Peace Corps Timeline

In case any of you were wondering what I’m doing and when I’m doing it, I figured I should post a timeline.

June 26, 2013 – Staging in Philadelphia, PA

June 27, 2013 – Arrival in Swaziland and the start of training

August 29, 2013 – Swearing in and the end of training

August 30, 2013 – Move to sites and the start of integration

October 27-November 8, 2013 – In-service training

November 25-27, 2013 – Community Health training

November 28, 2013 – Thanksgiving and the end of integration

November 29, 2013 – More training

July 2014 – Mid-service physicals

August 2014 – Mid-service training

April 2015 – Close of service conference

July-August 2015 – G11 starts going home

Some definitions might be helpful.

Staging is where all the new volunteers meet and go over Peace Corps basics. It is the first day of being trainees. From staging, we all depart together to the Kingdom.

Training is absolutely grueling. We got only every other Sunday off – that’s one day off for 13 days on. It was language intensive, and we also focused on learning medical information and skills. The days were long. We lived with host families in nearby villages.

Integration is a period of 3 months where Volunteers are expected to integrate into their communities. We cannot do any projects, and we can only sleep away from our sites one night a month. It is really restrictive, but the point is to become members of our communities. We cannot do any projects except fill out the application for Books for Africa. We focus on relationship building and language improvement.

All the random trainings we have are to build more skills that we can take back to our communities.

Mid-service physicals are the standard yearly checkups we need to stay healthy. It includes all the checks we’d need to stay healthy in the US, as well as some extra checks to make sure we haven’t picked up any parasites or worms or anything. It’s 3 days of medical testing.

The close of service conference begins the final three months of service. The rules are similar to the rules in integration. You can leave site more than one night a month, but you cannot take vacations and you cannot leave the country. This is the time to finish up projects, say goodbyes, and finalize plans to return to the US.

Right before close of service is when Volunteers have the choice to extend. We can choose to stay for another year and work for an NGO or similar organization. Third-year volunteers tend to stay in more Westernized urban apartments. They are not, however, interns – the focus is still on building the capacity of host country nationals.