Community Drop In Hours

September 29, 2014; S/P Application Day 93:

I checked in with our recruiter at Community Drop In Hours today. She says that everything is going as she expected so far. She confirmed that in her system, Sam and my applications are listed as "Ready to Invite", and also confirmed that we are, in fact, nominated to the Cambodia program. She also checked and told me that positions for the jobs we're applying for (TEFL and Community Health) have not yet been filled. She says she expects us to get our invitations soon. This is all really good news.

Applications complete- now send us an invitation!

September 17, 2014; S/P Application Day 81: 

Today I received word from my volunteer supervisor that my final letter of recommendation had been sent to the Peace Corps. Now it's time to kick back, and wait to hear from placement ....

Why haven't we heard from placement yet? I just want my invitation! 

Final Reference Contacted! Hurray!

August 26, 2014; S/P Application Day 59:

Today I was CC'd on an email from my PC recruiter to my final reference. Hurray! Once I get confirmation that he's sent in a letter of recommendation, then all of our application elements will be completed. After this, there's nothing to do except wait and hope to hear from placement.

Last Reference Figured Out

August 20, 2014; S/P Application Day 53:

I still hadn't heard back from the PC about my final reference, so I decided go to our recruiter's Community Drop In Hours at the same local coffee shop we had our interview. I'm really glad I went. I was able to meet with our recruiter and have a nice chat with her. It turns out she's been away at a conference all last week, so my request to have the final reference email resent had gotten lost in the scuffle, Our recruiter said she'll send it out again for me, and that it's not a big deal that it's been delayed since Placement probably wouldn't have gotten around to reviewing our applications yet anyway.  I also got to meet a few people in the area who are interested in applying to the Peace Corps, and had a nice smoothie while we chatted. All in all, not a bad way to spend an afternoon,.

PC *still* hasn't contacted my volunteer reference

August 8, 2014; S/P Application Day 41:

Still no word from The PC regarding my final letter of reference. Today I called the PC recruiting office and left a message on the Northeast Regional Recruiting Center's answering machine. We'll see if that helps?

PC still hasn't contacted my Volunteer Reference

August 4, 2014; S/P Application Day 37: 

Still no word from The PC regarding my final letter of reference. I've sent an email to our recruiter to ask about this again.

Nominated!

July 28, 2014; S/P Application Day 30:

Received reply from our recruiter today. We learned our first choice, Zambia, does not accept Health & Education combo couples, which is disappointing. However, our recruiter was happy to nominate us to our second choice: Cambodia. She is sending in the paperwork today. No mention was made of my missing reference. 

Later in the day, we received our official nomination email! I was nominated to work in the Health Sector and Sam was nominated to work in Education. Our tentative departure month is July. As soon as I got the email, all the disappointment I felt about not going to be able to go to Zambia disappeared (well, most of it any way), and I'm pumped... There was no location specified in our nomination, though, so I guess that's still up in the air, although in her previous email our recruiter did say she would nominate us to the Cambodia program.