Counterpart Meeting and Swear-in Ceremony Speech

 Howdy!

CED - TICO 26

Sorry I didn't post an entry in the last two weeks. It has been a busy month due to the holidays coming up. Things somewhat slowdown here in Costa Rica in the Christmas month of December, many things were set up (meetings, projects, last-minute work) for the last few weeks of November. But alas I will finally talk about our swear-in ceremony.


After knowing were we would serve for the next two years. We had one more week to go. We would meet our counterpart (our point of contact for knowing our community, leaders and potential projects) from our site assignment for the first time and hold sessions on several subjects. The place we all met was in the original place were we came in when we first arrived in Costa Rica, "The Retreat". It was quite exciting because no one knew what to expect. These sessions were extremely helpful because Peace Corps talks specifically of the many questions other future volunteers have: "How much will be my allowance?", "How much do I pay my host family?", "What happens if...?". Many of your questions are answered in these training sessions. We started on a Tuesday and left the retreat on an early Friday morning, we then stayed for a weekend with our counterpart to see were we would live, know community leaders and important things we needed to know about before coming permanently, we returned on Sunday and had one more day of Spanish classes on Monday. The next day the Swear-in Ceremony would be at the Ambassadors Residency in San José, Costa Rica.

TICO 26

We woke up first thing in the morning and we were all ready in San Isidro de Heredia ready to be picked up by PC to be taken to the ceremony. Something I hadn't mentioned is that I was given the honor by my fellow PCV's of giving the Swearing-in Speech. There were two speeches that would be given, one by YD and one by CED. For time purposes we decided to make our speech together.It was a live streamed through the internet so our family and friends could see it on the web. I won't say much of the event itself. I will let future PCV's experience it for themselves. I leave you with the speech given in the ceremony:

Swear-in Speech

Discurso para el Día de Juramentación

        Señor Gonzalo Gallegos, Encargado de Negocios de la Embajada de los Estados Unidos de América, Señor Mario Fung, Asesor Nacional del Departamento de Orientación del Ministerio de Educación Pública, Señora Ana Lourdes Golcha Directora Ejecutiva del Programa Junior Achievement, Señora Carol Barrick, Directora del Cuerpo de Paz Costa Rica, invitados especiales, funcionarios de la Embajada de los Estados Unidos y del Cuerpo de Paz, queridas familias anfitrionas y aspirantes de TICO 26.  
Es un honor estar frente a ustedes hoy en esta ceremonia donde  en pocos minutos, los 30 voluntarios aquí presentes tendremos el honor de dejar de ser aspirantes y llamarnos voluntarios en una de las mejores organizaciones voluntarias del mundo – el Cuerpo de Paz de los Estados Unidos de América – con el privilegio de dar 2 a!os de nuestro servicio en el gran país de  Costa Rica.

Han sido exactamente 89 días desde que nos conocimos. Hemos reído, aprendido, fallado, batallado, entre muchas cosas. Pero hemos llegado a estar aquí por el gran esfuerzo y motivación que nos dimos entre nosotros y que nos dieron nuestros facilitadores. 89 días de entrenamiento intenso donde nos levantamos temprano y dormíamos tarde, donde éramos desconocidos y nos convertimos en una familia. 

Queremos agradecer a todos los que nos entrenaron, sabemos que su esfuerzo fue igual o mayor al que 
nosotros hicimos. Se levantaron temprano, llegaron primero que nosotros, nos entrenaron y finalmente se quedaron planeando nuestro siguiente entrenamiento. Un trabajo largo, difícil y continuo. Gracias por todo el amor y esfuerzo que le pusieron ha nuestros entrenamientos. Queremos agradecer Carol, Maru, Carolina, Natalia, Don Luis, Vinyela, nuestros facilitadores de español y todo el equipo de Cuerpo de Paz que merecen mención pero si los mencionamos a todos nos quedamos sin tiempo de hacer el discurso. Queremos también agradecer a nuestras familias anfitrionas sin su amor, cariño y apoyo no hubiéramos podido llenar el gran vacío que dejamos con nuestras familias en Estados Unidos.Finalmente un ultimo agradecimiento a nuestras familias y amigos que están en casa viéndonos en este momento, gracias por su apoyo y comprensión en nuestra decisión de servir en el Cuerpo de Paz.
Estamos comprometidos a representar a nuestro gran País, a Cuerpo de Paz y Costa Rica.

Queridos Voluntarios:             

Se que va ver  momentos buenos como malos, apartir de mañana estaremos en nuestro sitio  731 días. Por lo mismo queremos pedirles que cuando tengan un momento de pensar, escriban en un papelito por que decidieron unirse al Cuerpo de Paz y guardenlo. Cuando estén en sitio y se sientan solos y sin motivación, lean ese papelito y verán que todo tendrá sentido de nuevo. Cuando vayan a su sitio serán los 3 meses mas difíciles y por lo mismo les dejamos esta frase de motivación:

“Empieza haciendo lo necesario, después lo posible, y de repente te encontrarás haciendo lo imposible.” 
– San Francisco de Asís 

Viva Costa Rica, Viva el Cuerpo de Paz y que VIVA TICO 26! Pura Vida! Gracias.

At the end of the event, our country director took us to her private residence and made a luncheon for us. That was something were told had never been done by any country director in Costa Rica (She just started working in Costa Rica, when we first arrived in country; we were her first batch of volunteers). Which we as Peace Corps Volunteers really appreciated. We always like to be fed. Thanks Carol!

Delish 4

Before Swearing-in

Volunteers waiting to know where were going?!

Howdy!

I know I mentioned in my last post I would talk about my swear-in ceremony, but before that I want to talk about our site assignments. Before I start, I want to thank all PC staff for the time and effort on developing our whole PC training. People don't notice little things like the logistics and the hours of preparation to get things done. From little things as getting your name on an envelope with your allowance to transported from one place to another. It's takes a lot of effort, thus I want to thank everyone who made all of our training possible.

           

Waiting...but happy :)

 A few days before our last training sessions...

Enjoying the pool at country club

As training was in its ending period, every single volunteer was curious from the moment they stepped out of the plane in Costa Rica. "Where will we serve?". After almost three months of training, PC setup a day out in a country club. There volunteers, staff and friends gathered for a day of good food, sports, pool and most importantly knowing where will we be for the next two years. After much anticipation, a whole event evolved in the process of knowing. I won't talk about it, so other future PCV can experience it. But it was full of happiness and joy. I was very happy with my site: Barranca, Puntarenas. A very big site with a population of over 40,000 people and a high index of unemployment and high welfare enrollment. This meant that there was a lot of work to be done and was very happy and scared as the same time. After knowing where we would spend the next two years, we enjoyed our day and spend our free night out of site in a hostel with other volunteers from other regions in an event called VACtail. Basically a welcoming party from other volunteers for the newbies "us". Next post I will talk about the process of the Swear-in ceremony. Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

Chilling @ VACtail or as we renamed it...Backsnail

Pre-Service Training - Part III

Howdy!

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Today I will write about a  usual week in PST. Like I mentioned before PST consisted of this two activities:

Spanish Training - Gain and/or improve Spanish skills, culture and ethics in Costa Rican culture.
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
8 AM - 3:30 PM with an hour lunch.

Peace Corps Training - Theory, Methodologies, Ethics, Safety, Medical, etc...when move to site.
Tuesdays and Thursdays
8 AM - 4:30 PM (sometimes we would leave early or later) with an hour lunch.

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays

I would typically wake up at 6:45 AM and have breakfast and walk about a mile and meet my group in the "salon comunal" by 8:00 AM, it's a usually a classroom within the church's premises, were we would meet up with our Spanish facilitator and did several Spanish activities. For example: interviewing business and people, vocabulary, "dichos" (slang), day trips, etc. This part of training really gives you the confidence to go out there and talk to people. I honestly thought before coming to Peace Corps I would be shipped to a site and would start working on a project. But first part of the process is gaining the communities Trust. The day would end up at around 3:00-3:30 PM, my classmates and I would usually walk around our community, eat a snack; usually french fries and just talk about our day and our plans in the future. 

Tuesdays and Thursdays

San Isidro de Heredia Church

These days I would typically wake up at 5:30 AM, I would get ready, sometimes if I had time I would have some breakfast and be at the bus stop to San José at 6:15 AM. It would usually takes us around 1-1.5 hours to get to San José (its only 7 miles away, but would make around 20 stops or so). We would arrive at 7:30 AM or so and we get some coffee for a few minutes at a coffee/bakery shop called "La Colombiana" and walk to the FOV which is the Federación de Organizaciones Voluntarios, which is a place were volunteer organizations can use for activities such as teaching, presentations, events, etc. In other words, it's a bunch of classrooms. We would be there till 4:00-4:30 PM learning about safety, medical, methodologies, ethics, and many more subjects and leave back home. We would take a bus and one out of two times we would hang out in San Isidro de Heredia which is the community in the middle from were all the PCV resided. We would usually have some good food and drinks.

This went on for about three months, until we finally finished PST and went on to our Swear-In Ceremony. I will talk about that in my next post. Thank for reading.

Cheers!

Pre-Service Training - Part II

Howdy!

In my last post we were dropped off in our community, were we would live for the next 2 months 3 weeks of our lives.

San Rafael de Heredia Church

I was assigned to the Fonseca Family, they live in San Rafael de Heredia, I met my new family at the church. An interesting fact about Costa Rican towns is that the center of the town lays a church and a soccer field in front of it. San Rafael is about a 1.5 hour bus to San Jose. (Not because of distance, but because of the twenty plus stops it takes all around the area to pickup and drop people).

When I saw my host mom and sister for the first time I didn't know what to do. So I happily greeted them and kiss them on the cheek. Then we took a taxi to their house with my 150 pounds of luggage. We arrived and was showed around the house, and lastly to my room. I told them I would freshen up and unpack. Some hours passed and they told me to go down for lunch; I was super hungry from the long trip. We talked a bit about the living arrangements (what time they eat there meals, when do they do laundry, etc). I told them if it was ok to go upstairs and keep unpacking, I literally went to sleep around 4-5 PM and didn't wake up until the next day. I was extremely tired from everything, meaning an accumulation from to Staging until Now. It was the first time I could sleep and didn't have to worry about waking up to an activity first thing in the morning. It felt so good.

The schedule of PST goes as follows:

Spanish Training - Gain and/or improve Spanish skills, culture and ethics in Costa Rican culture.
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
8 AM - 3:30 PM with an hour lunch.

Peace Corps Training - Theory, Methodologies, Ethics, Safety, Medical, etc...when move to site.
Tuesdays and Thursdays
8 AM - 4:30 PM (sometimes we would leave early or later) with an hour lunch.

This schedule would be for the rest of training. Some days you will do activities in other places, Saturday training (rare), travel to other PCV's sites, Trips to San Jose, etc...Weekends are usually free, 9 times out of 10 you spend them with your host family and go places and enjoy the real Costa Rican way of life.

On my next post I will talk a bit more in depth about what I did while living in San Rafael and a bit about what to expect from training. Thanks for reading.

Cheers!

Pre-Service Training "PST" - Part I

Howdy!

Well after quite a rather exhausting process I was finally here in Costa Rica! Now came PST, during PC service you will start using many acronyms for everything; maybe for time saving reasons (I think) or just because it sounds cool.

I know most people like myself read the PC website or heard from other people about the three months of training. First and foremost your official title is: PC Trainee; until you swear in, then you are an official PCV. After I arrived at the airport we were taken in a bus accompanied with PC staff to a sort of retreat (I included just three photos, I want future volunteers to experience it for themselves). There we stayed for one week, they talked about many subjects some of them were: PC Costa Rica, safety, guidelines, culture, ethics and they will test your language skills; don't worry if you know very little Spanish, you will learn the language; many volunteers came with little to no Spanish and now they own it. Lastly your whole group will be given a name "Tico 26".

Tico: informal term for Costa Rican.
26: means the PC group.

For example: the group that arrives in March 2014 will be called Tico 27 and the group before us is called Tico 25.

There are three types of groups that serve in Costa Rica:

- CED (Community Economic Development) [My Group]
- YD (Youth Development)
- TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language).

In Tico 26 we were representing only two groups CED and YD, thirty two volunteers in total. Some Tico groups sometimes only have one group for example only TEFL trainees or a mix.

After your language assessment you will be divided in groups according to your language skill (low, medium, high); on the last day of training they will  give you information of the host family you will be living with and community as well (very exciting and sad because you leave your fellow PC Trainees). The next day bright and early you will be dropped off in each community with your new family, scary, emotional, happy, sad, anxious and overwhelming process.

      

At the end of this training one volunteer decided to leave unfortunately, I know many volunteers tried to tell her to stay aboard; but she decided she wanted to go home. Actually our program manager told us forty something volunteers had accepted invitations and a few weeks or days before departing to Costa Rica they declined. Many communities that were expecting them, had to be left out. I mention this because I really want to spread the message to all those future volunteers, when they decide to accept an invitation consider that the invitation is months of work in the making. The communities we go to had to be highly assessed by PC staff and the communities had to go through a long process to get a PC volunteer there. Nothing will happen if you decide not to go after accepting the invitation, but you will let down a good community that would've used your help or another volunteers help.

In my next post I will talk about what happens when your living with your host family and Part II of training while living there. Thanks for reading.

Cheers!

My Packing List

                       

Howdy!

Well here is my packing list, I hope it helps anyone in there packing endeavors. I will also include tips, brands of some of the things I took; for durability and quality reasons and things I wish I would of brought. If you have questions please post them I will gladly help your packing mayhem. Enjoy!

Packing List:

CLOTHES & ACCESSORIES:

1 Black suit (Good for swearing-in and any important meetings that may come through, presentation is of an essence)
2 Grey suit jackets (Casual meetings or just whenever you go out in the city)
3 Dress shirts
1 Dress pants
2 Jeans (Use them for everything)
1 Khakis
15 Polo Shirts (Use them for everything)
20 T-Shirts (Use them for everything)
12 Casual shirts (Use them for everything)
1 Windbreaker jacket (Adidas)
1 Fleece jacket (North Face) [Good for chilly places]
1 School sweatshirt (Represent!)
3 Bathing suits (Ralph Lauren and Zara) [you will swim a lot; to make your suits last, alternate and also you can use them as shorts]
2 Training pants (Adidas)
3 Dry fit t-shirts (Adidas)
1 Running short (Nike)
4 Shorts (Adidas & Nike) [Chilling and exercising]
12 Underwear (Good idea to bring as much as you can)
2 Pairs of cuff links
5 Handkerchiefs
3 Ties (Swearing-in brought to many, but better safe than sorry)
2 Bow ties (Thought I would use them)
2 Scarves (Haven't used them yet, but  in mountainous areas it gets chilly)
2 Shemagh's (Use them a couple a items, perfect for hot or cold weather)
2 Dress belts (Bring at least one)
2 Casual belts (Bring at least one)
2 Dress socks
5 Running socks
6 Sunglasses (Rayban's)
2 Watches
2 Eyeglasses
Towel
Hand towel
Face towel

ELECTRONICS:

Laptop (Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 13)
External Hard Drive (Passport) [Bring music, movies, tv series anything to watch on your computer, you will enjoy having something to do in your down time. A lot of PCV's have many things to share so it's essential to have this item on your list]
2 Earphones
Speaker (Jawbone)
Digital Camera (Sony [I honestly don't use it at all, use my Iphone mainly for all pictures])
SD Card (16GB)
Ipod Nano
Iphone 4S Unlocked with Sim Slot (Highly recommend it, it doesn't have to be an Iphone, just make sure its unlocked and has a sim slot. You will definitely need a phone while in service; many volunteers buy a cheap or moderately priced phone in country through a prepaid service (Kolbi [most used service], Claro, Movistar). In my case I just bought the prepaid sim card for my phone very inexpensive). Prepaid phone service in Costa Rica is relatively inexpensive.
External CD Drive
USB flash drive (64 GB)
AA and AAA Rechargeable batteries with charger (Brought 4 of each, I only recommend it, if you actually have things that use batteries, or bring them if you think you might need them in the future for items you will purchase that require batteries.

OFFICE SUPPLIES:

2 Journals
Pens (Bring a nice one)
Pencils
Pouch  (TUMI)
Duct tape
Masking tape
Clear tape
Pins (Recommend them for notes and reminders)
Mini Stapler
Scissors
Folders
Large Envelopes (For important documents)
Large Ziploc Bags

GENERAL TRAVELING & MISCELLANEOUS:

Swiss Army knife
Hunting knife
Gerber Multi-tool
Nalgene Bottle (Lost it!)
Sigg Bottle (I think I left it at Peace Corps Office, hopefully I will find it)
MagLite Flashlight
Book (favorite one)
Deck of Cards
Resistance bands
Chess set
Umbrella (good quality one, not to small but not to big)

TOILETRIES:

Electric Toothbrush and replacements (Oral B)
Toothbrush
Container for toothbrush
Toothpaste (Unless you use a specific brand, buy as many as you can back home, otherwise you can buy many typical brands here for around the same price)
Burt's Bees Lip Balm
6 Deodorants (Highly recommend it if you have a specific brand you like, they sell many brands here; but for twice the price or more)
Aloe Vera (Very good for burns, price is way less expensive at home)
Sunscreen (Even though you get some in your medical packet 30 spf, if need something stronger buy it home, sunscreen here is ridiculously expensive)
Cologne (You gots to smell good)
Soap (Bring your favorite, or you can purchase many American brands in CR, very specif brands are  pricey)
Dental Floss
Disposable Razors
Shampoo (Not a lot just for a few days, you can get any shampoo here for around the same price back home)
6 Hair Paste Tins (Waste because I'm letting my hair grow, which I just decided so don't really need them, will donate them to other PCV's)
Beard Trimmer (Norelco) [I highly recommend it; saves time, money on razors and you can also trim up your hair when you don't feel like spending money on a haircut; even though haircuts are really inexpensive]





BAGS

North Face Router Backpack (Great for laptop, and anything expensive you want to hold on, also works great for 1-3 day trips)
North Face Terra 65 Pack (Great for trips over 3+ days, easy on your back and shoulders  for backpacking trips)
North Face Base Camp Duffel X-Large (Excellent medium to transport anything you can imagine, you can use it for very long trips. Bag has shoulder straps so you can turn it into a backpack).

SHOES 

6 Pairs of loafers (TOMS, Sperry, Cole Hann and Johnston and Murphy)
Dress shoes (Johnston and Murphy)
2 Pairs of sandals (Rainbow & Birkenstocks)
Running Shoes (New Balance)
Boat shoes (Sperry)
Trekking shoes  (Vibrams)
2 Pairs of Slides (Crocs & Adidas)

TIPS:

- Roll your clothes, it will give you more space in your bags and prevent them from wrinkling.
- Be sure your around the baggage weight limit, to avoid hefty baggage fees. Here is a tip from a fellow volunteer to know the weight of your bag: weigh yourself first, then with your bag on and subtract your weight and simple as pie. Another option is to buy a hanging scale you will use it when you depart, come back home or do any traveling, highly recommend it.
-Use large Ziploc bags to organize your items.

THINGS I WISH I WOULD OF BROUGHT

Beef Jerky (Haven't found any)
Peanut Butter (Price is twice as of much)
Bed, pillow and fitted sheets (There extremely expensive and very bad quality)
Jeans (Even though I brought jeans, I wish I would of brought more; they will wear off in a few months, it's good to alternate if you like to wear jeans most of the time)
Bicycle lock (Most likely you will decide to have a bike at site, so you will end up buying a bike, thus you need to protect your investment. Bicycle belts here [good quality ones] are expensive)
Earl of Grey Tea (They have it here, but more expensive)
Water goggles (I actually didn't know I would be using them, but I have a pool in my site, they will send them too me though)
Rubber flip flops (Even though I brought sandals and brought every shoe possible, I forgot normal flip flops)
Tabasco Sauce (They have it here, but more expensive)
Hanging scale  (To weigh your bags when traveling)

I hope this list helps anyone in there packing and if you have questions please feel free to post your questions or email me. I honestly packed to much clothes and shoes, but I don't regret it, I do use 95% of them. If you can carry it and don't mind the weight bring as much as you can.

Next week I will talk about what happened once I arrived in Costa Rica "PST" Pre-Service Training.

Pura Vida!

Staging & Departure to Costa Rica

***Sorry for my delay with this blog, its been a crazy 3+ months, but I'm back at it again and hoping to entertain any followers. Thanks for reading and sorry for the delay***

Staging

I arrived at D.C. around 9:00 PM and wasn't sure if to rent a car (already had reservations, just in case), shuttle or taxi? I opted for a taxi, which is the best choice. It was hard as fudge to carry all my bags. I had easily over 150 pounds of luggage on my back and arms. I went outside to get a cab and guess what? There were over 200 people making a line to get a cab. I had to carry all my bags in the process, which was exhausting, while cooping with the hot humid beautiful weather of D.C. I was able to get a cab within 25 minutes and enjoyed the cool A/C cab ride to my hotel. I checked in and my roommate had already arrived. We spoke for some time and we went outside to get some dinner. After dinner we went back to the room, I took a nice cool bath and off to bed. My plan was to wake up very early in the morning and site see D.C., but I was so exhausted that I ended up sleeping in. I woke up and headed to the hotels restaurant and had breakfast. I then went up and chilled at the room, after some time my roommate woke up; we cleaned up, dressed up and we headed downstairs to the conference room to start staging at 12:30 PM. I won't say what happened in staging, it's a lot of activities and fun exercises;  I think everyone has to experience it for the first time. So I will leave that for everyone to experience on their own. After staging they gave us $13 dollars for the people who flew in a day before for taxi expenses (which didn't cover it all, but better than nothing and I didn't expect it, I was very pleased) and gave all of us a debit card. With $120 dollars for dinner, tips and anything we needed before leaving the country. We ended up going to a restaurant called The Town, I had a burger and two Guinness; my last meal in D.C...delicious.

Departure to Costa Rica

We had a very early start. We had to be in the lobby downstairs at 2:00 AM, we all gathered up and left on a bus set up by PC. We arrived at the airport at around 2:30 AM and made a big line waiting for the counter to open so we could check-in our bags. I had a great issue once again with my bags, I rearranged my luggage in the hotel room and in my great luck, weight distribution was off...again. Which I had to hustle through the line to get the right weight limit, while everyone was checking in.

My recommendation if you can is to get those hanging digital scales if possible, they work great and you will use it again many times while in service. When you may ask? When you travel home or elsewhere, that way you can be within baggage weight limits and avoid a hefty fee, because you can't store the luggage anywhere so your kinda fudged, unless you wanna donate your luggage to a fellow traveler.  Another trick I learned from a fellow PCV is if you have a weight scale you can weigh yourself and then weigh yourself with the bag on, then you just subtract your weight and walaah!. By the way the counter gave us preference due the fact that we were Peace Corps Volunteer wohooo! Go PC! After that experience with my luggage, we traveled to Miami, FL; while walking to the terminal for our last departure we met a PCV who was travelling back home, she notice we were PCV's because of the fact that I had a PC patch on my backpack. I highly recommend having some PC insignia, why you may ask? Well is cool to met other PCV's (your in a special club now), one of them may come in your need and viceversa, also its cool as fudge to represent! Even right now in Costa Rica, I don't know all the volunteers, but some have been seen me in places, and there like oh your the guy with the patch.

After leaving Miami, FL we landed in Costa Rica finally! Super tired, but happy and anxious. We then meet the PC crew with a great welcome at the airport. I won't go through the details, to not give away that experience to those who are planning to come to Costa Rica. I will put in my next post my packing list which I imagine everyone wants to read about. Thank you for reading! Cheers!


P.S. I will post a blog entry every week. So stay tuned!

Flight to Washingtown, D.C.

Howdy!

Well many weeks have past and I haven't had a chance to write. I have been quite busy since I last posted on this blog. But I finally got a day off to write some good information to share with everyone. Thanks to all the readers who have waited so patiently for my post.

Flight to Washington, D.C.
July 2013
I left a day before staging to Washington, D.C., which was Sunday. I took the 2:00 PM flight. My family and I decided to go for brunch as my last meal home at around 11:00 AM, so by 12:30 PM I would be ready to be dropped off. Before that we stopped at the airport to check in my bags to save time on my departure. I had already checked-in online, so I was good to go; well...that's what I though. While dropping my bags, guess what? One of my bags was overweight by 30 pounds! Fudge! Originally in my previous post I had already weighed them. I used a personal digital weigh scale, but weighed them incorrectly. I should have done it vertically, but I did it horizontally thus spreading the weight off on the sides. I added a piece of wood on top of the scale to spread out the weight, a tip I saw online, but useless at this point. So I had to bring my bags back and ahead we went for brunch. After brunch outside of the restaurant I started to exhaustively to repack and see what I didn't need (again). I started taking of shoes, jeans, things that weighed the most. I also put the heaviest things on my carry-on. After repacking we went to the airport and went to the counter to weigh my bag. I was overweight still, 13 pounds! So again I started to remove things and went to the counter outside of the airport were I originally had weighed my bags, the American Airlines employee told me that it was ok to be 4-5 pounds off my 50 pound limit. I ended up at 53.9 pounds! He said it was fine. He printed out my tickets even though I had them on my phone; which was very nice of him, excellent customer service. Thank you unknown American Airlines employee, I will always remember you! I tipped him for being awesome and went to the TSA security line. I said goodbye to my family, it was hard. I cried when I said goodbye to my mom, but sucked it up and left. Overall it was very stressful to say goodbye to my family and having an overweight bag, but I made it on time. 

"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go" - John Denver

Good Morning!

Two days to go! Just wanted to share a picture of my packed up luggage. I will later on make a post of what I packed for my trip and how to pack. I had to repack around 4 times, it was pretty exhausting and stressful, but I did it. I'm packing around 80 pounds on both big bags and around 10 pounds on my backpack. Can wait to go to staging in Washington. I will post more things about this in detail, right now all I want to do is enjoy my last 2 days, have some drinks, rest and enjoy my family and friends.

Cheers!

Parte 4 and more...

Good Afternoon,

Almost four weeks since my last post. I feel bad I haven't taken the time to write on it, but it's been a exciting and tense month. But I'm back on the keyboard!!! Your welcome...j/k. Well a lot has happened in these few weeks, I will be as through as possible. Originally it was supposed to be a three part process but it became a 4 part process and more. These is the timeline:

May 2013
Email
This email was sent by my country desk officer , she wanted me to finish the following courses:

Security Orientation

Core Expectations Orientation

Both are courses taken online regarding "what to do scenarios" and our Core Expectations from Peace Corps. It takes about 1-2 hours to finish. 

June 2013
Email 

I got another email from my country desk officer with information on various subjects such as:
Family Letter
Address of were to receive mail, contact and emergency information and a few paragraphs of encouragement for your family.
Logistics
This letter talks about information on how, who, when, where once we arrive in Costa Rica and the training site, gives you an idea of everything once in country.
Country Desk Letter 
Letter giving you overall information about what to do before departure and new information.
Mentor Program
The most important one, this one gets you in contact with a PCV that currently works in the same project as you will. I had a chance to be emailing with him for some time. Asking questions from what to take to what is your usual day. He has been very helpful, I really appreciate his promptness and time in answering my emails. At the beginning he answered very fast, but now somewhat slow, he's probably tired of my questions haha. No worries 5 days to go!!!

Staging
After a few days after this email, I got another one from Staging. This email basically tells you everything about flight schedules, hotel, travel plans, baggage and setting up your flight through SATO. I called them, got my confirmation number and I will be leaving on July 7, 2013 a day before staging. This is pretty cool, because it gives me a couple hours before Registration to go and visit Washington, D.C. "When in Rome"...

What Happened/ing in June!
- I gave my two weeks notice, yeah!!! I'm currently unemployed haha. Nice breather.
- Traveled to a few places in Texas and Chihuahua, MX, to visit friend and to obviously party.
- Been trying to pack everything in my bags, getting there.
- Been meeting up with friends for lunch.
- Resting and binge watching Justified. I'm currently at Season 3.
- Chilling at home enjoying my family, my bed and peke my dog.
- Eating food I will not be able to eat there.
- Still trying to sell some things on eBay.
- Had a goodbye party with friends last week, will having another one this weekend. My only concern is not being all hungover on the plane to Washington.

Tips for Prospective and Current Peace Corps Applicants - $$$ Money Edition $$$

Good Morning!

Before I got to the next part of my steps through the Peace Corps. I wanted to share with everyone a few tips out of my own experience and what I'm currently doing.

I think most people's main concern is money, it was for me. Many applying have some type of debt (credit card, student loans, car loan, and so on). I personally had two types: credit card and car loan. I successfully paid out all my student loans with my first job. It took a lot of discipline, but felt good when I gave that last payment. For those who don't know, you can defer your students loans for the time your serving plus get a portion of the loans cancelled. But I won't go into depth with that, because that isn't personal experience.

After sending my Legal Packet, I understood that I wouldn't be able to have any type of debt, in my case a car loan and credit card debt. In that moment just barely starting the application process, I decided to pay everything off. It took me about one year and six months to become debt-free. I sold my car and went with something less "luxurious". I didn't go out that much, didn't eat out as much, stop buying new clothes as I would normally do, etc.. I sacrificed many things that I considered for granted in my life. I wasn't a Martyr, but I did give up many things to become debt free. But being that joining the Peace Corps is my dream; many people who have any type of dream, to reach it you have to sacrifice many things to get that moment. Which I can say was so sweet and delicious when I got that Invitation, totally worth it. Most people don't mention money in there blogs, but I think this is very important. I had this question and honestly never found a direct answer about it, so hopefully this answers it for some of you.

Here are some tips I highly recommend for any prospective or current applicants:

TIP#1

Start paying off your debts as soon as you apply.
There is three reasons why:
1st -You obviously can go with debt, unless you have someone who will be paying for it.
2nd - The sooner you pay off your debt, the sooner you will have peace of mind and start saving up.
3rd - You honestly don't know when you will be invited, so they might throw you a curve ball and tell you Are you ready to leave in three months, a position just opened? You might lose that opportunity because you still have some kind of debt.

TIP#2

After you pay off everything SAVE, SAVE, SAVE.
There are three reasons why:
1st - Even though when you come back and PC gives you a readjustment allowance, which I think is awesome. Its always good to have a little nest egg. I've read many blogs and articles around the internet mentioning issues after returning, but the main one was: "Takes a couple months to find a job".
2nd - My mentor (you get one 1-2 months before you leave for any questions you have), told me that Costa Rica is quite expensive. I know other countries may be less expensive, but it's always good to have savings for "luxuries" (american brand products, internet, phone service, etc...). He also mentioned that if you decide to live alone after your training, you may end up purchasing some furniture, because some places don't come with any kind of furniture, which means $$$.
3rd - Our main purpose of going is to Serve, but "When in Rome", why not take advantage of traveling somewhere you probably wouldn't go in your lifetime. Save a few bucks and get to know your country of service. If you have a few extra bucks then probably try a country or two, take advantage of that.

TIP#3
Sell everything you don't need!
I'm shipping of in about a month, and while doing my 100 lbs of luggage for 2 years and 3 months. I noticed I had way to many clothes, shoes, magazines, dvd's, crap basically that I wouldn't be able to take and use. So in the spirit of cleaning my soul I did two things. First I donated the things I knew they weren't worth selling and second I started selling everything worth selling. Many people may be very attached to there things, but were going for 2 years even longer if you decide to extend your service. Why keep things you won't use? Everyone to there own opinion, but I'm selling everything I can on eBay or craigslist. Two good things will happen out of this, one I get rid of everything and have my soul clean and second I will have some extra cash for a "luxury" or two while I'm serving. So don't hesitate and sell, sell, sell or donate which ever works for you.

Part Troisième - After Invitation

Good Morning!

It's been some time since I've written about my experience with the PC, but don't worry fellow 239 page viewers, its probably just me every time I go and check my blog ha ha. But I'm pretty sure there are a few people that are finding my blog helpful.

If you have researched online about invitations handed out to volunteers, most people have pictures of people receiving a blue invitation package, which I was curious if I would receive one. But PC has changed there whole system (about two years ago) and I believe for "green" purposes they don't do it anymore. So for those who were expecting mail,  they no longer do it, everything is through email. I would of liked to have that envelope, I love mail. But I'm also all about being Green, so I totally understand it, plus its a million times faster. Which relieves some stress of waiting for that invitation.

After I got the invitation I then got a email with more instructions yeiiiii! (I'm being sarcastic) You think "OMG I got invited let's get the F*** out of here and HELP!"....But more paperwork and more paperwork, did I mention more paperwork? Good stuff...fun stuff...I love it though....it really gives you the perspective that if your not willing to do all the things there asking for, then your not really PC material.

March 2013

These are the documents/forms/requests I got after my invitation:

Welcome Handbook
Document gives you detail insight of the country your serving, packing list, crime rate, tips, all types of educational info etc...

Volunteer Assignment and Description
Document gives you an idea of what you might be doing there, they will train you and tell you what will your actual job(s) be once your actually on site.

Passport Application
Forms needed to apply for a No Fee Passport, here's some good advice for those who don't have a passport. I already had one and made the process very fast and easy. So if your thinking of volunteering, get a passport. How it works you may ask, you FedEx or UPS your passport, two pictures and a form. Then they will give you a special passport for the country you are volunteering for ( I think...I'll know once they give it to me, then I'll let you know). They will give it to you at staging in Washington, DC, but I will talk about that more specifically while you read through all of these. Another good tip is if you send your passport and have doubts about how the process is working out. No news is typically good news. If there is an issue with the paperwork or anything of that sort they will contact you, so if they don't contact you, your good as pie.
$23 (FedEx)
$10 (passport pictures, I highly recommend walgreens, there cheap and fast)

Resume and an Aspiration Statement
Request from the desk officer of Costa Rica asking me for an updated Resume and an Aspiration Statement. They sent me an attachment with instructions the format for both documents and questions to be answered in my statement.

Applicant Portal
Request to log in to this portal and upload some of the documents requested above, ask you questions like your bank account number, if you want life insurance, permission to put you pictures on PC propaganda, tell your hometown about you, etc....

I completed all of this within a month of receiving it. Giving me a the grand negative total of:

$737+$33 (FedEx and pictures) = -$770

Part Deux - INVITATION!!!

Good evening!

February 2013

Well the story goes on....now that Part I was finished, Part II came into being. After being medically cleared, that same day I received an email from the Volunteer Placement Office from my program, Community Economic Development. They mentioned due the fact that my medical clearance was delayed, I had missed my original nomination, but would look for an alternative. I called and email them as soon as I read the email. To my luck...voice mail; the next day I got a reply back and asked me for an updated Resume; asking specifically for my volunteer experience, detailing the following: name of organizations, months worked, hours per week, activities/duties...blah blah blah. Note: Anyone applying, Volunteer...Volunteer....Volunteer! I thankfully had some very good volunteer experiences, so I think that helped a lot.  They also asked me to fill out an attachment called Placement Questions. It basically asks why you want to go to the Peace Corps and if you are willing to commit to the harshness and fruits of the becoming a volunteer. These questions are a concentration of what you did in the initial application. I believe they do that to make sure you are willing to still go through the process, now that you experience the longevity and commitment needed to become a volunteer.

After sending my resume and the questions, I receive an email back mentioning that they would send me an another email in the upcoming weeks to let me know were I might be placed. More time to wait, but I was happy that they were looking for a program for me. I really wanted to leave ASAP. So I started to google about how long it took to get placement, but didn't get a correlation of an exact time, every case was different. I didn't really worry, I just waited...

Ten days later on March 10, 2013, I was chilling at home on a Sunday afternoon, when suddenly I got an email with an official INVITATION to serve in Costa Rica, July 8, 2013!!! I couldn't believe it, I can't explain the feeling, I'm a tough guy, but I was so happy and full of joy, I honestly wanted to cry (Fuck you! So what!). My dream had finally come true. Seconds later I told my parents and a couple of friends, I then accepted my invitation and Part III of the process began....

Peace Corps Timeline: After The Medical Kit

Afternoon!

Well It was a quite an adventure to get through the whole application, it took 12 months for what I call Part I of the three part process. I've read in many blogs that people usually submit there medical kit, get cleared within a 1-3 months, officially invited to serve and get a departure date.

August 2012 - November 2012

For me it was a bit more complicated than that, after a month I was contacted by the occupational health nurse, she was awesome and really helped me a lot. The reason she contacted me was because I had high blood pressure. She ask me for an updated medical evaluation with three blood pressure readings. I asked her if I had to go to the doctor again to get those readings, I mentioned I didn't have health insurance and was paying everything out of pocket; I asked her if there was other options in other to avoid paying three visits to the doctor at $65 bucks a pop. Remember I had a minimum wage job and no health insurance. She really helped me out and said if I just went to a Walgreens, they could do a blood pressure readings for free.  I went and got the readings and faxed them to her. Unfortunately they were still high, and said that I had to do it with a medical doctor. 

December 2012 - February 2013

I was like Fuck!....More money to spend, but well it was my dream so I had to suck it up and deal with it. In order to get medically cleared I had to get my blood pressure down and go once a month to the doctor to get three blood pressure readings and send the final notes from the doctor. So by then I had gotten a good job (September 2012) and was able to afford the visits and started to get out of debt and save!  

I obviously started eating better, exercising and all the healthy things to get that blood pressure within normal parameters. I really focused myself in this process, I really wanted to get better and be able to leave.

Doctors Visits:

December 2012
I got my blood pressure readings, high again and my doctor suggested high blood pressure medication and a healthier lifestyle.

January 2013
Blood pressure still the same, but lost some weight and kept taking high blood pressure medication.

February 2013 
Blood pressure went down considerably, maintained weight loss! Hell yeah!

So after three months of eating better, exercising and taking medication that made me cough all the time. I was happy with the results. I sent my results immediately and got an email back five days later. The Peace Corp Medical Services is really strict, they really want you to go healthy as an ox, which is understandable. For those who don't know they want you to be healthy enough within there standards, because if something were to happen, some of the locations you may be sent too, don't have medical facilities near by, so for safety reasons they want you as healthy as possible. Being that said, I was told by Peace Corps once again that I needed to submit three more readings to make sure my blood pressure was stable. I got desperate and nervous that all this may delay everything again for departure. So I went to Walgreens again and got them for free and sent in a fax with the blood pressure readings. So by the end of February, I received an email and after everything I went through I was MEDICALLY CLEARED!!! Thank God! Finally!

In my nomination letter I was supposed to leave on March 2013, so I was a bit nervous that I probably would have to leave ASAP or wait more months in order to get invited, but I was very glad that I was already good to go.

Negative total:
$512+$225 (Doctor's visits and medication) = -$737

Peace Corps Timeline: Medical Kit

June 2012 - July 2012
After receiving the medical kit I started to arrange appointments and researching were I could get everything at the best price, this was very tedious and the most expensive part of the application, lucky for me I was working a part time minimal wage job and no health insurance...hurrayyy for me!!! The medical kit asks for the following:

Difficult
Medical Exam
Attached are several forms that need to be answered and signed by a MD or DO. About your health and current medical history. Had to go twice. ($135)

Lab Tests
You need to take a blood, urine and tuberculosis. ($340)

Shots
You need to get Tetanus, Polio, MMR and Varicella shots. ($59)

Easy
Dental Exam
DDS must complete evaluation form and x rays must be provided. In case you die and your teeth are the only thing left, that way they can identify you...just kidding. There are some DDS that offer everything for free on certain cities, unfortunately my city didn't have any of those DDS, cheap bastards! ($80)

Eye Exam
Basically get your prescription if you are blind like me, or just get a note you have 20/20 Superman vision. ($60)

Grand Total
-$674

But good news you do get reimburse for all of this, how much!! Not a whole lot...but it's better than nothing!

Medical Exam
Reimbursement $70
Lab Tests & Shots
Reimbursement $55
Dental Exam
Reimbursement $60
Eye Exam
Reimbursement $12 

Giving the grand negative total of:
-$477

This was hard work though, I had to call many many offices to get the best prices and negotiate. As you can see the most expensive part of the medical kit are the lab tests, so my recommendation is to shop around and try to negotiate. I didn't want to throw the "I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer" line, but fuck it your doing this to help out people; it helped me in some situations to get a better deal, I also offered to recommend them to other Volunteers that may need these services.

After a stressful month of getting everything accordingly, I made copies of every single document. They recommend it in case it gets lost in the mail. They mention to use a courier such as FedEx or UPS when you send the documents, its funny because USPS is obviously less expensive and they are government funded, Peace Corps is government funded, the irony. So I went and shipped it off to the nearest FedEx Kinkos and made some copies. ($30)

Giving the grand negative total of:
$497+$15 (fingerprints) = -$512 

Peace Corps Timeline: Application Process

Afternoon!

The first thing I was interested to know while researching, is what the heck did volunteers go through to get invited. Some blogs explain in detail (sorta), some don't. This post is for everyone who wants to know exactly what you have to go through in my own personal experience.

August - September 2011

Started application process online, this includes essays, personal information, references and so on, took me a around 6 weeks to finish it. I was very close to be disregarded as a potential candidate after I submitted my application online. The main office for my recruiting region asked why in my application I preferred to go to certain regions in my application, in the application it states that you can't be guaranteed that certain region, but you can choose any of those regions and if possible they would try to send you there, depending on availability. So I "naively" put the regions that interested me to work in: Eastern Europe and Central Asia, The Caribbean, Central America and Mexico, South America. Basically they thought (I think)...I wanted to go on vacation. So I had to convince them that the reason I choose most of those regions was because of my language skills (fluent in Spanish). So after almost having my dream destroyed of going to the Peace Corps, everything worked out. So note to everyone out there applying, don't be "naive" and choose all of them.

October 2011 - November 2011

After having my dream almost destroyed, the regional recruiter contacted me for my academic transcripts and mentioned I would get a Legal Packet including:  fingerprint cards, National Agency Check (NAC) and so on. We shooted emails back and forth, and asked me for an interview. I was going to end up driving three hours away from home to be interviewed. Luckily after a few days, he mentioned that he was going to come to my home university for a job fair and he would be able to interview me in campus. The interview was around 1-2 hours, he asked me questions he would read in his laptop and recorded my answers by typing them and via a digital recorder. I went in a black suit and tie (professional). I did my homework, like any good interviewee and researched for potential interview questions, expectations, etc. Everything I found out was in the interview; which made me Ace it, Like a BOSS! This impressed my recruiter and at the end of the interview he formally nominated me for the Business and Information & Communication Technology program. I was like fuck yeah! He said that this is just the beginning of the process and it will take some months in order to get vacancy on the program he nominated me for. He mentioned that volunteering in other areas such as: health, education, youth and community development, etc. This would broaden my opportunities to get shipped off sooner. In other words even though I was nominated it didn't mean anything, unless a position opened, which would take months.

December 2011 - March 2012

In the recurring months I finished my legal packet. Getting my fingerprints at $15, was the most hassle of them all, the office working hours were short, they conflicted with my work schedule and the location was about 30 minutes away from home/work. After sending my packet, my recruiter and I keep in touch and asked me to email him every two weeks with updates on my volunteering experience. I honestly tried looking for volunteering opportunities, but they all conflicted with my work schedule, in February 2012 I was laid off my job and decided to put my application on hold. After a month of thinking and struggling, I decided to pursue my dream and asked my recruiter to keep the process going in my application. By mid-March my recruiter called to me to officially nominate me for an Business advising in a French speaking country; unknown at the moment, I figured out it might be in Africa. I was thrilled and excited that I had to learn basic French before my departure date; I would be tested to make sure I know basic French. I started looking for schools and ways to start learning a new language.

April 2012 - May 2012

After one month and half, I received an email from my recruiter telling me the program I was nominated for was cancelled due to program changes. I was sad, but I was patient enough and in May 2012 I was nominated once again to another program in Business Development for the Central/South America Region for early departure in March 2013 to an unknown Spanish speaking country. My recruiter mentioned I would be getting my medical kit through the mail and that I would need to complete it by July 2012. From there the most extensive and difficult part of my application started: "Medical Kit".