Adam Ventures

Because I have been nominated for an assignment in September of this year I have several weeks before I get wind of a medical clearance:

Due to this, my mind has been running wild trying to keep my Restless Applicant Syndrome sated.  One of my whimsies was trying to guess which country I will be sent to (assuming I am medically cleared and then receive an invitation).  I am secretly hoping for either Peru, Ecuador or Guatemala, but I understand that the only say I have in this matter is whether or not I will accept the invitation they send and that I will be happy in any country they send me to.  I love mountains so Peru, Ecuador or Guatemala would be a great fit but come to think of it, though, try finding a country in Latin America that does not have mountainous terrain.

But looking at which country I would like to serve in tells me nothing about which country I will likely serve in; my desires in no way influence the actuality of what the invitation may say regarding the country.  So when I went searching for some clues as to where I may serve I went to the one-stop shop for all information related to the Peace Corps — Peace Corps Wiki.  There, they have a chronological listing of upcoming invitations which is very informative.  When you receive an update from your recruiter you are told when the stagingwhen the applicants gather in a major American city before departing for their host country day is (the day you ship out of this country) but you are not told of the country in which you will serve; they save that information for when you receive the information in the mail.  However, when you get the call you can take a look at this page to figure out with 95% certainty the country (that is, unless you are one of the first of the group to get the call).

Linking from that page is a list of past invitations categorized by country of service, assignment, and stagingwhen the applicants gather in a major American city before departing for their host country month.  From that exhaustive spreadsheet of information I sorted it by assignment.  My assignment is Agriculture (Forestry Extension) so I narrowed it to this:

Agriculture Service Probability sorted by September Departure

The above image is the list of all countries in the past who the Peace Corps has sent volunteers to sorted by September departure.  However, this list is populated by several countries that are not in Latin America.  The above list cleaned up:

Agriculture Service Probability in Latin America Sorted by September Departures

Now we’re talking!

As you can see from the above image Ecuador has not been sent any Agriculture trainees in September.  If the image above were to be believed, I would have an equal chance of serving in either Paraguay or El Salvador followed closely by Peru.  Coincidentally Paraguay and El Salvador are the countries I am least looking forward to serving in.  Not because of any hatred for the people or the culture, I merely prefer mountainous terrain to these mostly flatfish countries.  Are there enough qualifiers in that last sentence?

Now for the disclaimer:  I do not take these spreadsheets at face value; these lists have been compiled from past data and are NOT predictive of the future.  Times change, people change, programs change, a multitude of other variables can interact and change the outcome so that the past is not indicative of the future.  Just because Paraguay and El Salvador have had the highest probability of September-departing Agriculture trainees does not mean that I will most likely serve in either of those countries.  Just because Ecuador has not had any Agriculture trainees departing for the month of September does not mean that they will not receive any this year.  This data from the past does not reflect the future potentiality due to the myriad changing conditions that precipitate an assignment in a country

Additional disclaimer:  Just because I have favored and disfavored countries at the current time does not preclude me from enjoying any country that I am invited to serve in.  Though I may not wish to serve in Country X as enthusiastically as Country Y has no bearing on the experience that I will have; each country is different, and inside the country every state is different, and inside the state each city is different.  Any predetermined desires to serve in one country over another are based on no experience whatsoever.

Ultimate disclaimer:  I have not yet been medically qualified, least of all invited to serve with the Peace Corps yet, so this entire post is predicated on the presumption that an invitation will come.

Even with those disclaimers this was a fun exercise in mapping my potential futures.  It provided no real information to me other than what others in the past have experienced.  Nonetheless it was entertaining to me — a whimsy.