Application Timeline

March 2004 - started seriously research for oversea long term volunteer opportunities
June 2004 - submitted online application and health questionaire
August 2004 - submitted all references and supplemental materials
August 31st 2004 - interviewed at the Peace Corps regional office in New York
September 1st 2004 - nominated for

Secondary Science Education

Region: Africa (French I required)

Departure date: July 5, 2005

Program description: Volunteers will be secondary ed math/science teachers.

October 2004 - received medical and dental packet
November-December 2004 - completed all medical and dental examinations and sent packets back
January 2005 - received the notice to remove wisdom teeth
March 2005 - received medical clearance
March 17th 2005 - received invitation to Guinea leaving June 27th to teach physics in secondary school, accepted invitation 7 days later
April 2005 - removed wisdom teeth and received dental clearance
June 10th 2005 - last day at work
June 25th-27th - Staging in Philly
June 27th - bound for Guinea

note: my medical and dental clearance process went rather smoothly and quickly compare to a lot of others from what I can gather. This timeline is merely for prospective volunteers to get a sense how long the application process will take and what some major steps involved. Be patient and understand a lot of work are being done behind the scene to get the process going.

Living in the Layers

The quoted part of my title is the title of a poem by Stanley Kunitz that I stumbled upon what must've been 4-5 years ago in New York Times. It spoke to me immediately, and has been a piece that I draw inspiration from everytime I read it.

I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the abandoned camp-sites,
over which scavenger angels
wheel on heavy wings.
Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!
How shall the heart be reconciled
to its feast of losses?
In a rising wind
the manic dust of my friends,
those who fell along the way,
bitterly stings my face.
Yet I turn, I turn,
exulting somewhat,
with my will intact to go
wherever I need to go,
and every stone on the road
precious to me.
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:

"Live in the layers,

not on the litter."
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes.

Stanley Kunitz