medical clearance...

So, I finally recieved my medical/dental clearance forms in the mail last week and they don't appear to be too complicated since I don't have any serious health conditions that need crazy tests. I got my dad's office to do my physical for me which makes my life soo much easier lol. They got to conduct all the fun labs on me like urinalysis and blood work (PC requests a lot of blood work. I ended up giving 4-5 small vials of blood). I also got three shots today, my Hep B (shot 1), TB test, and my Tetanus shot and was soo proud of myself for not crying (Preface: I hate needles and more so, hate getting shots! go figure for the guy who wants to be a doctor...). Luckily I don't think I've have much of a problem being medically/dentally cleared but everyone was right in saying that this will be my first time practicing my patience as this is going to take a few weeks to complete since I have to wait till next week to get my eyes examined, the earliest I have time to get my dental check-up is in two weeks, and then I have to go back and get my polio booster since my mom has to order one for me along with my Hep B (shot 2) in about a month. Luckily, I don't really need the full Hep B series to be cleared (but mom and dad want to do it anyways even though the peace corps normally provides it) since the the third shot is given 6 months later or else that would have really delayed my medical clearance.

Sorry this post isn't very exciting but remember that part of the reason why I am writing in this blog is to document the Peace Corps process for any prospective PC applicants, particularly GT people referred here by Sarah. Also I'm bored and blogging about the Peace Corps is a lot more fun than doing my Physics II homework...

Oh and I would like to take the time here to say goodbye to Sally Kline, an administrater in the Office of Community Service and Greek Affairs who is leaving Georgia Tech for an Assistant Dean position at the University of Virginia. Sally provided me with much advice concerning my decision to apply to the Peace Corps and her support for me has been incredible. I am truly grateful for her advice and support and I wish her the best in her new ACC school :)

ciao,

-Nikhil

alaska

Since people have been asking how my trip to Alaska was, well it was pretty incredible. Actually it was absolutely incredible. Alaska is such a BEAUTIFUL state and its sad that not that many people get a chance to visit due to its somewhat "extreme" location. I flew out to Anchorage to meet up with my parents and other family friends who were just coming back from the land portion of the trip up to Denali National Park. I am extremely mad that I missed that part of the trip (silly summer school) because seeing Denali on a clear day is something very rare and my parents got to see it. Its okay though, give me a reason to go back :) After meeting up with my folks we toured around Anchorage for a bit then over the weekend took a trip down to Kenai Fjords National Park near Seward and saw some pretty incredible glaciers and landscapes. I even got to kiss a glacier (why not?) somewhat illegally.

After a weekend on land, we all set forth sail aboard the Island Princess for a 7-day cruise southbound to Vancouver. Along the way we visited College Fjords, Glacier Bay National Park, Skagway, Juneau, Ketchican before finally arriving in Vancouver. The cruise was awesome and very different from the Carnival Carribean cruise I took a few years ago because we pretty much followed land about 75% of the time. The ports of call were fun because I got to go and see a musher's camp and ride a sled dog cart as well as go rock climbing and rappelling in Skagway; then ziplining in Juneau and finally sea kayaking in Ketchikan. I also ate massive amounts of awesome food (particularly great seafood) and even go to try some pretty exotic stuff like caviar, escargot and frog's legs (which I promise does taste like chicken).

Saw some cool animals. Bears, sea otters, bald eagles, ginormous starfish, moose and WHALES! I saw not just pods of orcas in the open water but one of my favorite memories was a huge pod of humpbacks! Me and my friends were sitting in the food court on the top deck looking towards the bow of the ship when we saw whale after whale after whale breach slightly. The pod must have had at least 15-20 whales. The coolest part: I SAW A HUMPBACK WHALE BREACH AND EAT A BIRD! no joke!

We ended our cruise in Vancouver and honestly, I now love the west coast even more than before. West coast mentality and culture just rocks and suits me well. I really hope that I get the opportunity to move to the west coast at somepoint in my life whether it be to Vancouver (one of my new favorite cities) or Portland or Seattle or San Francisco. We'll see where life takes me.

I'll try and post pics on facebook or something like that soon. But for your viewing pleasure, here's one of my favorite pictures from the trip: a panoramic view of Marjorie Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park.

congratulations! you have been nominated to serve in the Peace Corps.

So just to let you all know, I had my interview with Valerie, my recruiter, this past thursday and it went very well. It was a lot longer and more personal than I expected it to be but I guess also a lot more "normal" than the interviews I'm used to (after you've interviewed for GHP and done the whole thing in Spanish and after you've interviewed with Freshman Council, you're ready for anything!). However there were some slightly amusing questions that dealt with what kind of cultural circumstances I would be able to tolerate such as privacy issues, appearance issues, alcohol issues, etc. Reflecting back, I've had some pretty incredible experiences in my life and I've been in almost every kind of living situation from a fancy hotel with running water, WiFi and room service to a village "house" with a squat down latrine, sporadic electricity and eating food from a banana leaf. I'm so glad that these experiences will hopefully prepare me for my transition to life in a developing country.

Anyways, if you haven't guessed by now as per the title of this post, I recieved my nomination to the Peace Corps this weekend. According to the website the nomination means that my PC recruiter has nominated me for service in a general field to a general geographic area for an approximate departure date. I won't know any specifics about my exact job nor the country I will be going to nor my exact departure date until I recieve my actual invitation to serve. Before I can recieve my invitation, I have to get medical, dental, financial and legal clearance which i hope to work on before the end of the summer. During my interview Valerie told me that she was going to nominate me for a health position since that's what seemed to be the best fit for me but as for geographic location, she had a few choices. Because of my strong Spanish backgroung she was originally going to nominate me for a position in Latin America for a departure date of January/February but since I wasn't too excited about serving the Central America and because it's been a dream of mine to go to Africa, I pushed the whole "I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to go to Africa" and she told me the earliest she could get me to Africa was June-ish 2008. Although I was hoping to leave around March/April, I decided field and location were a LOT more important to me than departure date because the only departure restriction I had was that I wanted to be back in the US around August to apply for jobs and graduate school and leaving in "early" June would let me do that.

So basically my situation right now is that I am "in" the health program pending medical/dental/financial/legal clearance and it will most likely be somewhere in Africa around "early" June. But just to clarify, nothing is certain until I recieve my actual invitation. So there is still a decent chance that I may open my invitation and it might say I'm doing NGO work in Honduras leaving August 2008. So pray for me please :)

p.s. since my application packet is all done, if any of you (particularly those of you who are filling out the application) want to read my two essays (personal statement and cross-cultural experience) for an example of what's expected, just e-mail me and I'll send it to you. No real point in posting them up here...

you want to join what? the peace corps?

Hey!

Since i basically spent this past week trying to explain to my family friends who were travelling with me through Alaska about the Peace Corps, i thought i might shed some light to anyone reading this blog as to what prompted me to apply (I've provided a short version, a summary of sorts, for those of you who just want to skim this post, as well as a long version for anyone interested in delving into my psyche) :

the short version

It's something I've wanted to do for a long time; I want an adventure; It's a REALLY great career opportunity; It's my way to start "saving the world"...

the long version

So there I am sitting in Junior's flipping through the Technique quietly, skimming for interesting articles while munching on my chicken tenders. That's when I see it: "Your Life is Calling. How Far Will You Go?" and advertisement for the US Peace Corps. For some wierd reason, those words resonated with me. Maybe it was just the emotional place I was at the time with concerns about what I was going to do post-graduation; maybe my soul just wanted an adventure in some far off exotic place. Whatever the reason, I knew that my life was calling to me and it was telling me to join the Peace Corps.

Before I go on, I must explain a little about what the Peace Corps is to all my non-US family and friends. The US Peace Corps is a federal agency committed to world peace and friendship. It was established by President John F. Kennedy's Administration in 1961. The Peace Corps was founded upon three simple goals:

1) Helping the people of interesed countries in meeting their need for trained men and women

2) Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served

3) Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans

The program consists of placing volunteers in developing countries that request the assistance of the United States through the disemination of knowledge and transfer of skills to that community in certain areas such as health, agriculture, education, business, etc. Volunteers involved first undergo 3 months of in-country training followed by a 24-month permanent site placement where they are supposed to integrate into the community and work on projects related to their field (do the math and that comes out to 27 months of total service). They are typically assigned individually and the goal is to develop self-sustaining projects to benefit the community so that after the volunteer leaves, the project is not dependant on an outsider. Integration into the community is faciliated by the volunteers partcipating in homestays during training and then being adopted into families in site. The Peace Corps is currently serving in 73 countries on all 6 continents.

So why would someone like me, who had aspirations of becoming a pediatric neuro-oncologist be interested in a program like this? For me it all really started my freshman year of college where I met many people who were committed to serving the underprivileged community and I realized that I want to do the same. I believe that health is a human right and there are violations of this right everywhere in the world. I want to stop this and the best way I know how is through public health. As much as medicine interests me, I am also interested in other fields such as international development, management, health policy, sociology and anthropology. Public health is basically the intersection of these disciplines and regardless of what I eventually end up doing, it will be public health related.

I've realized that I want to live my life in service to others. And if I don't build the foundation of my life on service, it becomes very unlikely that I'll be able to really live my life the way I want to. I see the peace corps and my future masters in public health as my foundation for which I want to build my medical career on. I don't feel that I have to choose between healing individual people and helping communities of people with their health needs; it's all about balance. To see an example of someone who has acheived a sort of balance, read up on my hero, Dr. Paul Farmer (I honestly believe that you can't understand what I want to do with my life until you read about him. Check out either Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder or one of Dr. Farmer's books AIDS & Accusations, Infections & Inequalities, or Pathologies of Power). He's an incredible person and I hope to do international health work similar to him someday.

Other reasons for joining:

- i love travelling, meeting new people, experiencing new cultures and of course, learning new languages!!!

- think of the peace corps as an incredible career opportunity, especially for the field that I eventually want to enter; opportunity to experience the health challenges of the people I eventually want to help

- i heard the Fellows USA program is working on expanding into other graduate programs including public health so I may be able to get a scholarship to go to graduate school

- free health insurance and dental insurance, not to mention a stipend for when i return

- the peace corps as a diet? maybe i'll finally lose the weight I've been trying to lose for some time lol

- i want an adventure. how cool would it be to say "I lived in XYZ (some exotic country) in a mud hut on the beach for 2 years with the Peace Corps!" [clarification: mud hut and beach location are dependant on resources of my site]

I know that these may not seem like a good enough reasons for some people to join the Peace Corps from your perspective; but I'm not here to change your mind or force my opinion on you. I'm simply stating facts. I'm joining to make a difference in this world...

anyways, I hope that helped you understand my perspective a little more. Also, feel free to ask me any kinds of questions you may have about my process so far. I know I'm only in the preliminary stages of the process but I know a lot more than a person who is just beginning to research the Peace Corps program :)

ciao for now,

-Nikhil