New Passport and Visa

I went to Kinko's with my mom this afternoon to have passport pictures made and to send off my government passport and Kenya visa applications. I looked like a convict in my photos so I hope Kenya lets me in the country. I will have two passports, one for official government travel and the other personal one for vacations.

Exciting post, I know. 

Aspiration Statement and Resume

I just sent an aspiration statement and an updated resume to the host country staff in Kenya. The aspiration statement covers my "professional attributes" and skills, my strategies for working effectively and adapting culturally, what skills I wish to take from pre-service training and finally, what I think I will take away from my service in Kenya as a Peace Corps volunteer. It was a tough statement to write since this is my introduction to the staff in Kenya. Molding a first impression is difficult! Updating my resume wasn't hard. All I had to do was put it in a standard format and add a few extra bits of information.

From Application to Invite

I was updating my timeline and it dawned on me that my entire application process from submission to receiving my invite was only two months and four days. I think I’m very fortunate to have had everything go so smoothly and I have Peace Corps staff to thank for it. They were almost always helpful on the phone (when they were in their office to answer the phone) and they always got back to me quickly for follow up information. I don’t want this to sound like an acceptance speech but, I would like to thank my recruiter, medical officer and the people I worked with in the placement office, even though I doubt any of them read my blog.

Kenya

I will be going to Kenya in September and my assignment is in Small Enterprise Development / Information Communication Technology.

Still Waiting

I'm still waiting on the invite to come in the mail. I was pretty sure I would be getting it yesterday since US Mail doesn't usually take more than 3 business days. It's now been 5 business days (7 total days) since my toolkit said my invite was in the mail. For some reason I have a feeling I'm not going to get the invite until this coming Monday. We'll see.

Edit: I got antsy and called the placement office. Aparently the invite is a large packet and usually takes a week and a half. Woo.

Toolkit Update

This is weird. I had a dream last night about getting my invite. I didn't think I would get it for another couple weeks. My toolkit has been updated:
Peace Corps sent you an invitation kit on May 12, 2006. Within 10 days of receiving your kit, please call us regarding your decision to accept or decline our invitation. If we do not hear from you within this period, the assignment may be offered to another applicant.

Medically Cleared!!!!!

I never thought I would see the day. My toolkit has been updated:
Complete. Peace Corps has completed your medical review. There are no medical holds on your account at this time.

All that's left on my toolkit is the dental clearance and I already have the appointments set up for that. Also, dental clearace doesn't hold you back from being invited to a program (you just have to have the work done before you go). 

Medical, Round Two, Begin

The PCMO called this morning and told me to watch my toolkit for the next couple weeks because they will be reviewing my medical packet again.

Come On!

I talked to some people at the PCMO and they said I still had to get them my second urinalysis! I would like to blame my doctors office for not including this with all of the other forms I picked up Friday but ultimately, I should have combed through everything and asked questions. Anyway, I went and picked up the results and it showed negative on the ketones. This is good. I faxed it a half hour ago so now they can finally give my medical file a second shot at medical clearance.

Extra Forms Sent

Peace Corps likes to send just about everything FedEx. I decided to use a better service so I sent my extra medical forms back to them via UPS.