Peace Corps Adventures in Vanuatu

Hi all-
Sorry I have not been blogging. I hardly have a chance to use the Internet during our 8 weeks of training.
Our first week was at a camp site on the island of Efate, and we had class from 8-6 daily. After that week we changed villages and moved in with host families. We will be there until December 2nd. Then we will go to Vila (where I am updating from now) for a week and have our swearing in ceremony on Dec 6th.
That's also the week when we will find out our site placements (which volunteer will live where for 2 years).
With my IT teaching job, I have a better chance at having more frequent access to electricity and Internet.
No promises though.
So, I have been doing well here. No homesickness has set in, and I've only had a sore throat and tummy trouble once.
My host family is huge and very nice.
I am learning how to speak Bislama fairly quickly and the food isn't bad either.
We still have M-F classes from 8-5 with various Peace Corps staff and volunteers that have been serving here for 1-2 years. That's fun but keeps us quite busy.
Find me on face book to see pictures!
Videos will have to wait until I'm back in a country with high speed Internet.
Tata for now- luv you all! :)

Hello all,
We just finished our staging in L.A. Met some great new people that will be heading to Vanuatu with me. The training was fun, and now we are waiting for the bus to the airport. Then we leave LA at 10:30 pm. All is well- we are all anxious and excited.  I won't be able to post much in the first two months so don't give up on checking my blog. I will post when there is Internet...:-)

Kat

Back home from Germany- I had such a great time! I will try my best to start writing in both languages (weiter unten lesen fuer deutsch).
Now it's down to the final week before I leave. Last minute bills, address changes, packing, etc.
We received an email from the Peace Corps about details regarding our travel and what to expect during our first two months in Vanuatu. "Arduous" was the word they used to describe our training. Right now I have the arduous task of packing no more than 100lbs... 32 of it is my scuba gear. Also, I won't have much access to the Internet during our training so you may not see much from me until late December.
Alright, time for a translation.
Habe meine Zeit in Deutschland sehr genossen und jetzt habe ich noch eine Woche hier. Die letzten Rechnungen zahlen, und nur 50 Kilo packen.
Ich weiss jetzt auch wie die ersten zwei Monate in Vanuatu werden, und es soll also nicht gerade einfach sein. Aber das wurde uns nun mal von Anfang an gesagt. Ich werde auch erstmal nicht viel Internetzugang haben; wohl erst wieder Ende Dezember.

Before I head out to the islands on October 4th, I am making a quick pit stop in Germany for two weeks starting tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing the family and some good friends!!
Today, I am not only packing for that trip, but also packing up some boxes for storage and a different suitcase for Vanuatu already. When I come back I only have about 8 days to get ready..
Yesterday I had a wonderful surprise party for my birthday and farewell! It was the coolest cake!! And that poster is about 5 feet long! :)

We finally received our staging information today- which means orientation and flight to our destination.
All 30 of us need to meet on October 4th by 6 pm in a hotel in Los Angeles. We have our meeting the next day, and then we head to the airport on the 5th in the evening and our flight to New Zealand leaves around 10:30 pm. A 13 hour flight, then wait, then a 3.5 hour flight to Port Vila. And some cool people will be there waiting for us!! :)

Ok so I am officially unemployed. Weird feeling but it had to happen to get ready for my new adventure. Many people are reading my blog, so I will try to keep it interesting.
Plans for next week: make banking and life insurance arrangements, pack for Germany, and get my Scuba gear assembled. After Germany I will move out of the apartment. Visiting friends and tossing and turning at night will be the plan for the last few days in El Paso. :)

So, the final 40 days are here prior to heading to Vanuatu. I have one more week at work, then a week to 'chill,' and then a two week vacation in Germany with my family. When I return on Sept 25, I will have roughly 10 days to pack up and make final arrangements. Thinking of having a farewell party then too...
At any given moment, I can hardly wait, or I am anxious/nervous, or looking at other volunteers' photos and blogs to mentally prepare. It's impossible.
Also, I've been shopping like crazy and have recently received my Open Scuba Diver Certification so that's extra gear I'm taking with me now! :-)

I am not blogging much lately because nothing new has come up. After all the excitement with receiving the invitation and sending off required paperwork again, I have been traveling and will now focus on my last month at work. September will be the month when I can make all the final preparations and also visit Germany to say goodbye. Then there are a couple of weeks between coming back from Germany and heading out to Vanuatu. I am thinking of possibly getting my scuba diving license over there, since they have some of the best conditions! I am also starting to meet some great people on FB: some are already volunteers over there with great advice, and others are part of my new group (G25!). So I am enjoying my last 65 days here...

I finally received my invitation! I was invited to serve starting October 5th in Vanuatu in the Pacific! I am going to serve as an Information Technology Educator. I am beyond excited because the work description seems to be a perfect fit for me. The timing is also great, and the location was something I was secretly hoping for! :-)
I'm going to try and attach a video here about opening my invitation kit. Enjoy- it's cheesy! :)

Yay- I was cleared medically last week! Had a voicemail from a nurse, but then she emailed me that I was cleared. :-)
So, a big hurdle out of the way! What's left is legal clearance and the subsequent invitation. Super excited to finally know where/ when I will be going.

After reading lots of posts in the FB group for applicants, I realize I shouldn't be so impatient. I did hear back after ten days of sending in my medical that they have received it. I realize they are still working on August and September stagings, but two people already got invitations to October. So, I'm looking forward to hearing about my medical and legal clearance and subsequent invitation. Patience is something you definitely learn with the Peace Corps. Enjoying every day of this journey. :-) Good things come to those who wait.

I finally finished all my medical paperwork/ tests/ X-rays/ vaccines/ etc. It's in the mail back to D.C. and needs to be reviewed by their medical office. After (hopefully) a quick approval, my Placement Officer (whom I have not met) should take a final look at my application and skills and match me up with a country. Then they should send me an invitation kit with all the details. I am so excited and ready to find out where/when I'm going and what my mission will be! It's been a quick turnaround so far, so let's see if that continues.

I've been reading a lot about the medical clearance and what a pain it can be (literally). I started all of that today and, surprisingly, got quite a bit accomplished. The family doctor and dentist were checked off the list today. Missing some lab results and X-rays, and then my vision will be checked Thursday. I hope to mail it all back Friday. I think I deserve a gold star for speed of completion and also for not crying due to numerous needles today. :) I can't stand needles.
After this, the waiting game continues. Fun times...

After yesterday's exciting nomination news, I woke up today with an online application update that said I was already done with my legal clearance. Plus the fact that my medical kit was mailed to me as well. Talk about a fast turnaround!!Now it's time to make my medical appointments and get poked and prodded. :-/Then to top it off, I was reading about the fact that one can actually receive an invitation to serve up to seven months in advance. That was news to me. I had read originally that you only get notified 6 weeks-2 months before. It would honestly make it so much easier to get the invitation kit earlier, so all the arrangements can be made with some sort of peace of mind that it won't change (natural disasters and wars excluded).Interesting morning- now off to take the Spanish CLEP exam.
*** I passed the exam with 72 out of 80 points!! :-)

Yesterday and today can only be described as an emotional roller coaster. As a quick summary, I received my nomination for a Computer Science position with a health ministry starting October in Africa! I'm very excited, but a nomination can still change, so for now I am focusing on my Spanish test tomorrow, and then waiting for the medical kit to arrive so I can start making all the appointments. A placement officer can still contact me later (after medical and legal clearance) to suggest other positions in other locations with other staging dates. So don't schedule any good-bye parties just yet. :-)

I had my interview on April 20th, only 19 days after submitting my online application. I drove from El Paso to Albuquerque to meet my recruiter Shawn. He is very nice, and made me feel very at ease about the interview process. He asked me 18 questions, and due to my lengthy responses, we took about 2 1/2 hours total. The questions were similar to the ones I had found on the Wiki, so you definitely want to take a look at those to prepare better. After the interview was complete, he starting looking through his database of potential job positions that I was matched up with in the system. That was so exciting! He told me about five potential positions I would probably qualify for, and he said I would get a nomination for sure. The positions he mentioned all sounded great, but they were not attached to any particular region or continent. He asked me to think about them, their staging dates, and my flexibility of when I wanted to leave etc. We have been emailing back and forth a bit this week before he makes his final nomination for me (hopefully this week). I will keep you updated.

I submitted my Peace Corps application on April 1st and received my letter for the online toolkit as well as a packet from my recruiter. I look forward to sharing my updates and reading about other prospective PCVs and their journey. Hope to meet some of you in the near future.