Timeline

*As an obsessive stalker of other people’s timelines, here is my own to share. Please note that I came in under the old system, so I’m not sure if this will still be applicable or pertinent to those that are applying now.

 

July 2013: Start application—try not to pull hair out when application fails to save, fails to save, fails to save…take multiple screen shots of answers.

 

August: Make Mom read through application three times. Submit!

 

October: Contact from NE recruitment office comes a little late, due to government shut down. Feel weirdly indignant that I have personally been affected by government shut down. Write my senator and schedule a Skype interview.

 

Interview!

 

My recruiter recommends that I choose my top three programs departing in mid 2014. I take a look at the list, and my mother takes a look at the list. She gives me her lists of the top 5 places she would visit me, and the top 5 places she would not visit me.

I choose from my mother’s “visit” list, and email my recruiter back 1 week later.

 

November 8: Receive nomination to health program in Belize!

 

November 18: Large packet comes in mail with supplies for fingerprinting and background checks. Travel to rather remote police station and end up standing in line for the scanner behind several folks actually being booked to enter the facility.

The officer taking my prints assures me that this “almost never happens.”

 

December: Receive notification that my application has gone to placement desk.

 

January 2014: Obsessively check Facebook posts and Internet forums to determine if all Belize spots have been filled. Send kind of creepy message to member of my future cohort asking her to estimate if all spots are filled yet.

 

February 7: In the midst of a hurricane, I get an email. The Peace Corps Welcomes You to Belize.

Invitation!

 

Mid-February: Receive Medical Scavenger Hunt, and become bizarrely preoccupied with the notion that I am a) pregnant and don’t know it, b) have lyme disease and don’t know it, c) will fail to perform admirably on such tasks as “hold 50 lbs.”

Get a full set of dental X-rays and proudly email my dad the file.

“Thanks for the expander/braces/rubber bands!”

 

Also get a mug shot taken at UPS for my new (state department!) passport.

“Can I smile?”

“Absolutely not.”

I will regret taking him so seriously for the duration of my service.

 

Early May: Medically cleared and ready to go! Kind of? Start making elaborate REI wish lists and torturing my new Peace Corps pen-pal, a volunteer already serving in Belize.

“Can I buy peanut butter there?”

 

Yes. The answer is yes.