March Madness

I think this title pretty much sums up the month of March for us. About the time of our last post, we were expecting our invites to come soon. Ok, I was expecting the invites soon (I think I even bet Tricia that we would have them the first week in March). Long story short, that didn’t happen. On February 26 we learned that our applications were in the last stage of review, which entailed being sent to our placement country for them to do a final review. We were told this should take about 7-10 business days. Commence operation "Wait." On March 11 (business day 9) we followed up with our placement officer to see what the status was. We were told that if a) we were placed, we would find out via postal mail, and b) if we were not placed they would call us to discuss other placement opportunities (this would involve a delayed leave date). Nothing new to us, we’ve been waiting for a while now. So again, we wait. On March 18 we asked again, as it was now up to 14 business days. We learned that an in-country officer had been “out of the office,” which had pushed the timeline out beyond 10 business days. We also learned that we were not the only couple in the same situation – there were 8 others also experiencing the delay. So good to know we’re not in this alone. But waiting is waiting, whether you’re in a group of two or two million. And then, on March 24, an email. More specifically, an auto-generated email from the Peace Corps website. Now this caught us off-guard, having anticipated our next correspondence to arrive via postal mail. So we go to the website, log in, and voila: we’ve been officially invited! That’s right, WE GOT INVITED!!! Next question: what country? It doesn’t say. WTF. We need to wait until we get the physical letters. Ok, when will those arrive? The new information on the website says it was sent out March 24, so if it was sent by postal mail, then maybe 3 days (Saturday). However, with some sleuthing on PC applicant forums (which are filled with obsessed, neurotic people), apparently the invitation letters arrive via Fedex. (Side note: why is a government organization not using government mail?) So via Fedex we are guessing Friday. Less than 12 hours from when I am writing this. So here is the latest: • We have been officially invited to the Peace Corps • Our leave date is in “early June” • Our invitation letters are in the mail So it’s a “yay,” but not with capital letters. At least not yet. Stay tuned… Kris