Saturday, April 16, 2011

Turkmenistan... Where is That?

This is the beginning of my Peace Corps blog!





 A week and a half ago, April 6th, while working on my goal of watching all of LOST before the end of May, I received a call from a 202 number. Luckily, the night before I had been reading blogs about Peace Corps invitees receiving calls from a 202 number, so I knew exactly what was happening... I was being Invited. What followed was the best interview of my life in which I flaunted all of the amazing experience I had gained that would make me the greatest PCV ever! No, really, I did. And then the woman on the other end of the line asked me, "Would you like to be invited to the Peace Corps?" Umm, lemme think about this... YES! She gave me the options of leaving in June to Eastern Europe to work part time in a community health clinic and part time doing health education in a classroom, or to leave in September for Central Asia to work in a health clinic on maternal and child health, infectious disease, and preventative health. Charming as lesson planning seems, I would prefer spending more time in a clinical setting, and seeing as I prioritize being able to watch the last installments of Harry Potter and Twighlight before I leave, I chose Central Asia! My Invitor went on to say that since PCV have such "high visability" in Central Asia, PC is very selective in which applicants go there, and that my application highly recommended me. That may be one of the most flattering things anyone has ever said to me.

Then I wait. Upon invitation, apparently, you are only told your region, so then you have the pleasure of anxiously awaiting the arrival of more information via snail mail. Tis the methodology of the Peace Corps. I would like to say that I had more self control than to stalk my mailbox for a week and a half, but I can't.

A week and a half goes by. Today is Cal Day, and the celebration of Peace Corps' 50th anniversary, so Peace Corps had a presence on campus, including a commemoration of the anniversary in which current applicants were asked to RSVP and attend. My housemate, Meghan, and I go, and its charming, with anecdotes from the field and Skyping with current PCVs. Unexpectedly at the end, the Deputy Director of the Peace Corps announces that we had some important people in the audience, and "I think I hear a call coming..." and then she called my name to come up to the stage! She had my invitation package, complete with fancy ribbon and Peace Corps luggage tag! She continued to introduce me to the audience, saying how I would be graduating with a BA in Integrative Biology, that I became a competitive applicant by serving as a Health coordinator for University Health Services and a research assistant in the School of Public Health... she made me sound so fancy! I shook hands and hugged the Deputy Director of the peace Corps! It was SO FANCY!

So then I go back to my seat and I open my package, and read that I am going to... Turkmenistan! The people around me ask me where I will be going, and respond in one of two ways when I say Turkmenistan: 1. a wide eyed and impressed "Oooh!", or 2. "Turkmenistan... where is that?"