Food for thought
The website below has some interesting opinions/facts that you don't normally hear about Peace Corps. I believe in order to make an informed decision about something you need to look at it in as many lights as possible.
I'm just posting this as food for thought, and don't necessarily agree or disagree with this. Also, remember that the contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/project/content/project/peacecorps
Keeping up
Let it be known that if you request a copy of your medical file from Peace Corps, it should only take a week, not a month. I requested mine a month ago and have been waiting and waiting and waiting (Peace Corps does value patience you see) until I just couldn't take it anymore. I called them up, and it turns out my letter of request got lost in the mail! So I faxed another request as soon as I found that out, and the copy of my file should be here by next week.
Other than that, I got to see two of the other volunteers from my group this week. One of them is making his rounds around the country visiting friends and family, the other lives just a couple hours from here. It was great to see them again. Different too. I'd heard that it was strange to see people in the US that you had gotten to know in the context of Peace Corps in another country, but it wasn't as strange as I was thinking it might be. We exchanged "war stories" about Bangladesh some, but seemed to have plenty of other things to talk about as well. It was nice.
On hold
So the waiting game begins again, and this time I'm not sure if I'll even be rewarded for the wait. I've gotten some very bad news from Peace Corps. I've been medically deferred for two years! I don't want to go into the details of it here, but essentially it means that the medical office wants to defer me for two years before they'll look at my file again to decide if they'll give me medical clearance to reenroll with the Peace Corps. I'm shocked and disappointed by this. I also think it's a big mistake, so I plan to appeal the decision. I'm confident I can provide the proof that their reasoning behind the deferral is in error, but you can never be sure how an appeal will turn out. Plus it could take months! Apparently the appeals board only reviews one or two appeals a week. I had hoped that after coming home in December I would only be in the States for a few months before being assigned to another country. Now I'm not sure that's going to happen any time soon. Gah! I'm ready to get going again!
