My service here in Nicaragua has had its
ups and downs to be sure, but overall it’s gone by quickly. Perhaps more
quickly than I’d realized; it came as somewhat of a shock to realize that my
close of service conference was already upon me. The Peace Corps close of service conference
is a time when staff inundate volunteers with information about the various medical,
administrative, and programmatic steps that must be taken to properly finish
one’s service. To give you a better understanding of why this two and a half
day event can provoke anxiety in the hardiest of volunteers, here’s a partial
list of “to dos” and their deadlines:
DURING
THE CONFERENCE (THREE TO FOUR MONTHS PRIOR TO END OF SERVICE)
Select an end date. Volunteers have a small range of dates from which to choose their end of service. Once a date is selected, it is more or less set in stone, barring an emergency situation. Choosing the correct end date can be critical for certain graduate school fellowship opportunities. If you select a date that is within the approved range, yet is before the official end date provided by Peace Corps at the start of service, you may not be eligible for funding.
60
DAYS BEFORE END OF SERVICE
Complete your medical review. This
review consists of three days of medical and dental inspections, as well as a
litany of unpleasant lab tests.
30
DAYS BEFORE END OF SERVICE
Complete your Description of Service for
review by Peace Corps staff. This 2-4 page document provides a detailed account
of your activities while in service, and is the only document that the Peace
Corps will release to prospective employers.
Complete your Site Report for review by
Peace Corps staff. The site report is a compilation of all that you’ve learned
about your site during service, and recommendations you have for future
volunteer activity.
Finish all work on grant-funded projects and turn in a completion
report and accompanying receipts.
Ask for any personal recommendation letters you’d like written by staff or host country nationals.
Complete an exit interview with your
Program Manager, Project Specialist, and/or Country Director
24-72
HOURS BEFORE END OF SERVICE
Meet with the Peace Corps medical staff for a final medical review. Take a final HIV test, receive malaria prophylaxis, activate post-service
health insurance, and receive final clearance to leave the country.
Close your local bank
account.
Paperwork. Final reports. Medical exams.
Interviews. And that’s just for Peace Corps. There are work activities in site
that need to be wrapped up or passed on. Equally important, though, are the
goodbyes you will have to say to the people who, over the past two years, have
become colleagues, friends, and family. This will probably be the most
difficult of our end of service “tasks.” There is always a certain amount of
tying up of loose ends when you depart from a job. But with Peace Corps, you
are leaving more than just a job; you are leaving the entire life you have made
for yourself over the past two years. You may not see your site and its
inhabitants for years; maybe never again. I can tell you that of my list of “to
dos” that I was asked to make in one of the conference sessions, my list of
people to say good bye to is by far the longest.
The conference also covered the steps we
would be taking after service:
Select health insurance post-service. The
United States provides one month of coverage, after which it is up to the
returned volunteer to pay for an additional two months of the same plan, or
seek an alternative. Regardless, the returned volunteer must find his or her
own insurance after three months’ time.
Apply for a regular passport. Volunteers
have special Peace Corps passports that are only valid for 90 days after end of
service. If one’s regular passport expired during service – like mine did – one
should plan ahead to have a valid passport prior to the expiration of the Peace
Corps passport.
Find a job. In case you were wondering,
Peace Corps volunteers, upon completion of service, are NOT eligible for
unemployment compensation under normal circumstances. So it’s time to update
the resume; search through endless online postings; ask friends, family,
friends of the family, and people in your professional network; and apply,
apply, apply.
OR apply to graduate school.
GRE/MCAT/LSAT, applications, and interviews…oh my!
Talk about anxiety.
Yet the purpose of the conference was not
just to orient us in our final months of service and beyond Peace Corps. It was
also to allow us to reflect on nearly two years of our accomplishments,
disappointments, and lessons learned. Sometimes when we are in the moment, we
are unable to fully process our experiences. So while I still walked away with
some apprehension as to what awaits me in the coming months, I also came away
from the conference with a better understanding and appreciation of the time
I’ve spent here. I’m thankful for that.
Oh, and we were also instructed to make a
list of our personal, extracurricular “to dos.” My list is relatively short,
and includes the following:
- Learn to chip a coconut and peel an orange with a machete
- Visit Ometepe Island
- Eat armadillo
I hope I’ll be able to accomplish everything on
both my professional and personal lists. Regardless, I’ll be seeing many of you
in a few months. El tiempo corre…
