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.
1 comments:
Good luck.. Medical is probably the hardest part. I just finished it and hated it, to be frank, but at least it's done. Be glad you have insurance because for those of us who don't have a plan ( yet) it can be a doozer.
My advice is to make copies of EVERYTHING, double check that all your immunizations are in order, and also double check your bloodwork to see that all test were run.
I'm nominated for SSA in Jan, so congrats to you both on the nomination!
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