news! BIG news!!

ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod!  i'm jumping out of my skin!

i got a call from the placement specialist just now!  holy cow!  wow!  ohmygod!  so much information, so much excitement.

ok, i now have my regular placement contact, but that is the least of the news:  i am "qualified" for service, which means that i am being given a placement and, pending medical clearance, WILL BE GIVEN AN INVITATION!!

a mix of news, but as far as i'm concerned, it's all good in the long run.  i will be teaching math, and i will almost certainly be in sub-saharan africa.  (latin america is mostly only agricultural, business and health, while math and science education is almost entirely in africa.)  there are no math/science placements going out in the jan-mar timeframe, so my timing is being adjusted again – now june or later.  but the good news that comes with that is that i will know details – more-or-less exact timing and placement -- in october some time.  so i will be able to sell the house in a more reasonable fashion and get everything done as i need to.  whew, what a relief!

so i have legal and medical clearances left to get.  the legal should only be something concerning the mortgage, which i haven't gotten likely because of the email mix-up.  and i don't know for sure whether medical has asked for any further info, also because of the email mix-up.  i'll be getting contact info later today and will follow up with both at that time.

gosh, it seems like there was more.  but wow, that's quite a lot already!  i had been thinking lately about all the peace corps applicants' blogs i've been reading where they are having so much trouble being patient with the process.  perhaps i am lucky, or just used to the slow way things move here at work (because we know for *sure* it isn't any kind of innate ability for patience!), but i guess i took all the advice to heart and settled myself on everything taking a long time.  i haven't felt like things are taking any longer than promised (which is to say, the regular government pace).  guess my expectations are low enough.  but that means that whenever i do hear anything, it is a lovely surprise and seems sooner than expected.  i submitted my application at the end of january, so it's not like the process has been faster than normal.  i just haven't felt forgotten the way so many others do.  maybe that's also a difference between being 20 years old and 40-something.

anyhow, now it occurs to me that this is the big news everyone is waiting and hoping for, and i have it already!  it's a little backwards because normally medical clearance comes first, but i'm sure that will work out.  and with this much time until i go, there's plenty of time for any follow up they may want.

OH, I'M SO EXCITED!!