EL SALVADOR

Today at CMOE camp, we went to Angel Mounds, an old Indian.....well....an area of land preserved by the state because Indians used to live there and so there are artifacts there. Whatever the official name would be. My sister texts me "Its here! Peace Corps stuff is here! Can I open it!? Please!? Does it say where you are going!?" I text her back yelling no no no don't open it! That's my thing! That's like opening my Christmas presents! Back at CMOE, we get a 30 minute lunch, so I rushed home.

I open the package, and tadaaaaaa!!!! 

EL SALVADOR, Youth Development
Staging: Sept 14th-16th
Training: Sept 16th-Nov 15th
Service: November 16th, 2008-November 16th, 2010

So that's my invitation! And really, its sorta perfect because of the 100% Spanish speaking society and food. Haha. Training is for 2 months in San Vicente, near the capitol San Salvador. As the text they gave me say, it is "HOT" there.

Nomination #4

Not even sure if this and the last have been "real" nominations. I guess they are though. Oh well. I finally broke down and e-mailed my PO, Amanda. To my surprise, she got back to me literally within seconds. My first thought was "oh no, she's out of office, and its an automatic reply"--that's how quick it was. But nope! She was really just THAT QUICK pulling up my info, processing it, writing a reply, and sending. She earns the medal of the day!! Anyway, this is what she sent me (minus any private info):

Hi Jenna,

Thanks so much for your flexibility on this.

Your email is very timely!

I actually just found out that the Eastern European country is unable to accommodate you medically so I submitted a new request for a Central-America Youth Development program. This particular program is scheduled to depart in mid/late September and there will be a spot held for you until we hear back from the Office of Medical Services.

I submitted the request on July 15th, and I will contact you as soon as I hear back from the Office of Medical Services.

In the meantime, I will keep my fingers crossed! J

Please feel free to contact me with many questions since I know what it feels like to play the waiting game!


Have a great day,

Amanda ********, RPCV Honduras

Volunteer Placement Specialist / IAP

Peace Corps Headquarters

So, now I'm back to being very close to my original nomination! 

Youth/Central America/mid-late September

I feel like the PC poster child for "be flexible in the PC!"

Calm

I've been trying to calm down. :) Today was much needed I think. I worked out, tried to tackle the crazy animals again, and went to my grandpa's to swim and sunbathe. Of course, if you know me I don't tan or burn so I'm just as pale as when I started.

Last night I tried to refocus and get excited again. Looked at some more things I may need for the Peace Corps, which I've been putting on my Amazon Wish List. You may notice a new found collection of Pink Ribbon stuff I'm putting on there. A very good friend of the family that I've known nearly my whole life has a rare type of breast cancer that she found out about around this time last year. She's doing all right. But my family has since taken to whole-heartedly buying anything Pink Ribbon.

I also updated the country list that Bailey and I did. I'm glad to see some new countries in September like Nicaragua and El Salvador! At this point, any country seems so beyond great. My most likely regions still are probably Latin America and Europe and both of those are great with me. Both are extremely different and both have amazing perks. We will have to see. The August/September Latin America countries I could go to are: Belize, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, El Salvador, and Nicaragua! WOW. The August/September Europe countries I could go to are Macedonia and the Ukraine. Countries in July that I still could ever so slightly possibly get are Bulgaria and South Africa.

Little things of note:

• My Justin is out in San Francisco for some WWDC action. I wasn't able to make it out this year :( I miss him!
• My mom said she might pay for a plane ticket for me to fly to NY to visit my friend Reena whom I haven't seen since June 21st last year.
• The dog was standing on the side of the couch, super excited, when suddenly she plummeted off. THUD. It sounded like a dictionary dropping on our wood floors. She was completely stunned for a second and when she finally moved she came over to me and whimpered.
• Shoot, better go dry my bangs since my sister is coming back in for the shower

So really, I'm trying to calm down about medical a little. It'll happen when it happens, I'll go where I go. It may be August but it could be July or September. Yeah? So while I'm still slightly constantly thinking about medical, I've tried to breathe deep and relax. It'll happen.

Tidbits of News

Well, I didn't get to call my screening assistant at the medical office on Friday because I got a major head cold that completely put me out of commission for the weekend. So hopefully I can call tomorrow to make sure she got my fax, that my medical kit is there, when will they get to it, am I still in line with an August departure, and double check that they will give me my last Gardasil shot. When I wrote my last post, I thought that the PC said they would not give any Gardasil shots AFTER March 31st of this year, but I went back and read the information again, and it says anyone who recieved their first shot before March 31st will be able to get their last shot in country if necessary, but if you got your first shot after that date, they won't supply it. I'm glad to say that I got my first shot on March 14th, but I still want to make sure!

Next, someone got an invitation to PANAMA! I believe it is for August 2nd and for Community Economic Development. So there is yet anoooooooother option!  However, I'm still leaning towards Belize because it is the country that seems most...youth/learning oriented, while the others seem more business/health oriented. Plus, a girl got a Belize Youth invite. Ah well. We will (hopefully) find out soon enough! The PC keeps throwing loops out at us!

Oh! And before I forget, one girl had a note that her PO called saying her August Latin America program got CANCELED! She got moved to the Eastern Caribbean! So yes, yet another loop for all of us Latin America August nominees who are still waiting. Its funny because I've associated myself with the idea that some people I've talked to I'd definitely be serving with, but it seems like now I probably will only be with 1 or 2 of them! But hey, that's the PC surprise right? Plus, since we are still in the same region, it gives us all a great excuse for travel and a place to stay!

Excitement

Outside news about the PC is sometimes exciting! Still don't have medical in, and yada. However, one girl I had talked to through e-mail a bit was having a big problem getting a nomination because of a medical restriction and the fact that they were a couple. They had their fingers crossed on a Latin America July program and a South East Asian September program.  But today they just found out that their PO found a program that accepts them with the restriction, and it is MINE! Of course, we all assume Belize....but it is the same region/month nomination, so YAY! I'm excited!

Also, a few weeks ago on the Facebook group Peace Corps Latin America, I put a message about anyone with departures leaving in August. For weeks no one responded, but then yesterday I got a GREAT response, better than I could've excepted, the dream response:

Hi,
I'm a PCV in Belize. I know that we are expecting new trainees in August of this year and Youth Development is one of Belize's programs.
Mike

So how exciting is that! Now I know for sure that Belize is indeed a huge possibility! EXCITING!

Now, if I could just get the damn medkit in. Grrrr