The first step(s)

I have been reading other Peace Corps Volunteers' blogs for about 3 months now, and I am pretty daunted by the amount of things that still have to happen to end up serving in Peace Corps. However, it seems like that's how most people feel. We are not alone, at least. Here is what we have done so far:

Nov2005 - Feb2006: Gather all the information we could find about our current volunteer, employment, and personal activities. I think once we started searching in earnest, we realized how awesome our community is - we have great relationships in the servce and faith community, which overlaps with work for Nick, and I have a good working environment as well. We also have great friends who will say things about us that surely have been inspired by literature or art, not us!

Feb 20, 2006: We completed the online application with sparkling essays, as well as an extensive health review form which covered all the problems that people are likely to have. Luckily, we were able to say 'no' for most of them, besides a few surgeries for me. (P.S. I have been running lately, so my injuries are not so debilitating!)

March 2(?), 2006: We go to see the recruiter who has contacted us - she gives us packets of additional forms, including backgroud check and fingerprint cards, and a skill addendum, so we can punctuate the applications with our specific skills. She tells us that Nick would be best suited to teaching English or community development, and I would be best suited to science and math teaching, or health extension (outreach/education). We go to UPD and have a cop fingerprint us (and by the way, there were definitely breaks and light prints, but by the end he had it down).

March 10, 2006: Individual and Joint interviews completed. Our recruiter A--- at the University of Florida seems to be very keen on us being nominated, though she is trying to prepare our applications while graduating with a Master's in Anthropology, and preparing to serve in Ethiopia for the summer with the NGO Mercy Corps. I am sure she will not let us go. Anyway, the interview was just like we were told: describe your most prominent leadership position in detail; describe a time when you taught someone a skill or knowledge who was different from yourself; how would you deal with stress and boredom without the resources you have now; how would you deal with exaggerated or different gender roles or restrictions, etc. I think we knocked the questions out of the park. Nick and I both think that we are way underqualified and have never dealt with true adversity, though I have been on a mission trip to Nicaragua and Nick tutors at-risk 4th graders every week. Those kids' lives are harder than ours sometimes.

Today, April 14, 2006: We wait. I hear that this is the hardest part of applying, especially if you don't get nominated at the first opportunity (couples are nominated every quarter, with the next board in early May). A--- told us that she will work on our applications next week and send them out, so we can see that the national Peace Corps office has all our paperwork. I am praying that we hear about May 15 that we have been nominated to teach in a warm climate, to people neglected but eager, to make friends and learn a little more about ourselves and our God.

Grace and Peace-