F.Y.I. Vol. 2

This is a beautiful collection of photographs of women in the Terai (the lowland area in the Western section of Nepal) working in forest conservation and community education. Many of the projects mentioned are ones that I have seen PCVs working on in Nepal as well.

READ (Rural Education and Development) is an organization that works to build community libraries and resource education centers. Read more about their work in Nepal here.

Finally, the New York Times shared this op-ed, written by the son of two volunteers to serve in the first Peace Corps group in Nepal in 1962. He went to back Nepal this summer, and walks through his travels in this article.

F.Y.I. Vol. 1

This series may be doomed to failure, but for now it seems like a fun idea. Every once in a while, I’d like to share a couple of things that are related to Nepal, the Peace Corps, food security, or whatever else I find interesting and worth sharing.

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This story is about something I (and I would hope, most Peace Corps Volunteers) think about a lot. Courtney Martin, the author, discusses the pitfalls of what she terms “the reductive seduction of other people’s problems.” Read the whole thing, but appreciate this closing paragraph:

There’s a better way. For all of us. Resist the reductive seduction of other people’s problems and, instead, fall in love with the longer-term prospect of staying home and facing systemic complexity head on. Or go if you must, but stay long enough, listen hard enough so that “other people” become real people. But, be warned, they may not seem so easy to “save.”

This is an article from August that talks a bit about the role that animals play in Nepali households.

And finally, as a lover of bluegrass, I enjoyed this exploration of the similarities between traditional Appalachian and the music of the Gandharbas, the “wandering ministrels” of Nepal. There are a couple of other clips available on the website, but I particularly appreciated this one:

 

That’s all for now, folks.

Hike Your Own Hike

Photo credit to Eric S. who took my mom and I out for a trek on the Lanipo Mau’umae Trail when we were in Hawai’i last week.

One of my favorite things to do when the stars of money, time, and temperature align is run off to the Appalachian mountains for a weekend. Like any person who remotely enjoys nature as a form of escapism, I’ve contemplated doing a through hike of the Appalachian Trail, and have read as many trail logs as I can get my hands on.

A recurring theme in all of those logs is “hike your own hike”, which is to say, stop comparing yourself to everyone else and find your own measure of success. The veteran ultralight hiker may delight in winnowing their pack down to seven pounds and getting up in the middle of the night to do jumping jacks when their body temperature drops because their tent is essentially a tarp held up by their hiking poles. The technologically inclined may not mind the extra ounces to carry that solar charger on their pack so they can blog/read/have dance parties every night. Those who need a warm body to cuddle with at night may not mind slowing down a bit so that their shorter legged canine friend can keep up.

My point is none of these examples are hiking wrong. They’re making choices that help them achieve what they want to on the trail, and I think it’ll be helpful to keep a similar mindset during Peace Corps service.

It’s easy to find articles like this one that shares ten projects ranging from developing translation apps to building playgrounds, and to be intimidated. My feeling right now, a couple of months out from service, is that those feelings aren’t worth it.

It’s impossible to comprehend what living in Nepal will actually be like for me, and it’s even more impossible for me to predict what the needs and interests of the community will be. Maybe there will be something big that the community needs and that I can help to make happen that will be featured on a buzzfeed article (that’s when I’ll know I’ve made it, right?), but it’s also entirely plausible that there won’t be. That alone won’t be the determining factor of success for my service. Maybe you should remind me of that a year in though, okay?

Medical Clearance

For future/current applicants, I’m writing this while it is still fresh in my brain. For non-applicants, you probably don’t care and can come back later to read posts filled with bad puns and funny stories.

The medical clearance is challenging. No two ways about it. I got my tasks on September 19th and finally got medically cleared on December 28th, after six doctors appointments and multiple visits back to pick up paperwork, ask why it wasn’t done, get it filled in correctly, tell the people working that I really did get that tetanus booster on February 12th 2012 and that I do need proof of it, get more blood drawn because the first batch wasn’t entered into the system correctly, get my TB test read, etc.

Within a couple of days after you receive your invitation, you’ll receive an email or two. The first will remind you that you leaving is contingent upon receiving medical clearance, that you should get your tasks done as soon as possible, and that you need to keep medical updated if anything changes, or if you’re considering changing medication, getting lasik, or an IUD, for you uterus-havers.

If there was anything on your health history form that you filled out during the initial application process that raised flags, you’ll get another email saying that your medical review may take a while longer, and remind you again that you should not make any big changes like quitting your job or getting out of a lease until you’re medically cleared. Obviously, they’re serious about this. Don’t quit your day job. Or your night job.

Included in one or both of those emails will be a link to your map. Pop in, take a look, read the intro message from your nurse and don’t freak out. When I logged in, I had eighteen tasks. Most of them were the standard requests for a physical, immunization records, dental check up, and one was a request for more information regarding a past issue.

Make your appointments as soon as possible.

Be honest– they make it clear that if they find out you were dishonest, you could be sent home at any point. Peace Corps takes volunteer safety very seriously and want to make sure that your site has the resources available to help with any known issues.

For the un- or under- insured, your local Veterans Affairs clinic is an option for some of the shots and the physical, but it may take a little more leg work, as many VAs are not aware that they provide these services to Peace Corps invitees. You can also utilize that #thanksobama hashtag for the ACA taking care of preventative health care for us.

With no desire to talk down to anyone, make sure your name, birthdate, and case number are on everything. I had to resubmit a couple of tasks because I forgot about it, and it’s easier to just do it the first time (Weird, right? No one ever says that about anything else. Ever.) Get the most official paperwork possible, with signatures on anything that might possibly need it. And heck, in the interest of being a responsible adult, keep those files somewhere for future reference.

For less common immunizations, like the yellow fever, check out your local travel clinic, but be aware that you’ll probably have to pay out of pocket. When I looked, most of them in the DC area had an appointment fee of about $85 on top of the cost of the immunization.

From the peace corps reddit, I realized that I was incredibly lucky to be assigned a nurse who checked on my forms within a day or two of my submitting them (Tina, if you’re reading this: you’re a gem!), and let me know if there were issues. She also responded promptly to any questions, and was generous with extensions due to insurance issues and struggles with tracking down medical records. Others have said that they have trouble getting responses to questions, or that their nurses didn’t look at the forms until everything was submitted.

Once you submit all your tasks, you’ll get an automated email from the Office of Medical Services saying they’ve received your submissions. This still isn’t clearance and you could get some fun surprise tasks afterwards. My fun surprise task was a polio booster, which was just added to the list for Nepal volunteers. Once I got that taken care of, and resubmitted the more official paperwork, I got another copy of that automated response, and then a message from my nurse asking me to confirm any prescription or OTC drugs I take on a regular basis and then five minutes and four seconds later, clearance, sweet clearance. There was a congratulatory email, with more reminders to keep medical up to date on anything that changes, and a message from my nurse with requirements regarding glasses, prescriptions, allergies, and another request to keep her updated with any changes. Repetition is a theme here.

I’m happy to answer any questions from the applicant side of things. I also found the peace corps reddit to great if you had a quick question about challenges other people have dealt with. Ultimately though, your nurse is your best, most knowledgeable resource.

Bottom line: Get things done. Quickly. My invitation timeline gave me some leeway in terms of extensions, and as my dentist said “Your history is about as vanilla as it gets.”, so I wasn’t too concerned about not getting cleared, but I still got two extensions and spent many hours tracking down forms.

And so it goes…

Somewhere in the long list of things to do to get ready for Peace Corps service, nestled between getting a polio booster shot and giving my job notice, was come up with a punny blog name and build a page so that my loyal readers (that’s you, fyi) can follow along with as I spend twenty-seven months as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal.

I’m still a couple of months out from departure, so posts will be few and far between, but here it is!

Credit for the name goes to Conor, who is also heading out for two years of Peace Corps service.  We may or may not be having a competition to see who blogs best.