Then, Peace Corps surprised me again! On Tuesday, March 8, I received my invitation to serve as an agribusiness specialist in Uganda. Woohoo!!

You have been selected to serve as a Peace Corps Volunteer, pending medical and legal clearance. This letter is your formal invitation to serve as an Agribusiness Specialist in Uganda tentatively departing Jul-Aug 2022.

I called my Mom and she answered the phone with, “Good morning.” I replied, “Yes, it is!” and shared the news with her. We both squealed with delight!

The rest of the email included the first tasks to complete:

• Formally accept the invitation – I had that done about five minutes after receiving the invitation. No lengthy consideration needed.
• Review COVID guidance and general policies
• Review the country website

Subsequent emails over the next couple of days included information about legal clearance, passport application information, an intro to medical clearance.

Clearances

While an invitation to serve sounds definite, one hurdle remains before I can pack my bags and head off – clearances: legal and medical.

Depending on country of service, a past legal issue could prevent someone from leaving. Since my biggest infractions have been a couple of parking tickets, I have no concerns about legal clearance.

Medical clearance, on the other hand, requires quite a bit of work by the invitee under the best of circumstances. And, as an “older” volunteer with some health issues, I expect that to be a bit of work. More on that to come shortly…

One step at a time

So, I’m not packing my bags and renting my house out quite yet… but, I am a BIG step closer, and very excited!

Photo

Cover photo is of a needle felted giraffe I made this winter. His name is Raffy Giraffy (my inner 5-year old named him) and is my mascot for getting to Uganda. He’s pulling his weight!