The Other Road

It does look increasingly like the Sierra Leone won't be up and running this year. I haven't heard any news from the Peace Corps and likely won't until the last possible minute. I know the Peace Corp is hopeful that they will be able to run the program on time but the news just seem worse and worse. It is my continued hope that I will be in Sierra Leone in June but I have been considering alternative assignments. 

My alternative choices include Botswana, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania, The Gambia, Uganda and Zambia. I am also looking at some non-teaching postings, though I suspect that classroom teaching experience is my most valuable skill. I wonder if part of the reason  am so enamored with Sierra Leone is because the PC picked it for me. The thought of making my own choice and then living with it is much more intimidating than being assigned a country.  

I am mostly leaning towards Malawi, Tanzania, Swaziland, or Zambia I think. Tanzania especially seems like a good option. The accounts I have read seem very much like Sierra Leone. It is considered one of the "hardcore" posting, mostly without running water, electricity, and sometimes paved roads but the PC staff seems great and the people of Tanzania seem warm and welcoming. 

Most of my opinions are based on PCVs' blogs, so I do worry that I just happened to run across some awesome blogs and that I should be taking more into account. I suppose I will cross that river when I get to it! It's frustrating to know that I won't get an official invite for months, and won't depart for months after that (if I make it through medical clearance).  

The 4am Decision

So my application was submitted. I scheduled my interview for August 25th, 2015 and I was obsessively preparing for it.  I tried reading everything I could find on the interview process, but I was among the first applicants to go through the new interview. So this is how it went:

On August 4th, not two weeks after submitting my application, I received a response from the Peace Corps. It said they had reviewed my qualifications (master's degree, one year teaching abroad, TEFL) and my preferences (working with youth in Africa) and that I had been placed under consideration for an Education Assignment in Sierra Leone. The email included a link about the Ebola situation in West Africa, but no other real information.

On August 14th I received an email requesting that I choose an interview time. I selected August 25th but this all seemed very sudden. I was still expecting this to be like the older, longer process and considering that I didn't plan to leave before 2016 I though this was all moving very quickly.

Turned out that it was.

I started my interview with the placement officer in charge of my application at 11pm Seoul time after a long day of work. My interviewer was great. He was funny and interesting and put me at ease as we went through the pre-scripted interview questions (most of which can be found HERE). About 45 minutes into the interview we both realized that something was wrong. I was talking about my plans to teach in Shanghai during the year before my Peace Corps service in 2016. He was interviewing me for a position that departed in June, 2015. There were still a few kinks left in the new system. The interview came to a halt. He told me I was a very competitive applicant, that he really wanted me involved in this project in Sierra Leone, and asked me to consider changing my plans if I could. We agreed to speak in a week.

A week later I had packed up my life in South Korea, boarded a plane, and arrived back in my hometown in Florida. I woke up at 4am the day after I arrived and emailed the Peace Corps. I would leave a year early for the opportunity to fulfill this childhood dream.

I went ahead and finished my interview. I felt pretty confident about it, though I can't continue in the process until I have received the official invitation. I have become very attached to the idea of Sierra Leone though, and there is no clear evidence that the program will be up and running any time soon. News about the Ebola outbreak only seems to get worse, with no clear end in sight. In the mean time I will hope, and wait, and prepare as best I can.