Whare Am I Going?!!?

In this post I've included the email (in the box), followed by my thoughts, insights, some stories, whatever will give you a better understanding of what I experienced during my journey. Future posts will include only the email. Okay, I'll occasionally post a complete entry like this one. : - )

Where am I going?!!?

 

Hey all,
 
That's the big question left to be answered after receiving my medical clearance letter yesterday.  Yipppeeeeee!!!!!!!  I expect the offer to be extended in the very near future.
 
It seems like I've been trying to get to this point forever, but I really haven't.  I was nominated on December 21, so it's only been 4 1/2 months which is pretty quick in PC time.

If Peace Corps Medical awards you their seal of approval, consider yourself in above average health or better. It’s a comprehensive head-to-toe series of tests. And it needs to be. Decent medical care in many Peace Corps countries can be difficult to come by, hours away in many cases. Getting to the PC doctors in Kyrgyzstan meant a 5 hour taxi ride for me. No surprise then to learn that one of the reference books we received was titled, “When There’s No Doctor Around.” The PC can only accept the healthiest candidiates—age is not a consideration as the oldest serving volunteer during my service was 83. Failing to receive medical clearance must be the most common reason for rejection.

For most candidates the biggest outlay is time, because the recent college grads are still covered under their parents’ policies, while the older ones have employer coverage. I fell into neither category having quit my job at Citi in June 2007. I didn’t take COBRA and I temped for the year before I left. No insurance translated into paying for everything out-of-pocket. Exams, both medical and dental, don’t come cheap. Especially in New York City. But, I did save a significant amount of money when I accidentally discovered two magic words. Peace Corps.

I needed an additional blood test for cholesterol to see if I’d lowered it to an acceptable level. Making conversation with the lab tech, I mentioned why I needed the test and that I had no insurance. She thought that being a volunteer was really cool, then told me she would only charge me what the lab charged them for the analysis, which was $75. That saved me $200. After that I used it everywhere. A $750 stress test was knocked down to $500. My dentist surprised me more than anyone. After telling her the PC deemed one of my crowns to be substandard, i.e., old and ill-fitting, she put in a new one for free. That saved me nearly $1500.