Timeline

So I figured it might be useful to give a timeline of my Peace Corps application process, that way if anyone is thinking about applying they can see how long it took. Also it’ll just bring everyone up to date on my Peace Corps experiences. I’m not going to try and go back and get exact dates, so months will have to be good enough.

October 2011 – Submitted all of my application materials.

Early November 2011 – Interviewed with recruiter #1, informed that all nominations were full at that time but that I would be considered for assignments when the next batch came up.

December 2011 – First recruiter got a promotion and would no longer be my recruiter.

January 2012 – Got in touch with my new recruiter, informed that there were no open nominations that I was qualified but that I would be considered with the next batch.

Over the next couple of months I checked in with my recruiter every 4-6 weeks or so with no real news.

May 2012 – Received an email telling me that I would have a new contact person in the Peace Corps and emailed about how to speed up the process.

June 2012 – Finally got a nomination from a third recruiter (fourth Peace Corps contact person). Received a nomination for January 2013 to do community development work in a francophone Sub-Saharan African country.

Late August/Early September 2012 – Medically pre-cleared, send off some extra documents to the placement office.

November 2012 – After periodically checking in, receive the news that the program I was nominated for has been cancelled. The Peace Corps had been hopeful to re-open their program in Mali, but due to a poor security situation the re-opening had been delayed. After this my delay was going to be delayed until probably late spring/early summer as they had to find a new program for me.

January 2013 – Informed that a program had  been found, and that I would be invited to go to Benin to serve as an English teacher leaving June 25th.

Late April 2013- Submit all of my medical forms and got final medical clearance.

That pretty much brings everything up to date. I left out a lot of smaller stuff too, but that gives a general gist of how I got here.