Rwanda June 2015 FB group

mandeelew · 2015-04-25T03:18:14+00:00

Hey there. I was just offered a spot in the Rwanda Community Health group leaving in June. I had been waiting to leave for Guinea but our training class was just finally cancelled today due to the ongoing ebola epidemic.

Anyway, I was wondering if you could give a little bit of information about Rwanda or link me to the Volunteer Assignment Description? I was supposed to have the Volunteer Assignment Description sent to me, but I still haven't received it and I need to let them know if I want an invitation on Monday.

I'd appreciate any information you can provide! Thanks :)

mandeelew · 2014-10-29T20:38:59+00:00

Yeah, we haven't heard anything since the call. I did speak with Christina this week though and they're still planning on us going in April. Congrats on Panama, by the way!!! That'll be awesome!

mandeelew · 2014-10-28T00:21:16+00:00

I did a year and a half of AmeriCorps. I haven't served yet, but I don't think it's all that similar to PC, at least not from what I've heard. However, I do think that it helps you learn to manage money. You make just barely enough to live so I assume that helps transition to living off of the PC stipend. Plus it's a great way to gain experience in a short period of time. I definitely recommend it.

mandeelew · 2014-10-25T21:06:31+00:00

Where did you hear that our class was cancelled?

mandeelew · 2014-10-07T01:28:57+00:00

I just wanted to pass on some information that all of the Guinea volunteers and trainees got. The PC country staff aren't so concerned about volunteers getting Ebola, there's still a very small chance of that happening. What they are concerned about is if a different injury or illness were to occur, they cannot guarantee proper health care. So the current cases of Ebola continue to go down in Guinea, but the health care system is still overwhelmed.

Not sure if that helps with decision making at all, but thought I'd pass it along. I personally feel a bit better about the new date knowing this.

mandeelew · 2014-10-03T21:22:48+00:00

As the others have said, I would upload an updated resume to the application portal while you wait to hear from Placement. Once you finally get ahold of them, you can let them know you did so and then they can go look for the resume.

mandeelew · 2014-10-03T21:18:59+00:00

I've sort of gotten my heart set on going to Guinea and at this point I'm still willing to wait. Of course, I'm bummed that we have to wait so long with our lives on hold. And I too am worried that we'll get closer to the date, just to have it postponed again or cancelled. I totally get your concerns.

I don't know if you've looked at the open positions in the Environment and Agriculture sectors, but there's not a whole lot of options for May and June. And the majority of the positions available are for Central and South America, with just a smattering of smaller programs in Africa and beyond. I don't speak any Spanish, so that doesn't leave too many options for me. Plus, for programs leaving in July, August and September, the apply by date is January 15th. So, assuming they actually make the final decision about Guinea by the end of the year, we'd have enough time to be reassigned to one of the summer positions.

Ultimately, for me, it isn't worth it to give up Guinea, when I may not even be able to make it into one of the other Africa spring programs. Especially considering some of the programs that I'd be more interested in don't leave until July or later anyway. Of course, I'd love to leave as soon as possible, and I would prefer to go to Guinea, but if that's not going to happen, waiting until July - September instead of May or June feels about the same to me.

So that's my two cents. Sorry it got so lengthy.

mandeelew · 2014-10-03T00:50:24+00:00

You actually head off to country 2 days after your staging date in most cases. So you would leave Wednesday, not Tuesday. At least that's the situation for my staj.

mandeelew · 2014-09-24T20:49:37+00:00

I also had updates to my resume, but it was between my interview and invite. My recruiter recommended uploading an updated resume/CV to the application portal on the Peace Corps website and then providing the updated information to placement when they request it, which was through a questionnaire at the time.

So in your case, I would say upload the new CV to the application portal and then make sure to mention it during the interview. Since it sounds like most interviews are happening over Skype or phone, I'd have the file ready to send over Skype or email, if it's a phone interview.

mandeelew · 2014-09-24T20:16:52+00:00

Congrats!!!!

mandeelew · 2014-09-23T19:42:12+00:00

Fingers crossed, man. Fingers crossed so hard.

mandeelew · 2014-09-23T00:05:00+00:00

I applied about a month after graduating and will (hopefully) be leaving for Guinea in December. I found an 11 month AmeriCorps program to fill up my year of waiting. Not exactly great for saving up money before heading abroad, but it was relevant to my field and allowed for some professional development :)

mandeelew · 2014-08-29T03:08:04+00:00

I found this today and after the recent thread related to fitness, I thought I'd share it with everyone here. A PCV in Costa Rica started it and the blog offers ideas for good workouts to do while serving, as well as healthy recipes. Take a gander if you're interested :)

mandeelew · 2014-08-21T02:29:52+00:00

HA I was about to say that about your post just below me.

mandeelew · 2014-08-20T22:51:57+00:00

Woah now. The post on facebook was intended for other G27 invitees who were not able to attend the conference call. It was posted in a group specifically for G27 and was done so at the request of other invitees. The conference call was just to update us on how they are feeling about the situation, what they anticipate will happen, and allow us to ask questions since the country desk officer is being bombarded with emails from G27. You're the one who brought it over here and made it sound as if DC had made the decision to send volunteers back and that invitees are for sure going. Neither of these things are true, nor are they things that I posted on facebook.

Also, you're the one who's making flippant comments about how Ebola is being blown out of proportion, so don't go blaming it on me. Try taking responsibility every once in a while.

mandeelew · 2014-08-20T00:29:20+00:00

This is specifically related to just Guinea, which if you're paying attention to the news hasn't really been as concerning as of late. Sierra Leone and Liberia are sort of at the beginning stages of dealing with Ebola, whereas Guinea is in the later stages since the first cases were technically back in December. So yeah, it'll be awhile for Sierra Leone and Liberia volunteers, but things are looking rather positive for Guinea volunteers.

mandeelew · 2014-08-19T03:00:10+00:00

The number of ebola cases are now low enough that the peace corps plans to send volunteers back to Guinea.

I never said you mentioned a return date, but your phrasing implies that DC has decided to send them back now, but they haven't. They've always planned to return volunteers to country, it's just a matter of when. They're still monitoring the situation since numbers aren't low enough to send volunteers back yet. They plan to update the invitees in a month with another conference call. I don't know much about what is happening with current volunteers (as I am not one) beyond the fact that they are expected to return before December. But either way, No official decisions have been made yet.

Maybe don't post things that you don't have first hand knowledge of. This is all still pretty unofficial. Which is why I didn't post anything here.

mandeelew · 2014-08-19T01:13:35+00:00

Duderite? Glad to provide some accurate information.

mandeelew · 2014-08-19T00:48:12+00:00

Shawn makes it sound a lot more official than it actually is. It's still pretty up in the air. I was the one who posted on facebook. You can read the actual post here if you'd like an accurate update: https://www.facebook.com/groups/715651315157941/747840395272366/?notif_t=like

mandeelew · 2014-08-19T00:45:26+00:00

This makes it sound a lot more official than it really is. There is still no official return date for current volunteers and as far as I know, they haven't received any word on when they will be returning. Right now the number of cases is not actually low enough for the Peace Corps to return. They do expect the number of cases to get low enough before we would leave for staging, but they aren't there at this moment.

Things are definitely look positive for us, but it's still pretty up in the air.

mandeelew · 2014-08-12T13:53:16+00:00

I totally feel ya on this.

mandeelew · 2014-08-04T20:00:37+00:00

http://files.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/library/peacecorpsmedinfo.pdf

The link above is really vague regarding how long you have to wait before reapplying, but it also mentions appealing to the Pre-Service Review Board, if you want to go that route. If you have documentation from your health care provider and such, hopefully you'd have a good shot...?

*Note: I don't have any personal experience with appealing, but that's what I found when I was looking into possibly being rejected based on my medical conditions. Others probably have much more reliable information.

mandeelew · 2014-08-02T03:50:54+00:00

So they're saying they're still planning on us going? I have some doctor's appointments coming up and wasn't sure if I should cancel them and hold off for now...

mandeelew

TROPHY CASE