#UULent2015

As a Unitarian Universalists, I share theological roots with my Christian siblings. However, instead of practice self-denial during the Season of Lent, I have taken the opportunity to spend Lent engaged in a spiritual discipline of deep intention and appreciation of the world, my place in it, and an openness to Grace in my daily life. Theoretically, there was supposed to be a photo for every day, but I wasn’t on top of my photo taking game, so there might be some, but not for every day. Next year I will try to rise to the occasion to have a photo per day.

If you’re curious about this year’s practice feel free to check out the UULent Tublr account: http://practicinglent.tumblr.com/HowItWorks

18/2: Practice
PST Phase II practicing our skills of being PCVs.

19/2: Notice
Notice the small changes you can make, not the big projects you want to take on.

20/2: Waiting
End of training dinner means hungry PCVs waiting for food

21/2: Hospitality
After being gone for a 2-week long in-service training with PC. I ran into my talatala (minister) on the bus yesterday and she greeted me by saying, “welcome back to Navosa.”
Sometimes hospitality comes from other people letting you into the community and just noticing you’re home.

22/2: Friendship
There are a lot of different types of people in Peace Corps. Some of them one would never think one would become friends with until one realizes that some of our closest friends are people we once were in competition with, thought were idiots, or just couldn’t stand. I love my PC Family and I have learned no matter what the first, second, third, or tenth impressions of a person is, all people should be given a chance and deserve friendly companionship.

23/2: Home
No matter what complaints I may have about site, it has become my home. Thank you all for inviting me to have tea, drink kava, and share meals up here.

24/2: Trust
When things aren’t going well at site I have to trust that things will get better

25/2: Listen
Sometimes we just need to be listened to. Thanks PCMO and Program Managers for listening to my problems with my site supervisor. Seriously, our staff is the best.

27/2: Kindness
PC staff shows kindness by telling me after a rough week that I need to go to Suva to take care of my mental health and see my friends. Again, the PC-Fiji staff is the best

28/2: Struggle
Sometimes we need to get out of the struggle, and go to the Capital so we feel better about life and can carry on.
PCV Based in Suva: My beer is too cold.
Me: The struggle is real

1/3: Purpose
A break from site helped remind me of my purpose here as a PCV in Fiji.

2/3: Connect
We forget that connection is a basic human need. So I’m connecting with PC staff and volunteers today before I jump on the bus and go back to the bush.

3/3: Wonder
Doing yoga on my front porch inspires wonder from the other teachers. As noted by the stares and questions I receive during and after my practice.

4/3: Courage
It takes courage to serve and serving makes us courageous.

5/3: See
Seeing the new principal’s quarters finally complete gives me hope that if the army soldiers can build a beautiful house in a matter of months I can make a small change in my school and community in two years.

6/3: Joy
Going into town for groceries and getting to talk to PCV friends on the phone while drinking a beer at a bar overlooking the river brings me joy.

7/3: Hunger
Satisfying my hunger with a cheese and guacamole melt and Fiji Bitter Beer.

8/3: Worship
I now worship in two places on Sundays. First during breakfast while watching the prior week’s sermon from the First Unitarian Church of Albuquerque. Then by attending the Fijian Methodist service at the Navatumali government station. I don’t always understand the words, but I love listening to the singing and offers to each lunch with families and friends after service.

9/3: Imagination
Trying to use my imagination to figure out how to do my triannual volunteering report form that documents my work as a PCV.

10/3: Change
I can feel the change in weather and pressure from impending Tropical Cyclone Pam.

11/3: Sacred
Sacred space does not have to be a structure or building. Sometimes our sacred space is somewhere we create within ourselves.

12/3: Play
After a full day of outreach with a visiting team of doctors and nurses from overseas, I don’t have the energy to go out and play with the other teachers and drink grog.

13/3: Share
In Fiji, we share our nothing.

14/3: Mercy
Hoping that some cosmic being takes mercy on Vanuatu, and the island and people survive this storm with minimal destruction and casualties.

15/3: Hope
I can only hope that what I’m doing will be successful.

16/3: Neighbor
One’s neighbor is not always the person who lives next to you or is from your same background. A true neighbor is a samaritan who takes care of others when they are in need.

17/3: Duty
I feel it is my duty to support people, especially adolescents and youth. Who are in need of a caring and empathetic adult

18/3: Passion
Gender equity is my passion. I am always thankful when I get to talk with a village youth group about it.

19/3: Community
When the nurses and doctor from my health centre show up at my house unannounced to invite me to come on an outreach, I truly feel I am part of my community.

20/3: Ally
I found out one of my form 6 students is from a neighboring village to my host family. Good to find an ally from Tokatoka up in Navosa.
Whenever I get to talk to people who are supportive and empathetic to public health issues I get excited that I have an ally on the changes I hope to make.

21/3: Love
Having a day to do laundry, drink wine, cook, and read a book reminds me that I love myself.
Talking with one of my babies from Albuquerque reminds me that while we might be far away from each other we are still loved.

22/3: Awe
I am consistently in awe of how much and how little I understand the iTaukei language.

23/3: Bless
In spite of the bullshit, isolation, and daily frustrationsI have to remind myself that I am blessed to have this experience

24/3: Help
Sometimes I just want to scream at people, “I’m here to fucking help! Give me something to help you with. God damn it!”

25/3: Life
My life as a PCV is not how I expected or imagined, and that’s ok. Because the life that I’m living is full of unexpected challenges and delights.

26/3: Alone
I often feel very alone in my service because I can’t contact other volunteers very easily and I’m the only volunteer within a 60 km radius, but having other teachers and friends from my site check in on me and invite me to go drink grog makes me feel a little bit less alone.

27/3: Savor
When things are bad I have to savor that feeling, and when things are good I savor that as well. Regardless of my emotional state good or bad. I have to acknowledge my emotions and recognize that “this too shall pass.”

28/3: Justice
I often wish that I could see more justice and equity within my school and community. Progress and change takes time. However, I am thrilled that more female teachers are “coming out” to me as feminists. So maybe we aren’t that far from a more just and equal world.

29/3: Listen
Listening is the majority of what I do. Today, I enjoyed listening to the Palm Sunday services lead by the children (3-17 year olds) followed by the cheering of my friends, teachers, and neighbors as the Fiji Sevens team beat New Zealand winning the Hong Kong Sevens Match.

30/3: Doubt
I have had a lot of doubts about myself and my abilities recently. Examples: is this appropriate to wear for this event, do my students understand my lessons, will my students pass their end of year standardized exams, and do people like me? I’m going to try to curb these with self affirmations such as, “fuck you negative thoughts and emotions! You ain’t more zen than me bitch!”

31/3: Faith
I have faith that my mental health status will improve.

1/4: Sustenance
When I need to take care of my mental health I remind myself that sometimes I just need sustenance to feel better. Tonight I enjoyed red chili mashed potatoes, a Fiji Gold beer, and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (movie).

2/4: Silence
Attempting to get students to be quiet is a struggle. I always enjoy a bit of silence when I go home to take a break.

3/4: Surrender
I went with a group of PCVs to get a goat to eat. We didn’t get a goat, but we did end up with a duck in the trunk. I have no idea what this has to do with surrender but it was a good story. So I guess I surrender to trying to connecting the word to my day.

4/4: Transcend
Spending a weekend with other PCVs transcends my life. I feel better.

5/4: Rejoice!
Rejoicing with other volunteers. That was a hell of a good meal. Scalloped potatoes, veggie Shepard’s pie, cake, brownies, and a bottle of wine. Followed by happy hour at the Grand Pacific Hotel. Good day to be with Peace Corps family and friends.

Na liqu cola e na higa nikua/ A day in my life

I wake up between 6 and 7

Then I make breakfast

Mmmm real coffee, oatmeal, and passion fruit from my tree outside.

Bucket Bath Time!

It’s been getting cold, so lately I’ve been boiling water to have a warm bucket bath.

The lali’s beating, I’d better get to school

The row of teacher’s quarters

The secondary school

8-8:30 AM Form Time
I’m an assistant form teacher for form 402
Morning devotional

Flag Raising

Weekly Morning Assembly

Students waiting for the principal to give his address

Family Life Education Class

Form 301 students being cheeky

Form 502 students taking notes

Lesson Prep and Other Work

My desk is constantly cluttered with MOH and homemade charts, notebooks, my teacher’s workbook, my water bottle, chalk, my duster, and this week soap and glitter glue.

Daily Rounds
If I don’t have classes to teach I’ll stop by the Adventist Development Relief Agency (ADRA)’s satellite office and the Health Centre

ADRA/District Officer’s Office

Health Centre

Kana/kani/kania vahigalevu!
Fun Fact:
There was a debate among my co-teachers if kana in the Navosa (pronounced Navoha) dialect is kana, kani, or kania.
Teachers up here are from all over Fiji so getting the dialect down has been a challenge.

Sometimes the other teachers or my neighbors bring me food.

Time for Outreach!
I generally go on at least one out reach every week either to village youth groups, with the health centre to do health checks with a village in our district of care, or with ADRA for a workshop.

This week’s outreach was with the group Youth Champs 4 Mental Health from Suva to talk to the youth groups in the villages about mental health and suicide prevention.

Vatubalavo Village

Keiyasi Village

In order to encourage physical health and NCD prevention some of the teachers and I go on an evening stroll before sunset.

If we don’t go out for a walk, I do yoga on my front porch. Yes, people stare at me.

Dinner, Movie, Tea, then Sleep.
Some nights I’ll spend time with my neighbors, and on Friday and Saturday I’m out drinking grog with the other teachers integrating, but on weeknights I’m generally home and in bed by 10 PM.

Your Time Here is a Mandala

Yoga Jones: Do you know what a mandala is?
Piper Chapman: Um, those are those round Buddhist art things.
Yoga Jones: The Tibetan monks make then out of dark sand laid out into big beautiful designs. And when they’re done, after days or weeks of work, they wipe it all away.
Piper Chapman: Wow, that’s, that’s a lot.
Yoga Jones: Try to look at your experience here as a mandala, Chapman. Work hard to make something as meaningful and beautiful as you can. And when your done, pack it in and know it was all temporary.

This conversation from Orange is the New Black is one of my favorites. It also is how I sometimes feel about Peace Corps service. I have no desire to wipe my experience away, but I think it’s valid to “Work hard to make something as meaningful and beautiful as you can.” Because sometimes in the midst of projects or day to day life you think this small thing is the end of the world or this day/week/month/2 years will never end, but what I have to remember is that “… when your done, pack it in and know it was all temporary.”

Challenges of Teaching in Secondary School

It’s week 10 of Term 1 at the secondary school I am placed at. I have been giving an exam based on the small amount I have been able to cover in my classes. I haven’t covered much information because:

• Usually, at least one of my classes if not all of my classes get canceled at least once a month due to various reasons, some of them including:
  • It’s too hot
  • It’s raining
  • We have to cancel afternoon classes to prepare for the prefect induction (this one made me feel like I was at Hogwarts)
  • The year whatever students have to help clean up the school compound. (This one actually happened this week when I was supposed to give my exam to the form 5 students.)
• Because my classes are in a weird time slot, best-case scenario my classes run once a week for all the years I have to teach.
• Traditionally, the Family Life Education class that I teach has been part of a non-curricular program along with Religious Studies, Conversational Hindi, and Physical Education. Which is why it hasn’t been a big deal to just cancel these classes for whatever reason. However, now the Ministry of Education is changing this and made both Family Life and Physical Education part of the curricular classes both with a standardized end of year exam from the Ministry.
  • Despite telling this to my principal over a month ago, he has just chosen to acknowledge this now, when there are only 3 more weeks left in the first term.
• My classes have been in a weird time slot from 3:30-4:30 after the curricular classes (subject that are traditionally tested on and marked such as: English, Maths, Science, Social Science, Agriculture, Commercial Studies, Fijian, etc.) are taught.
• There’s a language barrier between my students and me. Because I am in a very rural area, most students have a limited understanding of English, and the dialect in my region is very very different from the standard Fijian dialect I learned during Pre Service Training.

When my classes get canceled for the 3rd time in a row.

Those are some of the challenges I’ve been having with my school lately. Things will get better though. My school’s administration has finally acknowledged that my class has a standardized end of year exam for all forms 3-5, and they’re putting it within the curricular school schedule twice a week starting week 11. Better late than never, I guess.

I am now going through the curriculum provided by the ministry and worrying about all of the information I have to cover in the two terms left in the school year that my students will be tested on. I now have a deep understanding of why public school teachers in the states hate No Child Left Behind, Common Core, and whatever standardized testing they’re putting students through now. It kills the joy of teaching; it takes away the power we have to impart knowledge and wisdom on students, and it removes our ability to teach what we think is important what we feel the students need to and deserve to learn. Because we are afraid of our students failing a test written by people who don’t know our students, and that reflecting poorly on our school and us. We are now having to put more time into night and afternoon classes, block schedules, and homework timetables which puts students and teachers alike in a state of stress that is not conducive to learning, but is great for burning everybody out early on. Especially when your school has to change the schedule on a weekly or monthly basis. Administrations, Ministries, and Departments of Education shouldn’t just say that there’s one size that fits all for education, some students need to be caught up, others need to be pushed beyond what is asked of them, and sometimes teachers want to teach what interests them and what they believe the students need to know.

To summarize: When my classes are constantly cancelled I get annoyed that they’re not being taken seriously by my school, but at least I can point to that and say, this is why students didn’t do well on their end of year exam. When my classes are finally taken seriously I’m thrilled that I will be able to cover more information and my classes won’t constantly be canceled, but worry about how well my students will do on the end of year exam and if I will be able to cover everything that the Ministry has in their curriculum. So there you go, challenges all around.

A Beginner’s Guide The Fiji School System

When I first came to my secondary school I was all kinds of confused about which way was up, why things are done in this way and that, why are we praying every morning and at noon, what the difference between form 401 and 402 and where does that put year 10 A, and what are prefects and what do they do? Other than show the first years to their dormitory and how to get past the portrait of the fat lady or whatever secret passage they have in order to get into their house dormitory.

I’m just now starting to figure some of these things out, and I’ll be thrilled if by the end of my two-year service I can explain my secondary school as well as the Fijian school system effectively.

Note: this is mostly based on my observations and conversations I’ve had with school staff and administration. If your secondary school in Fiji is different please tell me how so and what they do differently.

Years and Forms

A vs. B or 01 vs 02

Students that are in Form 301 aka Year/Class 9 A are students that, in my school, take iTaukei (Fijian) language classes instead of Agriculture.

Students that are in Form 301 aka Year/Class 9 B are students that, in my school, take Agriculture classes instead of iTaukei.

Fijian School                                                        American School

Form 301/2 aka Year/Class 9 A/B                       Freshmen in High school

Form 401/2 aka Year/Class 10 A/B                     Sophomore in High school

Form 501/2 aka Year/Class 11 A/B                     Junior in High school

Form 601/2 aka Year/Class 12 A/B                     Senior in High school

Form 7 aka Year/Class 12                                   Super Senior

For the most part this is similar to American schools, except for the form 7, which is required if they want to attend university. Just kidding, I just asked another teacher for clarification, and am now even more confused.

Apparently:

One can repeat form 3 multiple times or one can drop out and stay in the village for the rest of one’s life if one does not want to continue with schooling (theoretically, I’m not sure what the “it’s ok to drop out year” is, but I think there technically is one. It was hard to get a straight answer about how many times one can repeat.)

One can repeat form 4, 5, 6, and 7 once each if one doesn’t pass one’s final marks (grades) or exams. If one doesn’t pass form 4 the second time around then they are sent to the vocational school to learn about catering and tailoring (hospitality services) or carpentry and jewelry (C&J). If one wants to attend university, they must complete Curricular or Vocational School until form 7.

Most of the students in my school will likely remain in the village and work as farmers or housewives. Some might go into the hospitality or service industry, and we have very few students who attend University that will ultimately end up in white-collar jobs, but the number is rising.

Student Council

The student council is comprised of (in ascending hierarchical order) Form Captains, Assistant Form Captains, Prefects, Deputy Head Girl/Boy, and Head Girl/Boy

For every class (A and B) there is a Form Capitan and Assistant Form Captain. Their role is:

• Make sure classroom duties are done
  • Classroom duties include:
    • Sweeping the floor
    • Disposing of rubbish (trash)
    • Cleaning the rafters (window pains)
    • Maintaining the outside of classroom garden/flower space

• Keep classes quit when teachers aren’t in the classroom
• Maintain some sense of order in the classroom
• Generally take responsibility of leading the form
• Lead morning devotional
• Pass out RSL (carrier) and bus tickets that take students to and from the village to school and vice versa
  • Sometimes, this is in the event that the form teacher (think homeroom teacher) is lazy. Generally the form teacher or assistant form teacher is responsible for this.

I’m not 100% clear what Prefects do, I’ve tried asking people, but I haven’t gotten a straight answer. From my observation I believe they are and do these things:

• They are students in forms 5, 6, and 7
  • Students in lower forms 3 and 4 do not have prefects
  • There are two prefects in each class (A and B), one boy and one girl.
• Assist teachers with order and discipline
• Help lower forms 3 and 4 with order and duty time
• Assist lower form captains with their roles and responsibilities
• Perform Flag Raising
• Lead/Run Afternoon Assembly
• In my school they do not show first years to the dormitories and teach them how to get through the magical portal into their house dormitories within Hogwarts.

The Head Girl and Boy and the Deputy Head Boy and Girl

• Form 7 students
• In charge of the prefects and form captains
• Have the same responsibilities as the prefects

Breakdown of the School Schedule

8-8:30 AM- Form Time

• Morning Duties
  • Students are expected to clean the classroom and special areas (Library, Office, Staff Bure, Washrooms, Home Ec Room, etc.)
• Flag Raising
  • In the US we have the morning Pledge of Allegiance, in Fiji we all stand while somebody beats the lali as the flag is raised on the daily.
• Devotional
  • Students read a passage from the bible, sing a hymn, and then lead a prayer.
  • I know what you’re thinking, and yes. There isn’t really separation between church and state in Fiji. Most of the schools are funded by some religious entity (mostly Methodist), and the government funds very few schools in the country. Our school has a talatala (reverend) who is our school chaplain and the guidance counselor.
• Staff announcements

8:30 AM-10:30 AM- Morning Classes

10:30-10:45 AM- Recess/Tea Time

• On Thursdays the staff contribute to a morning tea held in the home ec room. Generally I’ll try to bring something either from the states/New Mexico. I made guacamole and the teachers loved it.

10:45-12:45 PM- More Classes

Noon- Prayer

• Either the form students will lead their classroom in a prayer or our talatala will lead the whole school in prayer over a sort of PA system.

12:45- 1:30 PM- Lunch

1:30-3:30 PM- Afternoon Classes

3:30-4:15 PM- Extra Afternoon Class

• This also includes school compound clean up and beautification meaning, students rake the grass that’s been cut, cut away overgrown plants with machetes, take the raked up grass and bush to be burned, pick up the rubbish, sweep and mop the footpaths, clean the washrooms, sometimes clean the outside and inside walls of the classrooms, and generally clean around the school compound.

4:15- 4:45 PM- Afternoon Form Time

• Afternoon duties, exactly the same as the morning ones
• Form teachers or captains distribute RSL and Bus Tickets
• All school assembly
  • Students line up according to which village they are going home to or if they stay in the hostel (dorms).
  • Lowering of the flag, assuming it hasn’t rained and been taken down earlier in the day.
  • Prefects and/or Head Girl/Boy give all school announcements.
• Dismiss Students

7-9 PM- Extra Night Classes for Form 6 and 7

Students stay in their form room the whole day while the teachers move from classroom to classroom. When we don’t have a class we either stay in the staff bure, library, computer lab, or go home to rest.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or general bitchiness please leave it in the comments section, and I will try to answer them in a follow-up post.

First Care Package at Site!

I got my first care package in Keiyasi! If you want me to get excited about something, send me care packages, letters, post cards, pictures, and I’ll record and post it for your amusement.

The care package was for my birthday, which was back in November, and included: Nutella, coffee, chocolate covered carmel corn, blueberry jam, and wild rice. Thank you so much Jane and Keith for sending this to me!

Aspiration Statement

I had to write the Fiji desk an aspiration statement explaining what I hope to get out of and do during my PC experience. I was very stiff and nervous about what I was saying. I figured this would be a good format to 1) explain to folks why I’m joining and what I hope to achieve, and 2) add some of what my inner monologue was saying while writing this. The italicized text was my thought process.

I am thrilled and excited to work as a Community Health Empowerment Facilitator in Fiji. Holy fucking shit I was invited to Fiji which is beautiful and I know nothing about it, and I’m from a land-locked mountain-desert region. It’s cool, I spent enough summers on lake Minnetonka to know what I’m doing… Right?

During my service, I want to work with youth, families, and professionals in Fiji to develop creative solutions to a variety of health problems that affect the people, community, and country. #healthpromotionbitches I hope to accomplish this by promoting healthy lifestyle choices; developing methods to improve water sanitation and hygiene practices ; educating about maternal, child, pre and post natal care; and creating better access to family planning, reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS education and prevention services. Really, I just want to talk about sexual health with people in any type of setting, but I really am happy to work in any filed I am placed in. I just hope you will see what my passions are during training and place me appropriately. I will adapt to this new culture by: building positive relationships with people at my site; behaving appropriately and respectfully; learning and understanding as much as I can about the culture and language; and observing how Fijians act and what they do. I understand that this can and will be a frustrating process, however, because I believe the rewards will ultimately outweigh the challenges I am willing and able to commit to do whatever it takes to adapt to this new culture. In the future, I would like to work in some type of global health or policy capacity, and I believe having the experience of directly working as a Community Health Empowerment Facilitator in Fiji will be invaluable as I continue developing professionally. Simply joining the Peace Corps has been a huge personal achievement, and after I serve for a full two years I can only imagine that I will achieve much more. Awe, that was kinda sweet and powerful. 

A:  Identify three professional attributes that you plan to use during your Peace Corps service and how these will help meet your aspirations and commitment to service.
Woo hoo! Thank you Chelanna (my boss at the Y), many undergraduate courses, and leadership development trainings, for making me do personality profiles and describe how that will help me with my career and future goals.
Flexible: Being flexible allows me to work outside of my comfort zone, and this will help me throughout my service. Especially, when I am: working on projects in subject areas that I am not entirely familiar with; adapting to a new culture; or accepting that a project won’t work out or needs to change. My go with the flow attitude will be very helpful while I serve in Fiji. I swear, I’ll chill out once I’m out there.
Risk-Taker: I like to take risks and try new things. I think that my ability, desire, and willingness to be creative, have new experiences, and sometimes fail in the process will be an excellent trait during my Peace Corps service. If I have an opportunity to go swimming with sharks, snorkeling, improving hygiene, kayaking, teaching fitness classes, surfing, or creating access to sexual/reproductive health resources I’ll take it and I’m up for it.
Socially Skilled: I can talk to just about anybody about any topic. I talk about sex, a lot. I have worked professionally with peers, 12-18 year olds, college-students, parents, and adult volunteers in a variety of capacities for the past five years, and I believe my social skills are what has made me effective at managing, working with, or simply connecting to large and small groups as well as individuals. Therefore, I know my social skills will help me connect and gain access to my host community. I’m chatty as fuck, try getting me to shut up, just try, I dare you.

B: Briefly identify two strategies for working effectively with host country  partners to meet expressed needs.
Needs Assessment: I believe that people who live in and are from a community or culture have the best idea of what their community needs and how best address these needs. I will work with people in my host community to learn what the true health issues and disparities are in order to create projects that will address the actual health needs of the Fijian people. Thanks undergrad for over-emphasizing the importance of a needs assessment as well as the UU church for over-emphasizing cultural humility/competence.
Youth, Family, and Community Engagement: I intend to build relationships with all different types of people in my host community in order to work effectively. Gaining access and having trusting and respectful relationships with community stakeholders and gatekeepers, and especially young people and women, will be key to creating, maintaining, and evaluating programs. #communityorganizingskillzbitches

C: Your strategy for adapting to a new culture with respect to your own cultural background.
I am confident that I will be able to adapt to a new culture while maintaining my own cultural identity. Which cultural identity are we talking about? Is it my being a female, young adult, American, New Mexican, white, queer, or is it something else? I have many components to my identity, and am able to adjust my behavior or hide information about myself to appropriately match or effectively work within the setting I’m in. I swear I’m not a sociopath; I’m just a bit manipulative… This does not mean I lose my sense of self, it just means that I am aware of which aspects of identity are most appropriate to show in certain situations and cultures. For example, I am a queer identifying woman, and while this is a large component to my personal identity, it is not something I find I have to address or announce, especially if I am in an environment where the people are not empathetic or supportive towards the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, or Queer community. I understand that some parts of my identity, such as being a young American female will be difficult if not impossible to not address. I will adapt and do my best to work within while challenging the cultural stereotypes people in Fiji have about women, young adults, and Americans. I’m a crazy feminist and want women to be treated equally and young adults to be taken seriously. Am I single-handedly going to make this happen? No. Am I going to try and prove people wrong that young adults and women are competent, skilled, and qualified professionals? You bet your ass I am.

D: The skills and knowledge you hope to gain during pre-service training to best serve your future community and project.
Uhhh… I don’t know. I’m not there yet, but I’m sure training will be helpful…?
While I’m sure all skills learned during training will be beneficial to my future service, there are some skills I am very interested in. First and foremost, I hope to gain skills in spoken and written Hindi and/or Fijian. These language skills will be invaluable to the work I hope to do and gain access to my host community. Remember my social skills? Yeah, they tend to work better if we can speak the same language. I am curious about the cultural customs, practices, norms, roles, and how to generally act right in my host country. I don’t want people to think I’m a hussy, a dumb-ass, or a shit-head. I look forward to developing my skill set in a new region of the world. I hope to develop new and innovative health promotion practices and strategies. And finally, I look forward to learning how to work and connect with people such as youth, women, and other at-risk populations because these are the groups that I have the greatest interest in working with.

E: How you think Peace Corps service will influence your personal and professional aspirations after your service ends?
What do you mean aspirations after service ends? I made it to this goal, now you’re telling me I have to set more goals?
I think Peace Corps service will have a positive influence on my long-term aspirations. After service, I think I want to work in global community health and education development or policy. I also intend on working towards a Masters Degree after my service. This counts as a personal aspiration right? I believe the experience I gain in Peace Corps will help me both personally and professionally in my future endeavors in policy, education, and humanitarian work. How? I don’t know, but I’m sure it will help. If I find that during my service my professional goals, personal interests, and lifetime aspirations change, then I will be happy that I joined the Peace Corps and am able to have the experiences that would change these things. So, you know, don’t hold me to any of this.

Peace Corps Application Timeline

So I began this arduous application process for the Peace Corps in the late summer/early fall of 2013. Here is my approximate timeline… 

2013
August 23- Emailed the local Peace Corps recruiter about meeting to discuss beginning the application process.
August 29- Met the local recruiter and discussed if PC would be right for me. Hey, guess what? It is! Then, I started my application later that day at work.
September 27- Receive all my letters of recommendation, which I would later have to have redone by my references. Thank you all for the positive recommendations by the way!
September 28- Submit all 10-15 typed pages of my application that only took me a month to complete. Filled out and submitted medical and health history forms into the Medical Application Portal (MAP).
October 1- 17- Government shutdown, my application is in limbo.
October 21- Official contact from my recruiter welcoming me to the application process!
October 23- Received an email from my recruiter to schedule an in-person interview. Obviously, I waited the obligatory three days to return his email so I didn’t seem desperate :p
October 28- Interview day! I love talking to people, and I especially love telling people how much of a sexual health education badass I am. So clearly I kicked ass and took names. I was un-officially nominated for an English teaching position in West Africa to depart June 2014.
November 14- I receive the official nomination email from my recruiter, but he didn’t include an relevant information about my nomination in this email (this will come into play later on). However, he did include information about the medical and legal pre-clearance process. I also receive an email from the MAP requesting information regarding my health history.
November 15-21- Fight with the MAP; begin making appointments to have former health care professionals fill out paperwork; and receive fingerprinting/background check paperwork.
November 25- Complete fingerprint chart and FedEx all Legal Kit information.
December 3– Legal kit received.
December 9- All medical paperwork and information received.
December 14- College graduation! Now I have a B.S.Ed in Community Health Education! AKA a piece of paper that says I can officially do the work I’ve been doing for the last five years.
December 28- Travel down to Nicaragua for the most insane, miserable, and wonderful shit show of an experience.

So after graduating and returning from my Central American Adventure I started to go a little crazy about my application.

2014
January 17- Return from my miserable, insane, wonderful shit show of an experience in Nicaragua.
February 4- The crazies start manifesting and I start to bother various PC offices. I mean, I’m supposed to leave in June, shouldn’t I have heard something like anything by now?
February 12- Oh boy! The Office of Medical Services sent me a message through MAP! Anddd they’re telling me to fuck off because my application isn’t a priority because I’m not departing very soon.
Wait, what do they mean I’m not a priority because I’m not supposed to depart very soon? I’m supposed to leave in June, right? So I call my recruiter and ask him about my nomination. He tells me that he nominated me for a Health program (no location given) to depart in September 2014. Ok… I like that I’ll be working in my field, but I’m pretty bummed that my departure was pushed back by three months. Suck it up and remember, weird procedural hiccups like this are not uncommon phenomenons when working with the Peace Corps.
March 18 &19- Harass the Office of Medical Services under the guise of asking if they need any additional information from me. Turns out they do! “I am in the process of reviewing your file and have added a new task for you. Please submit a mental health personal statement regrading your history of anxiety.” That’s not what I wanted at all! That’s like the opposite of what I wanted! *sigh*
Move on, and write and submit my mental health personal statement by the next day.
March 25- Medical Pre-Clearance! Woo hoo! This has been causing me more anxiety than I told you I have in my personal statement! Shhh… I didn’t say that.
March 31 and April 1- Contact the Placement’s Legal Desk in regards to writing another personal statement. This time because I was arrested and pled guilty to a DWI in 2011. Begin and complete the drug and alcohol questionnaire and personal statement and submit it back to the Placement Office.
April 2- Legal Pre-Clearance! Woo Hoo Peace Corps is empathetic to youthful fuck-ups!
April 10- The Health Desk from the Placement and Assessment office emailed me requesting additional information! They want an official transcript that says I graduated from college, an updated copy of my resume, updated contact information in my application portal, and to fill out the “attached Skilled Placement Questionnaire.” Well… That’s all fine and good, but you see they forgot to attach the questionnaire so I sent them an email back to the tune of: “I have updated all my contact information and uploaded an updated resume as well as a final official transcript to my personal attachments in the application portal. I will complete and submit the Placement Skill Questionnaire as soon as I receive it because I believe you forgot to attach said questionnaire to the email I received. Thank you for your time.”
April 11- Receive my placement questionnaire, fill out that noise, submit it, and email the health desk that I have now submitted all of the requested materials (because I’m a neurotic badass who just wants her official invitation and to end this application process like meow).
April 25- Peace Corps sent my invitation, and it went to my junk mailbox. Also, Dear gmail, this, this is NOT junk mail! This is the reason I have been incessantly checking you every minute of every day for the last several months.
April 27- Draft a very well worded email to the placement office about my timeline. However, I couldn’t find the email address so I check my application portal to see if it’s somewhere on there. I do a quick check on my application status and see the words “Invited” under where it used to say “Legally Pre-Cleared.” WHAT THE FUCK?! I HAVEN’T GOTTEN AN INVITATION EMAIL YET! WHAT DO YOU MEAN I’VE BEEN INVITED?! Do a quick freak out, call my friend Charlie to share the preliminary news as well as my confusion. Off the phone, I suddenly realize that I should check my junk mail (duh), and there, buried under Victoria’s Secret, Groupon, Amazon, and other junk mail was an email with the subject line “Invitation!”
It said,

“Dear Elizabeth,

Congratulations! It is with great pleasure that we invite you to begin training in Fiji for Peace Corps service. You will be joining thousands of Americans who are building stronger communities around the world. This call to action gives you the opportunity to learn new skills and to find the best in yourself.”

Fiji? FIJI?! MOTHER FUCKING FIJI?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?! I knew that was a possibility, but the probability seemed so unlikely that I didn’t even bother thinking that I would be invited to serve there. I read through my volunteer job description. I will be a Community Health Empowerment Facilitator aka Mighty Health Empower Ranger (I call the Black one!) and will depart in early September 2014.

I know this is just the beginning to this adventure, and I look forward to seeing where it takes me. Please enjoy future posts and antics about the pre-departure, staging, training, and volunteer process.

Moce and fir milegaa,

Ellie