Nicaragua: It's Official!

Country: Nicaragua
Program: Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Nica 44
Job Title: TEFL Teacher Trainer
Dates of Service: July 13, 2007 - July 13, 2009
Orientation Dates: April 30 - May 2, 2007
Pre-Service Training (near Masaya, Nicaragua): May 2 - July 13, 2007

The day finally arrived as I saw the Fed Ex envelope sitting on our doorstep when I got home this afternoon. After having to sit on my hands in anticipation of Paul getting home so we could open the packet together, we were really happy to see "Nicaragua" on our assignment sheet. It was a little less exciting since we've been pretty sure we were heading to Nicaragua since not long after we were nominated, but we certainly weren't disappointed after focusing on Nicaragua for so long.

I'm a little bit confused about why it says our job title is TEFL Teacher Trainer since our PO said we weren't accepted for that program and would be doing Secondary Ed English Teaching instead, but I suspect that they just have one assignment sheet for all TEFL assignments. Either way, we'll be calling tomorrow to confirm and accept the invitation!

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GOOD NEWS!

So, the lesson I think I should learn is that good things happen to those who complain on this blog. Last Thursday I complained about not having heard anything from our placement officer, and the next day she called. Today I complained about not being approved by the in-country staff for invitations, and not an hour after I did so, I got another e-mail from our PO saying that we've been approved as "171s" or secondary Ed English teachers! She said we should get our invitations in a few days! I immediately called Paul at work and we are thrilled.

My game plan now? I will wait for a few days, become sad that our invitations haven't yet arrived in the mail, post a blog entry to complain, and they will arrive the next day.

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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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