Red Tape

It has been a while since my last post, and since I refuse to admit that the conception of this blog was a little to early, I will provide an update:

The dental screening:

This was actually pretty easy. I googled a list of dentists who do free exams for PC volunteers, found one in Long Beach, gave them a call and it was easy as pie, besides the fact that he recommended a teeth cleaning. Although, actually making it to the appointment on time was somewhat of a miracle. That is another story in itself. The dentist was very nice about it, and as we made small talk while he looked at my Xrays, he mentioned that he had always wanted to be a PC volunteer, and since he can't actually go, he does free exams for people who can. I thought that was pretty uplifting. Amongst the tides of doubt and skepticism I ponder about enrolling in the PC, it's always a breath of fresh air to find that the general public stands behind me.

The teeth cleaning will be happening in two days, at the dentist I used to go to back when I was still covered by my mom's insurance. My dad elected to pay for it, and set up the appointment for me.

The Medical Screening:

Thus far I have made very little strides in the medical evaluation. My PC recruiter told me that Veteran's Hospitals will commonly do the evals for free, although the two closest VAs (Santa Monica and Long Beach) refuse to do them for PC volunteers. The closest to LA that is rumored to do it for free is the Las Vegas VA. My attemps to effectively communicate with the personelle and phone operators at that facility have resulted in bupkis. The one lady I was able to verbalize an entire sentince to before getting transfered to a different department insisted that I need to come to the front desk to fill out an application. I informed her that it was a 4.5 hour drive to get to the front desk, and asked if there is some way I could at least know if that hospital offers free medical evals for me before making the drive. After several minutes of her confusion, and me rephrasing the previous sentence for her so that she could understand, she transfered me to someones voicemail who hasn't called back. I have since moved on with my life.

As I am in Sacramento for the holidays, with 2 weeks off of work, I will see if I can make significant strides in completing the medical evaluation. If the VAs up here don't work, I'll try the free clinics, and then if all that fails......I'll try, Kaiser my health insurance provider.

Why

For years my mom had been encouraging me to apply for the Peace Corps. "You'd be great at it," she'd say. I always brushed off the advice, because other carreer suggestions she gave me were:

-a soccer coach
-a librarian (so that we could carpool to work together!)
-a navy officer

All fine careers, I'm sure. But if you knew me well, then you would know that these options dont exactly float my boat. The Peace Corps suggestion got mistakenly sorted into the "reject-job-ideas" of my mind. I actually did look into it my freshman year of college, but not very thrououghly. I remember reading a brochure with the requirements for joining, and I remember seeing the requirement of a BA in English to be able to go. Since I wasn't planning on majoring in English, I dismissed the idea entirely.

It wasn't until my senior year when my mom, again pushing for the Peace Corps, said "between getting married at 18, going to school, then getting a job, I never really had a chance to get to go on any real adventure. You should look into it." That advice somehow lit a spark inside of me to someplace and do something that none of my other peers were doing. I was going to do it.

I had intended to leave for the Peace Corps immediately following the summer after graduation. I was employed through UCLA UniCamp, where I was the staff for a smmer camp that serves kids 10-17 years old who currently live at or below the poverty line in LA. I was quietly afraid that I would get rejected from the Peace Corps because I wasn't sure if I could qualify for the health care job that I wanted to do. Miraculously, though, a spot opened up at camp to fill in for the nurse while she took weekends off, as well as a week off to go to a nursing conference. I logged about 360 clinical hours as the nurse while she was away (not including on-call hours), and that became the cherry-on-top for my applicaton. I was finally ready to apply.

I barrelled through the application, got the call for the interview, and paniced over the idea of getting rejected. However, when the day came to intervew, 9/9/09, I came prepared and got offered a nomination in person, right at the end of the intervew! I was estatic. The departure date was for January (4 months away). The assignment was heath care in Africa, with a recommended French language backround.

After sleeping on it, I realized that only 4 months to save up money, say goodbye to my friends, pass the medical clearance, and find an apartment for that time was impractical. I gave Tori (my recruiter) a call to see what my prospects were for getting in in June instead. Now I am nominated to leave in June. Same job. Same language requirement. Everything the same except the departure date. And so now I have a better balance between nervous and excited. Up next: the health screening...

The Beginning

This morning I stumbled upon a treasure chest in the form of my old blogs posts from The Age of Myspace (aka 2004-2007ish). I needed a writing sample to apply to a temp job as a copy editor, and so I chose one of my many blogs that I wrote throughout the years. But, while trying to decide which one to send in to a potential future employer, I ended up just reading all of them. Most of them were written while I was employed as a Front Desker at a desk that was open 24/7/364 (closed on Christmas), and despite my boredom and deliriousness during oh-so-many 12am, 3am, and 6am shifts, I created scores of blogs that I find funny and creative even to this day, despite all of them getting no more than about a dozen views total by my friends and subscribers. Furthermore, I just finished catching up on some blog posts my friend Kelly updates during her year-long tenure as an ESL teacher in Japan for the JET program. Thus, a Perfect Storm of inspiration for starting my own blog about the process of a Peace Corps Volunteer. So, before I get ahead of myself, I'll start from the beginning:

The title for the blog, "How to Live in Africa," is a play on words for my premeditated emotions while serving in Africa. I predict that, while I am supposed to be helping them live better, healthier lives, they will in turn be helping me cope and adapt to life in a foriegn country. Therefore, the title refers to both the locals learning about how to live healthier lifestyles, but also me learning how to live as an African.

My aim is that the blog will help shed light on the process leading up to departure, as well as the training and service of the average Peace Corps volunteer. I hope you enjoy :)