Skip the story for now, jump to the good stuff...
My invitation is in the mail!
Eastern Europe leaving Early September for Primary Teacher Training. According to every anxious applicant's favourite website, Peace Corps Wiki, that means
Macedonia leaving September 9th. Super excited! I had my PO change the address my invite is being mailed to my work address so I can get it sooner. Plus some of my biggest supporters have been a few of my coworkers (well besides my family of course!).
Now the longer story:
On Thursday morning I flew to California for my sister's graduation from Stanford Law (yeah, I'm pretty proud of her for that!) That morning, right after my plane left and I was without internet for the rest of the day, I received an email from my Placement Officer (PO) wanting to check in since we hadn't talked since February. He told me to call him back or email him with times he could call. I didn't get the message until Thursday night though, so I couldn't call until Friday and in negotiating the now three hour time change and not really knowing what time it was in San Francisco, I called, didn't get and answer, and left my PO an incredibly awkward message where I told him way the wrong time. Ooops! I didn't hear back from my PO on Friday. Sunday I had access to internet, so I sent him an email just letting him know that I would by flying all day Monday, so it probably wouldn't work to talk then, but Tuesday I would have my phone in hand all day.
Today, my PO called me around noon and we chatted for a few minutes. I was hesitant about placement at first because of my dietary restrictions. He was unaware until he pulled up my file and really looked at it. He wanted to check in with Office of Medical Services (OMS) and said he would get back to me when he heard from them. I was on the phone with my parents for literally under 5 minutes and he was calling me back. He said OMS didn't think it would be an issue and I have been in the Peace Corps "playpen" waiting too long, so he was going to mail out my invitation. (I really liked his phrasing of calling it a playpen because you do feel trapped many times, just waiting for someone to rescue you and let you move on with your life).
After the phone convo, he emailed me to reiterate the info we had talked about and double check the address he should mail the invite to. I had him switch it to my work address so that I can get the coveted Big Blue Packet (BBP) as soon as it arrives.
Now it is just waiting for the BBP to come in the mail and then I have one week to accept or decline.
For those of you who are waiting for the invite/contact from Placement, hang in there. I was always happy for those who posted saying they received an invitation, but still wished it was me.
For those who received the emails about placements being tough, I talked to my PO about that today and he said, yes, placements are tough right now and Peace Corps has become even more competitive than it was even a few months ago, but he said, things are still moving along. I know the process can be long and tiring, but I really do believe it will be worth it in the end.
