

On Wednesday, Paul had his interview first and mine was to immediately follow. A few minutes before my interview was supposed to start, Paul came out to get me so we could have our "couple's interview." It really wasn't an interview--our recruiter just asked if we had any questions and then answered the few that I had and then he gave us each a pen and highlighter. Paul then left and I began my interview. He first reviewed a lot of my application responses like the date I can leave, whether or not I have any intelligence involvement, whether there's anything I'd like to tell him before they run my background check, etc. He then asked a lot of interview questions, typed my responses as quickly as he could on his laptop, responded with, "OK..." after each response, and then asked the next question; that was a little bit unnerving since he never commented on my responses, but he was still very friendly and kind. The interview took just about an hour.

I think one of the weird things about the interview was that I never got a definite "I'm nominating you!" or "You really didn't do very well on this interview." He just said that the next step is that he has to write up a two-page summary for each of us in which he discusses our interview responses, what he knows about us as people, etc. and those (not our entire applications) go to a placement officer in DC. However, he can't send those along until the end of April to be reviewed in May for the April, May, and June quarterly placements. This is when we hoped to leave anyway, so my fingers are securely crossed that we'll get one of those spots. The recruiter said that for the January-March placements, there were 150 couples and only 100 spots, so the 50 that didn't get placed have top priority for the April-June placements (if they are still interested). However, there will also be far more placements for April-June because the majority of the programs (particularly teaching ESL programs) leave from about May-August.

All the circles on my Toolkit are now officially checked, so now we just wait for two months until our names and applications can be passed on...

Read more...

Interview Questions

>> Wednesday, March 01, 2006

  • Why the Peace Corps?
  • Give an example of a leadership position you have had.
  • What do you do to relax or deal with a stressful situation?
  • Is there anything that might stop you from completing your 27-month service?
  • When was a time that you disagreed with a person? How did you deal with it? Did you speak to him or her about it directly?
  • Have you ever had to take leadership in an unstructured setting? How did you deal with that?
  • How do you feel about any of the following:
    • Living somewhere with no running water or no electricity?
    • Living away from other Peace Corps volunteers?
    • Being away from home and family?
    • Having to eat different foods?
    • Being in a "fishbowl" where you're constantly watched by everyone?
    • Being in a country that has alcohol as a key drink?
    • Being in a country with no alcohol?
  • How long have you been away from home before? What do you miss most about being away from your family?
  • How do you feel about being in a country with strict gender roles? How do you think you could deal with that?
  • Are you a vegetarian?
  • What do you think will be your greatest challenge acquiring a new language?
  • Have you ever had Spanish? How able do you think you would be to use the Spanish you currently know?
  • Do you have a religious preference of the country you go to? Would you want particular church services?
  • Tell about an experience when you were able to transfer some knowledge or skill to someone who was different from yourself. What did you learn about your interpersonal skills from that experience?

Read more...

Two Years in One Bag?

While a longer post about my interview will come later, I also want to use the blog as a way to write down links or other information so I can remember them for later. Today I came across One Bag which is a website dedicated to getting all of your belongings into one carryon-sized bag no matter what the trip or how long. It's a website dedicated to organization and efficiency--I'm there!

Read more...

Done for a while.

I interviewed with the Peace Corps recruiter on campus today and as far as I can tell, things went really well. He seems like a genuinely nice guy. He asked me a series of questions about my cultural experiences, most of which I had heard before (thanks Holly :)), so I was sort of prepared. It really sounds like he likes us and it's just up to the couple's placement office (and the thirteen other levels of bureaucracy that we'll have to endure). Holly's interview is right now, so I think I'll skip class to see how it went.

Read more...

Seriously? More Paperwork?

It is still really early in the process, but I can already see where things are headed. We filled out our addenda tonight along with a couple's questionnaire. These seem like pretty simple things, but the addenda were especially time consuming, plus some of it was included on our original applications, so there's the pressure of finding new ways to say the same things again. Aside from these minor complaints, it is nice to be sort of finished with all of the preliminary stuff and ready for the interview tomorrow.

Read more...

More paperwork...

>> Monday, February 27, 2006

Today the packets from our recruiter did arrive. They included a letter, the fingerprint forms (and we promptly went to the police station to have our prints done), the National Agency security form, a "Joining Peace Corps as a Couple Questionnaire," info sheets and addenda forms for our qualifying activities--Paul and I both received sheets for Secondary Education English Teaching and Community Service. Woo!

Now the next step is getting all of this filled out and getting ready for the interview on Wednesday!

Read more...

A Toolkit to Call my Own

>> Sunday, February 26, 2006

Yesterday I received my letter officially acknowledging my application and containing my Applicant Toolkit information. I logged in and saw my application status and the checklist to nomination:

Our recruiter e-mailed us two days ago to say that he sent the supplement to the application--including the fingerprint form, the agency check form (which is a background check consent, I think), and skill addenda. The addenda are online to look at, so I am hoping I'll receive Education, Community Services, and maybe even Urban Youth Development. While that paperwork is due March 15, the recruiter said we can turn them in to him personally when we see him for our interview on Wednesday--just 3 days away! I hope they arrive in time to give them to him. I'm also not sure why it says they haven't received any of my recommendation forms; I know that all three were submitted more than a week ago, but it probably just takes time for them all to be sorted to where they need to be.

My hope is that by Wednesday the rest of those boxes will be ready to be checked!

Read more...

Officially Applied!

>> Tuesday, February 21, 2006

After getting recommendations straightened out and finishing his thousanth draft of the personal statements, Paul submitted his application last night! We're now officially applied as a couple. I also e-mailed our interviewer to alert him to our accomplishment and ask a few more questions; I found out that all married couples are considered together once a quarter for positions leaving one year from that time. So right now they are in the process of assigning January, February, March 2007. In May, they will assign April, May, and June 2007, which is when Paul and I hope to leave. I hope that our Applicant Toolkit packets arrive soon; they will give us a login to allow us to check our application status through the whole process and, I have heard, reveal secret parts of the Peace Corps website! Now the real waiting begins!

Read more...

Paul speaks the truth...

>> Thursday, February 09, 2006

I'm excited to have this blog, not because I think everyone I know will be interested in the mundane details of every step of the application process, but mostly because I want to be able to look back on the whole journey and I hope that people who apply after us can learn a little bit from our experience--I know I have been trying to read anything and everything I can get my hands on about the PC. :)

I did submit my application yesterday--it is a huge relief! The initial application is in two parts: the Volunteer Application and the Health Status Review Application. The Volunteer Application was the most lengthy part--it took me somewhere over 20 hours to complete. Most of that time was spent working on the resumé and the essays, including the time I spent taking the essays to the Writing Center, the Career Center, and revising them over and over again. One essay is the Motivation Statement ("Why do you want to join the PC?") and the other is the Cross-Cultural Experience ("When have you had to adapt cross-culturally in the past?"). Once they essays were uploaded and the application submitted, I was able to complete the Health Status Review Application, which was a seemingly endless list of yes/no questions like "Other than for arthritis or bursitis, have you been medically treated more than twice for Shoulder arthroscopy, ligament repair, reconstruction or replacement?" That took me 20 minutes to complete. There are also three recommendations that are required--one from a close friend, one from a work supervisor, and one from a volunteer supervisor or professor. I talked to those people and sent them the links so that they can fill out the recommendation worksheet that the PC provides.

After that was done, I e-mailed the PC recruiter who is coming to Truman at the end of February. He served with his wife and just returned last summer and seemed really eager to answer any questions we have, particularly about serving as a couple. He also confirmed the six month marriage rule, said we can do both our individual and couple interview while he's here, and said that couples' applications will be next reviewed in May (couples' applications are only looked at at particular times, not all year round like individuals' applications).

That pretty much gets us up to speed... I received an e-mail just after submitting my application that I should receive a letter in 10 days telling me how to log on to my Applicant Toolkit, which will have information about my application status. And so it begins!

Read more...

First Post

It is nice to know that there is absolutely no one reading this, but just in case our experiences can be helpful to future Peace Corps hopefuls, we want to share what we have and will learn about the process. We have both finished our applications, but I still haven't submitted it because I have one more meeting with one of the career counselors at Truman to go over the essays and make sure they don't suck.

Holly submitted hers already and found out that the Peace Corps doesn't look at either application until they are both submitted, so I need to submit mine soon. We also learned that there is a new rule that isn't on the Peace Corps website or application that couples must be married 6 months before departure, which slightly changes our marriage plans :).

We will keep posting when we know more... our interviews will be on campus at the end of the month, and we might be able to do both the individual and couple interviews the same day. The recruiter that is coming to campus seems really cool and really nice, so that is definitely a relief. I am sure that all of the stuff I forgot will be posted quickly by Holly. Maybe we can start posting some of the advice we are getting from RPCVs about what to do/what to take.

Read more...
THE CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE OURS PERSONALLY AND DO NOT REFLECT THE POSITION OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT OR THE PEACE CORPS.

  © Blogger template Palm by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP