Plans down the drains :(
Well for those who don’t know me, as well as those who have not kept in touch with me for a while, I believe a recap is in order. Many events that have occurred in the past few months have unfolded a great number of limitations but also a great variety of new possibilities in my endeavor to save the world.
Upon graduating from Michigan State University I had decided to pursue my adolescent life dream of joining the Peace Corps. To me the Peace Corps meant an opportunity to start making a difference in people’s lives as well as a doorway to the world of international development and emergency aid. I had filled out their long application and was contacted to schedule an interview. It was my belief that the interview had not gone well, however a call from my recruiter congratulating me on my acceptance as a Peace Corps volunteer had an instantaneous effect of wiping out most of the pessimism that I had about my dream. If all went well, I was to leave for an assignment somewhere in West Africa in September 2005. But it was not over yet, first I had to commence my medical and dental evaluations and submit them back to the Peace Corps office as soon as I could. This task proved to be full of obstacles which were mainly financial in nature. But eventually thanks to the help of my parents, grandparents, the benevolent medical services of a friend of the family who happened to be a medical doctor, and the reduced fees of a compassionate dentist, I was relieved of the financial load that came with the medical requirements of joining the Peace Corps.
Unfortunately, after all the trouble I went through, the Peace Corps judged that my allergies and mild asthma would restrict me to a limited number of countries.
I was no longer leaving in September 2005. And to top it all, a negative result on a PPD test revealed that I was infected with latent tuberculosis and was to take a 6 month long treatment to expunge the potentiality of infection with the actual disease before I could be medically cleared as far as the Peace Corps was concerned.
This was a major blow to my plans. I had thought out this elaborate plan where I would join the Peace Corps at the age of 26 come back and go to business school at the age of 29, graduate at the age of 31, end up working for the department of a large organization such as USAID, World Bank or United Nations whose sole purpose is to help developing countries in Africa, and then eventually start a consulting agency that would help businesses in Africa thrive and promote self-sufficiency within the African economy. And all my plans went down the drain after I was told that not only I was restricted to a limited amount of countries but that also I would have to wait until the summer of 2006 to even have a potential Peace Corps assignment. For the next months that followed this news I was almost devastated and had lost much of my optimism; that was until yesterday.
….And in my next blog entry I will let you know what brought back to life my optimism and how I believe my new plan to saving the world will be accomplished
Upon graduating from Michigan State University I had decided to pursue my adolescent life dream of joining the Peace Corps. To me the Peace Corps meant an opportunity to start making a difference in people’s lives as well as a doorway to the world of international development and emergency aid. I had filled out their long application and was contacted to schedule an interview. It was my belief that the interview had not gone well, however a call from my recruiter congratulating me on my acceptance as a Peace Corps volunteer had an instantaneous effect of wiping out most of the pessimism that I had about my dream. If all went well, I was to leave for an assignment somewhere in West Africa in September 2005. But it was not over yet, first I had to commence my medical and dental evaluations and submit them back to the Peace Corps office as soon as I could. This task proved to be full of obstacles which were mainly financial in nature. But eventually thanks to the help of my parents, grandparents, the benevolent medical services of a friend of the family who happened to be a medical doctor, and the reduced fees of a compassionate dentist, I was relieved of the financial load that came with the medical requirements of joining the Peace Corps.
Unfortunately, after all the trouble I went through, the Peace Corps judged that my allergies and mild asthma would restrict me to a limited number of countries.
I was no longer leaving in September 2005. And to top it all, a negative result on a PPD test revealed that I was infected with latent tuberculosis and was to take a 6 month long treatment to expunge the potentiality of infection with the actual disease before I could be medically cleared as far as the Peace Corps was concerned.
This was a major blow to my plans. I had thought out this elaborate plan where I would join the Peace Corps at the age of 26 come back and go to business school at the age of 29, graduate at the age of 31, end up working for the department of a large organization such as USAID, World Bank or United Nations whose sole purpose is to help developing countries in Africa, and then eventually start a consulting agency that would help businesses in Africa thrive and promote self-sufficiency within the African economy. And all my plans went down the drain after I was told that not only I was restricted to a limited amount of countries but that also I would have to wait until the summer of 2006 to even have a potential Peace Corps assignment. For the next months that followed this news I was almost devastated and had lost much of my optimism; that was until yesterday.
….And in my next blog entry I will let you know what brought back to life my optimism and how I believe my new plan to saving the world will be accomplished
posted by Albouri Ndiaye | 13:21
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