The Invitation Has Arrived!!!!!!

Hello everyone,
The Invitation arrived March 16th  and it has been a whirlwind ever since.  I am officially an invitee.  Staging is set for May 30th & 31st.

Now the paperwork begins.  As you can see I have been invited to serve in Lesotho Africa as a Community Health and Economic Development Volunteer.  I have completed the Passport and Visa requirements and sent those in.  Gotten a new Yellow Fever vaccination, all of the rest will be given at staging.  Moved back in with my best friends until it is time for my departure at the end of May.  Written my aspiration letter, and updated my resume and sent it off to my country desk.

The same day my invitation arrived, my POD arrived for me to start packing up the Tucson house.  I have finished that and all of my things are neatly stored for the next 30 months or so.  I did a lot of culling, had a yard sale, and was able to fit all my household into an 8' X 8' X 12' POD.  I am very happy about that.  

I have finished up with work, and will be flying back to New England to visit family and friends for three weeks.  Hope to catch up with of many of you as I can while I am home.  To say I am excited is an understatement.  This has been a long process but so worth it.  I am looking forward to the new experiences, learning, and challenges that await me.  This is going to be a great new phase in my life, and one where I feel that I will be able to make a difference.  I have been reading the Lesotho Peace Corps Journals, and want to thank Carol and Shane for their great blog and packing advice. 

Lesotho is a temperate climate with an elevation starting at about 5,000' and it goes up from there.  June 21st will be their winter solstice.  Back to four seasons I go.  The rocky terrain reminds me a lot of Arizona, with Agaves and not many trees, from the pictures I have seen so far.  I like many nominees and invitees, read all we can on Peace Corps Journals, Wiki, Google Earth, and many other sources to learn as much as we can about this new country that we will be calling home for the next few years.

Thank you all for reading so far, and will fill you in on more as I move forward.

My nomination timeline thus far

As a current Peace Corps nominee I read the Peace Corps blogs daily.  Looking to see what the timelines have been for other nominees.  The following is my own experience so far, which I hope will be helpful to others who are waiting.

06/03/2011    Submitted Peace Corps Application

06/15/2011    Sent in Peace Corps further information packet

06/28/2011    Peace Corps Interview with recruiter

09/15/2011    Nominated for Health Extension slot departing July 2012

10/21/2011    Mailed in Medical packet

11/25/2011    Dental Cleared

11/28/2011     Medical Cleared

So now I wait, and wait,  but wait I received information on 1/13/2012 that I should hear from the placement office within three to five weeks.  They are currently working on those nominees that are departing this spring.  I am grateful for the tidbit of information to help me practice our Peace Corps virtue of patience.  It is both exciting and hard at the same time, a new chapter in my life is waiting to be written.  I am looking forward to the challenge, the learning, and being able to contribute in a community.  To make a difference at a more basic level.

Thanks for reading thus far, I will keep you all posted as to my progress.