Addresses

I figure that now is as good a time as any to start collecting addresses. If you would like for me to write you while I’m in Kenya, e-mail me (brianherbert@gmail.com) your snail-mail address. Keep in mind that I’ll be gone for 27 months so a good, solid address that won’t change would be preferable. I plan on getting a moleskine address book for all of your addresses.

Almost Finished with Dental

I had some more work done yesterday at my dentist which completes everything I need for dental clearance. I just need to pick up one letter and then I should be good to send my dental information back to the Peace Corps.

Kiswahili

It looks like I'm going to be spending about 4 hours a week working on my Kiswahili before I leave in September. It's not a requirement for PCVs to know the language before training but I feel like I could use a little boost to get me started. I contacted Catholic Charities looking for someone who could speak the language natively which was an idea my Los Monitos Spanish teacher had. It took about a week but I got a call today from someone willing to help me out! We are going to be meeting Monday and Friday mornings from now until September (I hope!).

Kwaheri!

Wisdom Teeth

Tomorrow morning I'm getting my wisdom teeth taken out. I've gotta do it to obtain dental clearance. I thought this short comic by Don Hertzfeldt was appropriate…

keep reading…

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.