Application to Lift-off

It has been nearly a year and a half since I made the decision that I should apply to join the Peace Corps. I had seen their recruiters on Texas Tech campus in the past and decided maybe I should shoot them an application. I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do post college but I knew it wasn't going to be behind a desk. On a whim I went to their website and explored the possibilities. The more research I did the more I realized this was not a simple Summer camp job. The requirements were much more than I had expected but I figured the worst they could do was tell me no. To make a long story short the application process was long, arduous, and trying. I have been pricked with more needles than an acupuncture addict and my blood taken from me like it was a hot commodity for the Peace Corps. I was discouraged more times than I care to reminisce. The initial application was only the first baby step of many to come. Interviews, background checks, more interviews, work experience evaluations, and my personal favorite, medical work ups, were all part of the prerequisites to even be applicable for the Peace Corps. If one thing were found to be wrong I could kiss the dream of helping others on an international scale goodbye. (More on my motivation to apply in a following post).

To make a long story short, after a year of the application process I was extended an invitation to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador. My position will be a TEFL Teacher Trainer. TEFL is both a certification and an acronym that stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language. I will work with High school teachers that are new to teaching English. I am to help integrate English teaching methodology into their high school classrooms. I have been told to expect between 40 and 55 students in one classroom. This is a far cry from my much smaller classes in the States.

I will leave for a "Staging Event" in NYC on Monday the 14th at 6 am. The Peace Corps has an apparent desire to see if I can get up on time. I will spend two days in NYC where we will learn more on the goals and values expected of us during our service.

After two days in NYC we will depart the hotel at 4 am in order to make it through customs and board our plane for Quito, Ecuador at 9 am. We fly all day, stopping in Miami and are scheduled to arrive in Ecuador at 9 pm. The day promises to be a long one. We will arrive in Quito and be whisked off to Tumbaco, a smaller city near Quito where we will have another quick training for the remainder of the week.

The following three months will consist of in-country training. I will be near the other Peace Corps Trainees as we progress towards our posts throughout the country. During this time I will live with a host family. This will most certainly help me integrate into their society and understand the culture far better than if I were simply to live with other Americans. At the terminus of my training I will be sent to my specific post in the country where I will carry out my work for my remaining 2 years of service.

As I reread this post I get the sense that I am speaking from a point of omniscience. I assure you, I really have no idea what my life will be like over the next 2 years and 3 months. The Peace Corps has done a phenomenal job of informing me that I may have wildly different experiences than other TEFLs. I go into this next chapter of my life being open and ready for any experience that comes my way. One of the qualities that the Peace Corps states they need in a successful Volunteer is to have a sense of humor. During my extensive interview in Dallas last Summer I made sure that they knew I was overqualified in this area! I said this in jest but meant it to an extent.

I will end this post with a musing of mine. I was given a blank leather journal by my boss at my "retirement party" recently. I feel that I am much like this journal. I am blank now but ready to be filled with memories for a lifetime.