Pictures of Invitation Packet

A breakdown of the Peace Corps invitation packet:

Front

Back

Behold! The lovely organized file folders! Also included: a handbook for us, a book about adjusting, and a book for our parents.

Here are the full contents spread out.  This is what we are to bring when we go to staging.  It will help us keep up with all the shots we've gotten (to avoid double vaccinations), our prescriptions, along with tax forms and other legal documentations.  The set up of this packet makes me so happy, it helps bring order to a chaotic time. 

On another note... we've moved out of our little apartment downtown.  I already miss the ability to ride my bike to school or walk anywhere I want to go.  As we unloaded our belongings into my parents garage, Greg helped me come to grips with getting rid of almost all of our 'stuff'.  I, for some reason, had assumed we would keep most of our stuff for when we got back.  But, the point of doing this is to help people less fortunate than ourselves and to begin to lead simpler lives with less worldly possessions.  A big benefit to our service is that we can live for an extended amount of time with only what we NEED.  When we come back we want to continue that.  Since I accepted this I feel like a huge weight is off my shoulders, but at the same time, like I might throw up.  As we take carload after carload to Goodwill I find myself saying...It's just stuff.

Time to go clean out more of the garage.

83 more days until Belize!

Check out http://www.belizeit.com/

for some more info on Belize.

BELIZE!

We are going to Belize!  

We leave August 19th for orientation (in the US) with 'in country' pre-service training, in Belize, August 20 2009-October 21st.  Our official dates of service are October 21st 2009-October 21st 2011!  Our job titles are, Elementary Education Teacher Trainers.

We actually went to Belize City on our honeymoon so we are slightly familiar with the region. 

Here are som general facts about Belize taken from the Peace Corps webiste.

Vital Statistics:

-Population average 250,000

-Program Dates 1962-present

-Number of volunteers- 65

-Total Volunteers to Date-1,757

-Languages spoken: Creol, Spanish, Mayan, Garifuna, English

We have a HUGE packet of stuff to organize and do so we will post again after we sort through it all.  Last fun fact of the post, Belize is 1440 miles from Wilmington (as the crow flies).  

TWO WEEKS UNTIL WE KNOW!  We just got off the phone with our placement officer.  We had our final phone interviews and he said he felt "very confident with moving us forward" and is putting us through for our invitations tomorrow!  He said we should get our actual final invitation with all our packing, location, and job information in two weeks!  WE ARE SO EXCITED!  Our placement officer said we are up for a small town or village, most likely 300-1000 people.  We would be working in a rural primary school of roughly 200 kids with around 20 teachers.  He also said that 24 hour running water and electricity are a luxury and we might not have them at all.  He wanted to know how I felt about all this and I voiced how this was probably my ideal situation (seeing as how I've always wanted to live in a grass shack)!  I also asked if I could use my EMT training in country, he said the Peace Corps encourages secondary projects and I can do as much as I want!  I AM SO EXCITED!  

So here is a basic timeline of our Peace Corps experience thus far:

January 15th 2008-Submitted applications on line and recieved "Current Applicants" username/password for the PC website

May 2008-3 hour in person interview with recruitment officer

August 4th 2008-Accepted Peace Corps nomination 

August 18th 2008-Recieved PC huge medical clearance packet

November 28th 2008-PC recieved our medical packet

December 1st 2008-Recieved dental clearance

December 8th 2008-More forms/vaccinations requested

January 20th 2009-Submited requested medical info

March 2nd 2009-Recieved Medical Clearance!

May 7th 2009-Last phone interview, moved to final invitation state

15 months and counting!  Almost at the end....or should I say, begining! :)  We will be blogging on here throughout our trip to Europe this summer to practice for the peace corps.  We will be going to 6 countries in 25 days leaving June 15th so stay tuned!