I got an email message yesterday afternoon from the Peace Corps’ country desk officer for The Gambia, the country where I was selected to serve in. (It was sent yesterday, but I didn’t check my email until today.)
“As we continue to learn more about the challenges posed by COVID-19, the Peace Corps has made the decision to significantly delay the The Gambia training classes that were tentatively scheduled to depart in June 2020. We wish this situation could be avoided, but as our top priorities are health and safety, we have determined this is the best course of action at this time given the COVID-19 pandemic,” he wrote.
I’m not sure what he meant by “tentatively scheduled to depart in June 2020.” That is when I had been initially scheduled to depart, but earlier this year, it was delayed until June of 2021. So either that was a reference to my initial departure date or he meant June of 2021 and made a mistake. Either way, it looks like I won’t be leaving for The Gambia in June of 2021.
He asked me to pick from a list of options. One was to only serve in the country I’d planned to go to. Another was to say I preferred to go where I planned, but was open to other options. A third, which I picked, was to say I want to leave for service as soon as I can and the location I serve isn’t that important to me. And a fourth was to withdraw my application.
It’s possible that they will send me to a completely different place and have me do something completely different than I’d planned. I might end up working in economic development in Vietnam or something. If that’s what they want, I’m willing to do that.