Latin America????

Got and Email from Erin!!!


Hi Tyan and Ken,

I’ve just been informed about a potential program for you.

Before having the specifics of the program, I’ve been asked to find out the following information:

* Could you both commit to Spanish study throughout the next year? You would need to have completed Span 202, or the equivalent, by June 2010.
* Would Tyan be able to commit to 60 hours of additional elementary education or youth development work or volunteer experience by next June to be considered for this program? This could be teaching or tutoring at the elementary/middle school level, or perhaps doing work with at-risk youth in a community center setting. Those are just a couple of examples.

I believe that the program they would be considering you for is Agriculture (Ken) and Youth Development (Tyan), going to Latin America, and departing the end of June 2010.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Cheers,
Erin

Ok, so really exciting, but also terrifying. We don't speak Spanish. Neither of us in any way is blessed with extraordinary language learning abilities, and again, we don't speak Spanish. Ok, so we just take classes - but Spanish 202 is the second term, the second year, and we would potentially be leaving in 10 months. Crap. So I talked to Erin (our recruiter) who has to talk to the person who's in charge of the program. Unfortunately that person is out of the office until Tuesday, so we can't get any questions answered until then. Ken and I don't mind studying our asses off but we can't magically get all these classes done in 10 months without some rule bending. I've emailed the evening Spanish 201 teacher at Lane and pleaded our case asking if we can get her blessing to start with 201. I also asked Erin to ask the program director to see if they would accept us studying with Rosetta Stone CDs. They are apparently really good, and we can do it on our own time, and not have to wait for winter break to finish to start the next lesson. But I don't know if they would accept that, we will have to find out, and it depends on how much they want us. I was really panicked when I first got the email because normally if you say "no" to a program offer, you basically are rejected from the Peace Corps and don't get to go at all. So I asked Erin about that, and if we aren't able to get the language stuff in order, will that just screw our potential to go anywhere. Luckily, she said that because what they are asking us to do isn't really feasible using normal routes (taking Span 101, 102, etc.) that she would authorize our applications to be considered again for different programs. However, in the crappy department, our apps would be sent to the "review" pile which only gets looked at quarterly. So we would have to wait another three months before getting a new assignment. Although, the "review" pile gets looked at first (before new applicants) so we would get first dibs the next time around.

So, we may be going to Latin America, maybe not. My gut is saying that we aren't going to go, and that our apps will be held until next quarter. Honestly, I would rather go somewhere else, Latin America just seems much more accessible, and part of applying to peace corps was the desire to go somewhere that we really wouldn't go otherwise. Although I should bite my tongue, because I don't know what's going to happen.
So at this point we are waiting to hear back from the Spanish 201 professor at Lane, and the program coordinator to find out if there are any alternative methods of learning Spanish (like the cds) that would be accepted. Wish us luck.