Off-Topic General Discussion - Page 3831

I've had a few people ask me what's going on with me and the whole Thailand thing, esp. JonGalt, who is a cool guy. Unfortunately it's not a very happy story, and it's kind of long, but if you wanted to know here it is. I wanted to tell you guys sooner but I didn't think my lawyer wanted me to, if that makes it all foreshadowy and creepy.

I applied to the Peace Corps in Feb. of 2013, almost exactly two years ago. At the interview they basically told me I was definitely going to get in. I wasn't really surprised. The way PC works is they break the volunteer jobs into four different categories (health/nursing, education, IT and agriculture) and I had the experience/training to qualify for the first three of those, when most people will only qualify for one. I also have over a years experience living overseas already, often by myself, in a total of 15 different countries, with lots of time spent in the sort of rural areas Peace Corps volunteers go to where there are shortages of things like water and electricity.

However, my application got hung up with the medical office for two years.

See, sort of a personal thing about me, I was hospitalized for depression 15 years ago, when I was 14. Highschool wasn't really the best time in my life. I don't want to go into it more than that.

However, I got some really good therapy and by the time I went to college I had stopped therapy and medication and I've been depression free for over 10 years. I went and lived in India and southeast Asia and never had a problem. This is kind of something that I'm like really proud of, because I had some serious issues when I was a kid, but I've overcome all of them and I'm totally healthy now you know?

Anyway, when I applied to Peace Corps I got a letter from my psychiatrist saying there wasn't any risk of me having issues with depression in Peace Corps.

The medical office disagreed, and fought me on this point for two years. They demanded I see a second psychiatrist, and get regular evaluations for over a year. The second psychiatrist thought it was stupid that I had to visit him, and was frankly annoyed that I was taking up his time when I didn't need any help. He sent multiple letters to Peace Corps saying I didn't need to see him anymore, and they kept sending me back. Because I don't have any health insurance, I had to spend several thousand dollars out of pocket for this. It also delayed my departure date over a year more than what is regular Peace Corps application turnaround.

Back in January 2014, the medical office initially denied my application, saying that because of my 15 year old depression history, I was too high risk to do something I've already done successfully, live in another country. I filed an appeal, and also applied to graduate school down in San Diego for a masters program in Education, to become a community college History teacher.

However, my appeal to the medical office was successful, which is when I told you guys, because at that point I was sure I was going. They gave me Thailand as a post and a departure date of January 10th 2015, next week. Around the same time I was accepted to the graduate program, and asked to be moved to the waitlist due to this Peace Corps thing. The school understood, and told me to apply again when I got back from Thailand, they were pretty cool about it.

Thailand I was especially qualified for, and I really wasn't surprised that they gave this to me. I've already spent over a month in Thailand, and have friends living there. I've spent over a week in the province in northern Thailand that they wanted to send me to already. My university degree is in south/southeast asian studies and history, and when I lived in India I was taking graduate courses on Buddhism and southeast asian culture and religion. Needless to say, I was pretty excited.

I didn't hear from the medical office for about 8 months. I eventually had to deal with them again when they do their "final medical clearance", which is basically you get a physical and a dental exam and any immunizations you need (most of the immunizations I already had, because I already go these places kind of regularly you know?) just a few weeks before your departure.

I sent them all that paperwork, then right before Thanksgiving I left my job, left my apartment, and came up to San Francisco to be with my family over the holidays before I left.

At that point I heard that the medical office had declined my final medical clearance. It had nothing to do with the physical or dental exam, they had reviewed my year old mental health evaluations that had already been successfully appealed, without telling me that these things would be under review again, and changed their decision.

I spent about 10 hours a day writing a second appeal over the course of a weekend, because I knew I had to get it in to them fast in order to make my departure date. When I sent it in, the nurse who worked with me at the medical office called it "fantastic" and basically said I had nothing to worry about. It took them like three weeks to process it, and over that time I spent the holidays with my family.

When they got back to me, I was told the appeals board had said they thought it was the best appeal anyone has ever written since the Peace Corps was founded. They sent my information to the Thailand medical office to ask them to clear it, which is apparently normal procedure.

The Thailand medical office said no.

So, that was about two weeks ago. I got in touch with an attorney after that, and asked if I could make a case against the Peace Corps for employment discrimination. The attorney basically said that not only did I have a case, I had a very easy and straightforward case that would be very difficult for me to lose. However, due to the fact that I can't really ask for much money (just a few grand for medical bills), and because the Peace Corps typically fights cases like these even when they know they're going to lose, that I would not be able to get a lawyer to take this case unless I was willing to put forward an amount of money that I don't have.

So, that's what happened. Basically I declined graduate school, left my job and my house to fulfill a lifelong dream of mine to be a Peace Corps volunteer, only to be denied entry less than a month before I was supposed to leave.


So, sorry about getting your hopes up about that. Looks like I'm still going to be around a while.