Declining an invitation

[desamischers]

Hey, I'm sure this is repetitive, but there's no tags being used in this comm I guess. :\

Can anyone give me an idea of what it means to decline an invitation? Is it the end of the world? Is there any chance of receiving another assignment? I am hearing conflicting reports on this.

What is the best way to explain to your PO that you want to decline?

Comments

[sunsetscreamer]

There were people in my group who had declined their first invitation. They then got a second invitation, no problem. However, that said, one of those people VERY quickly terminated his service, so I have to wonder if pickiness was really a sign of inflexibility...

I think you don't have to say anything when declining the invitation, just decline it and they will give you another one! That said, honestly, I don't think you being flluent in a second language is going to make them any more likely to assign you to a country where they speak that language. Sorry. There were boatloads of people fluent in French or Spanish in my PC group and where did they get... Turkmenistan... lol

[whenthelight]

That's just so crazy to me! I'm fluent in French and I've heard of people sent to Francophone countries with basically 2 semesters of French, relying on other people who are more fluent to get around the city during training and whatnot. Why not send someone fluent to a country that speaks it? It's such a valuable asset, and if it's in short suppy, it makes no sense.

[meteoricpath]

I get the frustration behind this however, I suspect that some of PC HQ reasoning behind this has to do with the fact that the language spoken at site is often not the official language of the country and so the people you'd be working with locally would be speaking the local language anyway. Just knowing another language, no matter which one, gives an indication that the person has the propensity to learn another one.

[whenthelight]

To me, it still doesn't make sense. If you have the ability to learn other languages, that's just a good pre-requisite to join Peace Corps in general. If you're actually fluent in a useful language, where the language is an official language in a country, it just makes sense that you'd be placed there (if you want to be, and fluent speaker applicants are scarce). It's true not many people may speak the Western language on site, but if you leave your site, you'll be going through many villages that speak other tribal languages (at least this is so in Africa), other than the one you were trained in for your village. In that case, the Western language may be the most useful means of communication. This is especially true if you're going into a big city. I'm just speaking from experience in West Africa of course. I am fluent in French and I got placed in an English-speaking country, when I know that people with 2 semesters of French get sent to French W. Africa all the time.

[belowtheheavens]

I am serving in Panama right now. I was placed in CEC which deals with enviormental Conservation. My back round is in Economics and community organizing....Why did they place me here? Because it is were I belonged. Peace Corps reviewed my strengths and decided that because of my experience I could do great work in this sector. Panama asked for people with a certain subset of skills and that trumps Language.

Outside of French or Spanish, most peace corps volunteers don't have experience with "enter dialect here" but they have a desire to serve. You can learn Russian or Arabic and it may open doors after that you did not know existed.

Just my 2 cents lol

[west_nile_virus]

I agree with meteoricpath; PC really just wants to see that you have language learning aptitude. You may also find that their philosophy isn't all that unusual. For example, an accountant could join the FBI and end up doing kidnapping cases instead of embezzlement.

Nobody can say for sure whether you'll get a second invitation or not. That all has to do with PC's invisible machinations. For what its worth my own intuition says this may not be a good year since they have a lot of rollover from previous cancellations. This year we lost Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador for instance.

At the cost of seeming arrogant I also have to caution you against building up too many expectations of your dream country to serve. It may get you into trouble. You have a long life ahead of you and can always pick out a good country to practice a language in later.

[desamischers]

Thanks for your response. My paperwork says I need to ultimately email a "reason for declining" after making a phone call. So I really don't know what to say because I know the fluency thing isn't a good excuse.

It probably sounds weird to others but I do a lot of things by intuition, and I just knew right away it wasn't the right assignment. In fact, I've always tossed around ending up in lots of different corners of the world, and thought I'd probably go through with it! I just never expected this, and I know it's wrong for me. I wish I could just say to my PO, "Hey, can I have a re-roll?" It really sucks that our fate is so randomly in one person's hands, and that the system isn't really set up to accommodate our preferences. It's all just luck.

Oh my god hey! Fellow Obie! You served in Turkmenistan? Did you like it? I was thinking about it and I don't actually know any other Obies who did PC or were even considering it...