Letter

Got a letter in the mail today welcoming us to the next step of the application process. It also lists our program as # 15510044U5. Still no word on specific country information, but Erin says that once our medical paperwork is submitted and approved, we will get that. I'm hoping we can get all that done by Christmas, but we'll see. I also got an email today that our medical paperwork has been mailed, and we should get it next week!

We're official!

Got an email from Erin Today:

Hi Tyan & Ken,
Congratulations; your nominations have been completed!

I’ll be sending you a letter in the mail that will include some more information on the next steps.
You should expect to receive the medical packets in the mail in the next few weeks.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
Best wishes on the next part of the process,
Erin

Woohoo! We're officially placed!
I talked to Dr Ruscheinsky (our PCP) about all of the medical testing we have to get done. The tricky thing is that her practice is in the clinic that I work in, and I know all the gals that will be checking me in for my appointments. My concern was that if my appointment reason is "travel" which is what it should technically be, my friend the receptionist is likely to go, "Where are you going Tyan?!" And my answer can't be, "Oh, nowhere", but I also can't start telling people that I'm going to be leaving because I want to keep my job, and I don't want to just make some fake vacation up either. So Dr Ruscheinsky told me to just schedule it as a regular physical, and that would suffice on her end. She was really excited to hear about our plans, and will keep everything quiet so I don't lose my job. I'm just so happy that we are officially nominated and that everything is moving forward.

Good news from Erin

Erin finally got back to her office and I got ahold of her today. We are still definitely assigned to a post in Africa. We had kind of assumed, but she said for sure it would be sub-Sahara as we don't speak French. She needs to talk to the director to finish assigning us to our post, but she was hopeful that would be taken care of tomorrow or the next day. Basically the director of the post needs to officially "open" our spot on their computer system so that Erin can plug us into it. Easy, but it takes both of them to be in their offices at the same time and with Erin's crazy recruiting schedule, hasn't happened yet. After we are officially plugged into the spot, Erin will send us our medical packets, and the fun will really begin. I've heard the medical process is not a walk in the park and can take months, so I'm glad to get started on it.
One of the requirements of our placement for me to get 30 hours of HIV/AIDS volunteer work. I've so far done the level one training at HIV alliance here in Eugene, which is basically just a one-hour overview of their company and practices, but doesn't really qualify me to do any actual work. I'm scheduled to do two types level two trainings on November 7th which will start the process of me being approved to do certain types of volunteer work. When I met with the HIV alliance rep I was disappointed to hear that they don't do a lot of prevention work focused on the general population. I was hoping to go out the schools and do presentations and things like that, but they are much more focused on "at risk" populations, such as men who have sex with men, and needle-drug users. They run a big needle exchange program certain evenings of the week which won't interfere with my work schedule. So I'm hoping to get on board with that, and one of my trainings on Nov 7th is to specifically train me to help with that program. For those of you worried about my safety, I would never be the only person manning the needle exchange, and they do specific training on handling the needles and equipment. You don't need to worry more than absolutely necessary.
Anyhoo - I will (crossing my fingers) hopefully hear from Erin today or tomorrow that she's gotten our placement officially done.

Videos

Still no word from Erin (shocking I know, this seems to be a trend)
However....
I found a couple of cool videos on youtube. I think they are cool, and give a glimpse of what our life may be like.

The first is from Zambia which is a country that we could definitely be sent to. Plus, this couple is totally cute.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax0bJD_ddHE

Lesotho
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk49MYlPm4s

Madagascar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5d9KvnMBXk&feature=related

Tanzania
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snA-Sb0813E&feature=related

Hopefully everything is alright....

Well, the last time we talked to Erin which was 2 1/2 - 3 weeks ago, she said that she would email us with the next steps the following Monday. Like I said, that was a while ago. I know she's busy, so I'm just going to assume that everything is fine. I'm hoping. Like I said before, I'll post something when I know something.....