USAID Update: Houston, we're in a holding pattern...

So, I found out that I was selected for USAID pre-employment on April 30th. I got an appointment with a doctor exactly a week later on May 7th, thanks in great part to the excellent investigative work of my brother-in-law's friend, Will, who is also a Doctor. Now, although I was told that my labs would be ready by the following Tuesday, I have been waiting almost two weeks since I originally saw the Doctor. The sooner that I have my clearances, the sooner I will be eligible for a training class. With training classes held every other month (late July is the next), if I want to make the next class, it is imperative that the State Department Medical Office gets my labs as soon as possible. To be fair, I understand that sometimes these things take time, as they had to test us not only for general stuff like cholesterol and HIV, but weird things like the special enzyme that breaks down Malaria medication. I guess you need that special enzyme to be cleared for service in malaria vectors like Sub-Saharan Africa.

My problem with the process, besides general anxiety, is that when I call the doctors office, very politely mind you, I either get a message, or the receptionist invariably tells me that the labs should be ready "tomorrow." She has done this a couple of times, which leads me to believe, naively, that they actually WILL be ready..."tomorrow". So, when these labs aren't done "tomorrow", as fate dictates, I am disappointed (in addition to generally anxious). Rubbing salt in the wound, the receptionist also never calls me back when I leave a message. Yes, I know that it sometimes works that way, but anyway...

All-in-all, I just hate playing the waiting game, or more specifically, the waiting game within a much grander waiting game. You see the whole thing, quite frankly, is pure unadulterated purgatory: neither heaven, nor hell. By definition, I am pre-employed with USAID, so as meaning not quite employed with USAID; at the same time, not entirely un-employed? This is even more infuriating because I AM indeed un-employed, giving me more time to obsess over things like, well, semantics. As soon as I can get my medical labs in to the State Department Medical staff, then I will have completed everything that I have in my power to further expedite the process. I already agreed to a salary and I sent them my transcripts, although they still supposedly haven't yet received them (even though I sent them 3 weeks ago...sigh). The security clearance interview process should have started already, but the good news is that I heard that some candidates may be eligible to receive temporary clearances to attend a training class. This is great because security clearance can take a long time for people who have lived out of the country a good deal. I would love to be invited to this July class, although I know that may be pushing reality a tad.

So, hopefully I'll get some good news tomorrow. In a related story, I did find out from my USAID-interview-roommate that he hasn't been able to schedule an appointment with his Doctor for any date sooner than July. Wow, on the other hand, I may be doing better than I anticipated.