Sadly, I will remain a toothless redneck in Paraguay

Here's the story: About 7 months ago, a bridge (aka fake tooth glued in the front of my mouth when I was 13) cracked. My dentist said bridges were soooo 1990, so me and the Mrs. decided to be big spendors and pay for a fancy new dental implant.

I've been living with a titanium anchor screwed in my gums for the past six months patiently awaiting the day when my new chopper was attached. Luckily, my dentist was kind enough to fashion me with an middle school-style retainer complete with a gnarly fake tooth during all this. I was really going to miss taking that thing out at restaurants before eating or feverishly searching for its whereabouts on the sidewalks of NYC after a good sneeze.

Anyways, I went to my dentist last week to take an impression so that my new tooth would look and fit as perfect as I always imagined. Would I go with the standard white or pay tribute to my fallen homeys and go with gold? Vampires are all the rage right now, should I get a fang? The possibilities were endless. Or so I thought...

My dentist's exact words when she leaned over to take the impression: "Uh-oh."

As it turned out, my implant never fused to my jawbone. I was one of the lucky 10% of patients whose implant fails for no apparent reason. It was like winning the lottery...the shittiest lottery in the world.

I had surgery two days ago to remove the failed implant and to get a skin graph on my gums (about as fun as it sounds). Since the entire implant process takes 6-8 months, I won't be able to have another surgery before we leave for Paraguay in February. On the plus side, my dentist has agreed to make me "a handful of retainers" to take with me for the next 27 months.

With my dreams of greeting the people of Paraguay with a perfect smile crushed, I hope they'll still welcome this walking jack-o-lantern with open arms. I may not be pretty, but they'll always be welcome to sit on my front porch while I relax in my rocking chair and drink from a dirty jug with "XXX" on the front.

INVITATION!!!

Our invitation arrived yesterday!!! We're headed to PARAGUAY (staging Feb. 2, pre-service training Feb. 4)!

Freaking out just a little bit, but so incredibly excited!

Carly's assignment = Early Education Teaching Advisor
Jeff's assignment = Water and Sanitation Advisor

¡VIVA PARAGUAY!

WE ARE SO CLOSE!

Ok, I know it's been ages since we've posted. Work, volunteering, travel, daily life has really gotten in the way.

Just want to get out some major updates and then I can post my back-dated updates (complete w/ full timeline details and well, you know, emotions).

- We were medically cleared 9/16ish
(WHEW!) We only had one issue where Jeff had to have his blood re-tested based on some silly lab code. I guess we were part of that 15% that got it right the first time (yes, I'm bragging but these forms resulted in a lot of stress and countless doctors' visits--and multiple repeat visits).

-9/23 I was legally cleared (meaning they approved my school loan transfer/paperwork)
Jeff was already legally cleared

-9/23 Placement emailed us to ask for updated resumes and an Education Skillset Addendum

-9/28 We submitted the requested paperwork (finally got around to focusing on this after the crazy weekend of the Ragnar Relay in D.C.)
Unfortunately the Placement Office is off-site thru Friday... so I guess we'll have to wait until Monday for any more communication.

And that bring us up to tonight.

"Hello, my name is Carly and I want to be a Peace Corps Volunteer!"

I wanted to go ahead and start our blog (as well as get on the PC Journals site) because I truly believe in speaking things into existence. If you put your hopes out there in universe, you're bound to make things happen. When we first moved to NYC all I wanted to do was get a job in book publishing. I'd meet new people all the time and my line would be, "Hello, my name is Carly and I want to work in book publishing." (and this line was used on literally EVERYONE... including the mailman)

After living in NYC--and using my line--for about 6 months, our office hired a tarot card reader for fun. I introduced myself to the tarot card reader using my well-rehearsed line and low and behold, her BFF worked in book publishing! I finally had a contact! 5 months later I was working in book publishing.

So... after 10 months of reading other applicants' and volunteers' (PCVs') blogs, it's time for the Wilkins to contribute.

Again, we're nominated to serve in C/S America leaving early February 2011. Couples nominations occur on a quarterly basis--slightly different from single placements--but I'd love to hear from anyone else that was nominated for this region. Since I practically stalk the Peace Corps Wiki for new staging updates, I have a list of countries that have had February stagings in our region in previous years:

-Ecuador
-El Salvador
-Honduras
-Paraguay

Any of these would be incredible!

Life called. We picked up the phone... but we're still on hold.

How it all started...

June 25, 2009:
After hearing the tragic news of Michael Jackson's death while at work, we headed out to Blue Ribbon in Park Slope to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary. We hoped we could locate a cab with a CD player so we could blast the King of Pop's Greatest Hits History (Vol. 1), but alas, we are avid public transit riders and were unaware of the fact that cabs don't have CD players. Lame.

Once seated at Blue Ribbon, we attempted to play the CD for all restaurant patrons so they would be tempted not to stop until they got enough. Unfortunately the fancy-schmancy restaurant didn't have a CD player either and piped in their ambiance via satellite. We are so outdated.

After an amazing meal, and gazing into eachother's eyes (of course), we started to discuss our life plan. For months we had been toying with the idea of leaving NYC--only we had no idea where we wanted to end up. We both want to have kids... some day... but weren't entirely sure if that should be factored into the plan just yet. We really liked the idea of living overseas (even if just for a short while), and possibly teaching English to non-native speakers. We were pretty sure our professional jobs were not a right fit, well at least not a permanent one. We also tossed around the idea of volunteering and possibly joining the Peace Corps as a couple.

Ultimately we decided to investigate the Peace Corps option a bit further and purchased the book THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO THE PEACE CORPS: WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE YOU GO by Dillon Banerjee. We were sold. This sounded like such a perfect fit for both of us, as individuals that truly want to participate in something bigger, as well as a motivated couple in search of the next challenge in our lives.

Picking up and moving from VA to NYC approximately 5 1/2 years ago was a big step. We conquered that challenge. Heck, we ROCKED IT.

We are ready to take the next step. After toiling over the application process for MONTHS (yes, literally... see "Peace Corps Applicant Timeline") we hit "submit." We received legal packets, went to the NYPD Precincts to get fingerprinted (crappy experience) and returned all of the requested information. We had secured recommendations from amazing friends and coworkers and were ready to make contact with a HUMAN. We finally received an email from our Peace Corps Recruiter (who also happened to win an episode of Jeopardy---impressive, right?) while we were visiting the Peutherers in Australia.

And... to bring you up to date (you can read the nitty gritty details in the "Timeline")... we have been NOMINATED to serve in Central or South America for just over a month now, we are neck-deep in the RIDICULOUS medical process and (just like every other nominee) wish we had an invite to leave TOMORROW! Unfortunately since we're not slated to leave until early February 2011, we don't anticipate receiving an official invitation until October-ish (of course, this is all contingent on medical and legal clearances). Hence the title of this post.

One of the Peace Corps' taglines is "Life is calling. How far will you go?"... we answered the call and we will go as far as this experience is willing to take us. Yes, we said we preferred Central or South America on our applications, but to be perfectly honest, ANY country or region in the world is exciting. Thanks to everyone (anyone???) who reads this blog, thinks a happy thought or has shown us support throughout this process. And just like Michael Jackson, we promise not to stop until we get enough!