I Spoke too Soon

Our downfall is that we got our hopes up prematurely. Our placement officer said she would get to us early this week and get an invitation out to us by the middle of the week, but it's Friday and no invitation is on its way yet.

I e-mailed our placement officer this morning just to double check, and found out that the in-country staff didn't approve either of us to be teacher trainers, and so our placement officer is waiting to hear back from them about being secondary ed English teachers; this is fine with me, as I'm not really sure either of us are experienced enough to be teaching teachers and since I think I'd like to work with kids. She said in the e-mail that "it's a matter of sites," which I hope means that we will (eventually) get an invitation, and that it's just a matter of what/where. She said she sent the in-country staff a reminder yesterday and asked them to get back to her by March 12, but that she hopes to hear from them much earlier than that. She also said that the close date for the invitations is actually March 19, not the 11th as we originally thought, but she said she will fill the program before that deadline (which I hope means that she'll get invitations out to us long before the 19th, and not that the program could fill up without us while she's still waiting to hear from the in-country staff).

Our placement officer has been really nice, responds really quickly to e-mails, and seems to be giving us as much information as she can, so I'm very pleased with that and I know she's doing as much as she can as quickly as she can. I can only hope that the delays are due to Nica time and that we'll hear something soon!

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Depressing

If I didn't know we were so close, I'd be somewhat depressed:
It was, apparently, 12 months ago that I got my Toolkit information and set my password, and now that password has expired and I had to set a new one. I hope it will be somewhat of a waste, though, in that I won't be waiting for those Applicant Status Updates for much longer!

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News!

Just one day after complaining about my impatience, I was rewarded with news from our placement officer! She called and said that she's been reviewing our files and sent our information along to the "post" (which I think is the staff in-country); each post has to approve each individual couple, and they asked her for more information about my teaching experience. She said that they wanted more information about the hours per week and months per year that I taught during my experiences like JBA and my ESL practicum. She also said that we're still nominated for teaching positions in Central or South America and that she hopes to have an invitation to us by early next week! She said our program leaves the last week of April.

I e-mailed her the information ASAP and was also able to tell her about my substitute teaching and homebound teaching since I did that long after I filled out my skills addenda. She responded to say that she'd send along that information; she didn't think the overseas staff would get it until Monday, but said she'd get back to us ASAP. She also said, "This is a GREAT post and a GREAT project, so feel good about your future invitations and we'll be speaking shortly!" That definitely makes me feel GREAT!

I'm a little confused about why she wanted the extra information--she didn't need anything from Paul and she specifically said she didn't need any more information about my tutoring experiences. She didn't make it sound like my invitation was at stake based on my teaching experience or anything like that, so I'm not really worried. Now even though I don't have to be worried about if we're going to get invitations, I'm even more excited to actually get them!

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Waiting...

Today marks six weeks since we received medical clearance--so for the next 14 days, I'm sure I'll be nervous with excitement since the window our placement officer gave us for hearing official news was 6 to 8 weeks after we were cleared. Even last night my nervousness began... I dreamed that I received an e-mail from the Peace Corps telling me that because I have library books that are due today (which is true in real life), we can't receive an invitation. I had a second dream in which I received an e-mail from Peace Corps Director Tschetter that contained a link to a You Tube video. In the video, Tschetter was explaining to us that we were disqualified because our files didn't get the correct sticker on them; he had no idea how we could have gotten so far without the appropriate label on the file, but we'd have to begin the application process all over again because of it.

I think this has been the most difficult part of the waiting so far, probably because we're so close to knowing something definite and being done with the whole application process. Even though it took much longer to get nominated, waiting wasn't that difficult because we had no idea where we'd be going or when we'd be leaving; now that I know the invitation close date for the program for which we were nominated is in 17 days, I worry that something like a missing sticker will throw a wrench in the works.

I also think we're having trouble being patient because it seems like it should be so easy just to pop our invitation in the mail... if we're correct that we're headed to Nicaragua since it has the only TEFL program in Latin America, it's not as if the placement officer really has to spend a lot of time deciding which TEFL program in Latin America to send us to.

I also realize, however, that just because our PO said it's usually 6 to 8 weeks doesn't mean that I am guaranteed to know anything 14 days from now... until we do, I'm going to try to be as patient as possible and I'm going to return those library books!

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Happy Anniversary?

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of me officially submitting my Peace Corps application, though it was in October 2004--nearly two and a half years ago--that we decided that we were going to join the Peace Corps. Even in just the last year, a lot has changed: we both graduated, got married, moved back to our home town, and started new jobs. I can only hope that we're nearing the finish line of this whole process!

We did actually get some encouraging news today--Paul was contacted by a placement assistant to ask for his final transcript (after I was worried about sending mine in when I graduated a month ago, we forgot to send his in for 9 months!). He faxed it in quickly and the assistant's e-mail said that once she received the transcript, she would pass our files on to our placement officer for a "final assessment." I'm hopeful that our placement officer will get to our files soon so that we'll remain well ahead of the "6 to 8 weeks after medical clearance" timeline. Only time will tell!

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