Peace Corps Status - An update in August of 2011
A reader is interested in our progress with Peace Corps. Today I'm writing from our house in St. Helena. We are still awaiting an assignment - the "invitation" in Peace Corps parlance.
While we were in Thailand we finally received our medical clearance, and conducted our "placement" interview over Skype. The placement officer said that we would probably receive our placement invitation in May. We're still waiting.
The process of clearing the medical evaluations was particularly harrowing. First I was rejected because of hypertension. The nurse was kind in her call, but said my blood pressure levels were not within their guidelines. She said I could reapply after it was controlled for a particular period of time. So I returned to my doctor and told him of the problem. He said "But your hypertension is under control." He pointed to the last three readings conducted by his office, and though they were not within the levels PC had indicated, he showed me that, for a person of my age with my history, I was within the recommended guidelines of the medical establishment. I asked him if he'd write a letter to that effect, which he gladly did. I was extremely grateful. I then sent the letter onto PC as a fax (they don't recommend sending things by mail) and asked - cordially - for their reconsideration. After several weeks, on Xmas Eve, of last year, the nurse called me up and said they would give me medical clearance. We were ecstatic, of course.
We had planned a trip to Thailand and Cambodia in February to attend the birth of our daughter's first child, and we were looking forward to the Spring, when we anticipated that we would receive an invitation. Unfortunately, several weeks before we left, Judith received a call from the PC nurse. Unfortunately, she said, Judith's back condition would prevent them from giving medical clearance. They were afraid that she would not be able to handle squat toilets or the rigors of possible assignment in a rural country with few medical facilities. Judith was, naturally, disappointed and angry - not because she didn't believe they were concerned, but because they had misunderstood her physical capabilities.
Consequently, we both were now rejected, and it also made me angry and defiant. As luck would have it, our son Tobias had been befriended by the former head of Peace Corps in Asia, and he graciously introduced us to him and his lovely wife. We exchanged a few stories about our various histories and travels, and then I asked him if he any suggestions to overcome this obvious bureaucratic roadblock. He said it might be a good idea to contact our congressman, Mike Thompson, and ask him to have his office "monitor" our process. That's what we did. We also went to two back specialists to confirm that there was no medical necessity for Peace Corps to be concerned, and forwarded letters from them as well.
By the time we arrived in Bangkok on our visit, we'd received an email telling us that we had then been medically cleared for service. We then arranged to have our placement interview with the Peace Corps placement officer while we were in Bangkok - awaiting our granddaughter's birth - over Skype. The placement interview went fine, and we were told that we'd probably receive our invitation to PC sometime in May.
When May rolled around and we had still not received the invitation, I contacted the placement officer via email to check our status. Were we going to receive an invitation? Or had something else created a roadblock?
She wrote back that indeed they had found an assignment for us. But unfortunately, budgetary restraints had forced PC to cancel that particular program. All assignments for the Summer and Fall had been made. The soonest we might expect a possible invitation would be January of 2012.
So that's the current situation. At this juncture we're not certain if we would accept an invitation after such a long trial. We're not certain because it may be that the window of opportunity in our lives to do PC has begun to close. I'm still very interested, as is Judith, but my business is starting to move again with many commitments, our daughter is returning from Cambodia with her new baby, and our experience with the bureaucracy has been so very mixed.
Is agism the cause of these roadblocks? It makes one wonder. We knew the road would be long and difficult - and for our age, perhaps even more difficult than the assignments. But....
We'll see.
While we were in Thailand we finally received our medical clearance, and conducted our "placement" interview over Skype. The placement officer said that we would probably receive our placement invitation in May. We're still waiting.
The process of clearing the medical evaluations was particularly harrowing. First I was rejected because of hypertension. The nurse was kind in her call, but said my blood pressure levels were not within their guidelines. She said I could reapply after it was controlled for a particular period of time. So I returned to my doctor and told him of the problem. He said "But your hypertension is under control." He pointed to the last three readings conducted by his office, and though they were not within the levels PC had indicated, he showed me that, for a person of my age with my history, I was within the recommended guidelines of the medical establishment. I asked him if he'd write a letter to that effect, which he gladly did. I was extremely grateful. I then sent the letter onto PC as a fax (they don't recommend sending things by mail) and asked - cordially - for their reconsideration. After several weeks, on Xmas Eve, of last year, the nurse called me up and said they would give me medical clearance. We were ecstatic, of course.
We had planned a trip to Thailand and Cambodia in February to attend the birth of our daughter's first child, and we were looking forward to the Spring, when we anticipated that we would receive an invitation. Unfortunately, several weeks before we left, Judith received a call from the PC nurse. Unfortunately, she said, Judith's back condition would prevent them from giving medical clearance. They were afraid that she would not be able to handle squat toilets or the rigors of possible assignment in a rural country with few medical facilities. Judith was, naturally, disappointed and angry - not because she didn't believe they were concerned, but because they had misunderstood her physical capabilities.
Consequently, we both were now rejected, and it also made me angry and defiant. As luck would have it, our son Tobias had been befriended by the former head of Peace Corps in Asia, and he graciously introduced us to him and his lovely wife. We exchanged a few stories about our various histories and travels, and then I asked him if he any suggestions to overcome this obvious bureaucratic roadblock. He said it might be a good idea to contact our congressman, Mike Thompson, and ask him to have his office "monitor" our process. That's what we did. We also went to two back specialists to confirm that there was no medical necessity for Peace Corps to be concerned, and forwarded letters from them as well.
By the time we arrived in Bangkok on our visit, we'd received an email telling us that we had then been medically cleared for service. We then arranged to have our placement interview with the Peace Corps placement officer while we were in Bangkok - awaiting our granddaughter's birth - over Skype. The placement interview went fine, and we were told that we'd probably receive our invitation to PC sometime in May.
When May rolled around and we had still not received the invitation, I contacted the placement officer via email to check our status. Were we going to receive an invitation? Or had something else created a roadblock?
She wrote back that indeed they had found an assignment for us. But unfortunately, budgetary restraints had forced PC to cancel that particular program. All assignments for the Summer and Fall had been made. The soonest we might expect a possible invitation would be January of 2012.
So that's the current situation. At this juncture we're not certain if we would accept an invitation after such a long trial. We're not certain because it may be that the window of opportunity in our lives to do PC has begun to close. I'm still very interested, as is Judith, but my business is starting to move again with many commitments, our daughter is returning from Cambodia with her new baby, and our experience with the bureaucracy has been so very mixed.
Is agism the cause of these roadblocks? It makes one wonder. We knew the road would be long and difficult - and for our age, perhaps even more difficult than the assignments. But....
We'll see.
