Site Placement Announcements, Part I

With the official site placement announcement less than three weeks away, scheduled for August 9th, a crucial question on our minds is: “where will I be placed?” But more importantly: “who will we be sited next to me?” They tell us that these other 47 strangers in our group will become our good friends over the next two years; they tell us that the other trainees in our host community will become our closest friends; and they tell us that the PCVs sited in our site community will become our best friends. Statements like that make friendships [here] like a lottery, where proximity and chance dictate successful human bonding. Equally as important is preference of a particular geographic location, rolling off our tongues during our site interviews and survey questionnaires, pin-pointing particular providences (Khovd, Hovsgol) or cities (Erdenet, UB); our choices limited to what little we know about those areas.

Although I do share the same curiosity as my fellow trainees, I can’t help think how silly it is to waste such worries on something so minute. For me, my primary concern is not on where I will be living so much as what I will be doing. As a CYD volunteer, I wish to be setup with a Host Country Agency (HCA) that handles direct contact with children, particularly venerable children (i.e. orphans, shelter children, homeless children, children that already have been through the system or have been incarcerated). The PC application process and decisions up to this point were determined with little opinion from me; both the choice of host country and the job sector. If history dictates future, then I know my site placement will be determined based on need rather than personal opinion. Let’s hope I still have the same outlook come August 9th.