One week to go

One week… It's hard to believe sometimes that I'm moving to Botswana next week. It's just such a surreal sentence. Someone asked me what I was doing next week and that was my response. Just.. what? Anyway, last week I was feeling really panicked and anxious about going, but so far this week I've been feeling optimistic and thrilled to be starting this new part of my life. I know that no matter what, even if I don't buy every single item I want to take with me or have the perfect packing list or manage to fit everything in my bags, I will still get on a plane and join the Peace Corps. It really takes the edge off of all the obsessing I've been doing. Hopefully I'll manage to keep this calm and positive outlook until my departure, but who knows. Peace Corps isn't called an emotional roller coaster for nothing.

So, I've decided to post a before, during, and after of my packing process. I'm hoping to have almost all of my shopping and packing done by Friday so that I can have the weekend to just relax and hang out with my family. Here's my before of my bags and some of the things I've been buying over the last few weeks:

July - Packing begins

Getting started on my packing with an amazon shopping spree. I've got a headlamp, flashlight, a steamer, a weatherman, and a sleeping bag liner. I'm most excited about the leather, I really like fixing things and making things so I keep geeking out over it. Once my bags arrive I think it will really start to sink in… How on earth am I going to fit everything into two fifty pound bags?

July - Less than one month until staging

Things are speeding up. I am now medically cleared, my tickets are booked, and my bags are in the mail. Sometimes I still can't believe this is all really happening.

May - Medically cleared!

This morning I woke up to a beautiful email saying I received final medical and dental clearance. One step closer to Botswana!

April - Kindness from strangers

So, I haven’t been updating much about my doctor appointments or my consulate passport shenanigans, mostly because I don’t think anyone will actually be interested. Instead, I’d like to talk about the kindness of strangers. 

My friends and family have been really great about the Peace Corps. People send me links whenever they see something about Botswana, my mom is already on the lookout for the items on my packing list, and people I haven’t talked to in ages sent their support when I made a status about joining. But what really surprised me is how kind and supportive complete strangers are when they find out I’m about to be in the Peace Corps. Every person from the receptionist at my dentist’s office to my family doctor went out of their way to make sure I could get appointments as soon as possible. People congratulated me, they went over my paperwork three times to make sure it was perfect, they even changed their schedules for me. The woman who works at my eye doctor’s even told me was proud of me. I’m just blown away by how great people I barely know have been throughout this entire process. 

April - Staging

I just got an email from the Peace Corps saying my staging has been moved up by four days to August 6th. Whyyyyy. I had already reserved those four days for freaking out, re-packing three times, and binge watching netflix in bed. Now I'll have to get my act together even sooner.

April - My life is paperwork

It's my last week of classes before exams. Of my entire undergraduate career! I can't believe it. I essentially have three more weeks before my summer begins! But that also means that I have an unbelievable amount of stuff to do. Study for exams/write my final papers, clean out my apartment, move the rest of my stuff back home, and somehow get all my forms complete for the Peace Corps too. That picture I posted is no exaggeration. There are so. many. forms. I have four different doctor appointments coming up and a meeting at the consulate for my new passport. I'm trying my best to keep everything organised to stay on track, but it's a lot.

March - A proper introduction

Well, since I'm pretty much going to be posting my thoughts about the Peace Corps and Botswana for the next two years, I figure I should introduce myself. My name is Tiphaine, I live in Montreal, and I'm American and French. This picture of me is actually from a year and a half ago, but sloths are great so I figure it's ok.

For now I'm trying to get through the big pile of assignments for my last semester of university while also filling out the piles of paperwork that have invaded my inbox since I clicked 'accept' on my Peace Corps invitation.

March - INVITATION!!!

March - Surprise phone call

Yesterday I got a call from the Peace Corps placement office asking if I have 20 minutes to talk. I said yes of course and then started answering a slew of questions about what I've been up to since my interview, why I want to volunteer, and where I'd like to go. I'm pretty sure my voice was shaking half the time.

The interviewer then said that they're sending out a wave of invitations right now. So they're going to review my file and I could potentially get an invitation by next week!

Just. What. Everything is starting to feel real. I'm so nervous/excited/anxious.

March - Pre-legally cleared

And now I seem to be pre-legally cleared! This process is going faster than I thought it would, it's pretty great. I think the only step left is to wait for an invitation?

March - Pre-medically cleared!

Woot! I opened my email today to find out that I'm pre-medically cleared and then read these beautiful words:

"Your application will now be reviewed by our Placement Office.  If the Placement Office issues you a formal invitation to serve, and you accept that invitation, the Office of Medical Services will contact you again with instructions on obtaining your final medical clearance.”

Every new step I reach makes my heart race. Having that invitation will be such an incredible moment. 

March - Waiting isn't easy

I received this email last week and my pre-medical clearance forms are submitted. So now I wait. I’m happy that I don’t have mountains of paperwork to do or appointments to make so I can just focus on school, but it seems to be impossible for me focus right now. I’m the kind of person who likes to daydream and picture the future so it’s difficult not to get my heart set on Botswana. It’s also difficult figuring out what I’m going to do this summer when I don’t know when I’ll need to have all my doctors appointments. Applying from outside of the US just makes things… complicated. Anyway, I could potentially be leaving in 5-6 months! It’s crazy. 

Nomination process

I was writing my updates on a different blog over the last few months, so although the dates are all messed up I'm going to re-post everything I wrote on here.

Here's one from February:

Okay, now that I mailed in my legal packet on Monday and uploaded my medical task forms this afternoon, the waiting begins…

I’ll just be sitting over here daydreaming and pondering about the future. I can’t wait to know with certainty when and where I’m going! From what I can tell, they’ve been sending out a lot of invitations for June departures lately and even a couple for July. Since I’m supposed to leave in August, I assume I have at least a month of waiting. 

For those of you looking for more information about the Peace Corps or just want to see what everyone’s up to, these are the sites I like the most:

-Peace Corps Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/PeaceCorps 

-Future Peace Corps Volunteers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FuturePeaceCorpsVolunteers/ 

-Peace Corps wiki timeline: http://www.peacecorpswiki.org/Timeline