Application Status Update...Officially Invited to Ghana

I got an application status update on the Peace Corps website this morning. I have now officially been invited to Ghana.

Accepted My Invitation to Ghana

Instead of waiting until after the holiday I called my Placement Officer and accepted my invitation to Ghana. It was a bad day at work and she threw me for a loop when she started asking questions to make sure I read over all the materials that were sent to me. Now it's time for more paperwork to be done for the Peace Corps. The paperwork never ends...

Invitation to the Peace Corps...For the 2nd Time

As I was leaving for work today the Fed-Ex delivery person showed up with my new invitation for the Peace Corps. Here is the information regarding my invite:

Country: Ghana
Program: Small Enterprise Development
Job Title: Business Advisor
Dates of Service: Nov. 30, 2006 - Nov. 28, 2008
Orientation Dates: Sept. 19-21, 2006
Pre-Service Training: Sept. 22, 2006 - Nov. 30, 2006 (In Techiman)

I have 10 business days to respond to my placement officer to let her know if I will be accepting the invitation or not.

Peace Corps is cheap. Instead of sending me the nice folders, CD (country info guide), handbook and packets like they did last time for East Timor, they just sent me the necessary paperwork. It would have been nice to get that welcoming packet again.

I'm most likely going to accept my invite in a couple of days, but I just want to read through everything before I make my final decision. It's weird how I went from being invited to the newest Peace Corps program in East Timor to now being invited to the first country that the Peace Corps ever sent volunteers to.

Application Status Update...2nd Invite is in the mail

FINALLY!!!

As far as I know the invite is for a non-Franophone west African country. It is most likely Ghana, and if it isn't I will be in for a really big surprise...

MORE CHOICES...West Africa or East Africa

I got another email from my new placement officer yesterday giving me yet another option in choosing my program for the Peace Corps. She asked if I had fairly decent IT skills. The East African program (most likely Kenya) would still be a business program, but it would mostly deal with computers or IT related projects. I replied back telling her that I had fairly decent computer skills, but not in some specific areas she asked about. At that point she replied back saying that the West Africa program (most likely Ghana) would be a better fit for me. Still waiting for my 2nd invite...

New Placement Officer

Since I decided to go with the West Africa program I was assigned another placement officer.

When will this all end?!?!?

West Africa Here I Come...Hopefully

After thinking it over for a good solid week I just emailed my placement officer my choice for reassignment. I decided to go with the business program in West Africa (most likely Ghana) departing in September of 2006.

I thought long and hard about this decision, but when it came down to deciding between a Eastern European country and a West African country my heart told me to go with Africa. I'm sure I would have great experiences in both regions, but I felt like I needed to truly get away and go to the most remote option available to get the true "total" Peace Corps experience. Now I guess all I have left to do is wait for my 2nd invite.

New Assignment Choices

I got a call from my Placement Officer letting me know that he had some new program choices in mind for me since the East Timor group was cancelled. Here are the program choices I was given:


Caribbean - Late July (Most likely Jamaica)
Community Development

Central Asia - 8/20/2006 (Either Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan)
Teaching English

Eastern Europe - 8/4/2006 (Most likely Bulgaria)
Business Advising

West Africa - 9/18/2006 (Most likely Ghana)
Business Advising


As of now I am leaning towards Bulgaria, but I am deciding between Ghana and Bulgaria. I do not want to teach English so I don't want to go Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan. The Community Development program in the Caribbean is leaving too soon. I wanted to have more time to prepare. And I wanted to go into the business program to begin with so that leaves Ghana and Bulgaria. Bulgaria seems like a better choice for me at this point because it gives me the opportunity to learn a new language. The program in Ghana was the first country that Peace Corps sent volunteers to, which started in 1961. The Bulgaria program has been around since the early 1990's. Both of these countries have solid programs and it is highly unlikely that whatever happened in East Timor will not happen in either of the two places.

I am saying Bulgaria right now, but I am going to think it over this weekend. I'm sure that going to either one of the countries is going to be a great experience, but I want to go where I was "meant" to go. Let's pray that I make the right choice over the weekend.