learning persistence thru the peace corps application process

the pc application process has definately taught me persistence! It actually surprised me today. I've been waiting almost 2 weeks for my invitation letter and it still hasn't come. This is especially strange because my po told me that it was sent out two wensdays ago, and I live about 20 minutes from philadelphia so it's not like I'm out in the boonies. I started to freak out about how long it was taking and every morning was getting more and more frustrating when I discovered my letter STILL hadn't arrived and I couldn't get a hold of my placement officer because I lost my cell phone and I didn't even remember his name (only talked briefly once when he told me the invite letter had been sent). So I called the regional headquarters office and I asked if they could tell me the name of my recruiter and the guy said no, he can't do that. (two weeks ago a guy in his chair actually did do just that so I know he actually could!) I told him not to refer me to the placement office because that just goes straight to a machine that noone ever checks. He said well then there's nothing I can do for you. Well, I ended up leaving a desperate plea on the placement office's machine, then I called headquarters again and I got a new person this time. I asked her if she could tell me who my placement officer was and she immediately transfered me to the answering machine aka. the placement office. So I called back again and asked to be transfered to my former medical screener because he at least usually tried to be helpful but he wasn't at his desk. So I called headquarters again and asked to be refered to ANY po. At first she said she couldn't do it but then she did and that guy wasn't at his desk but he gave a number of someone you could call if you needed to speak with someone. I couldn't get a pen in time and my horrible memory couldn't even retain the first three digits after I found one. So I called headquarters again and asked to be refered to a po again, and this guy said he couldn't do it he needed a name. I said that the other person JUST did it so he actually can refer me to someone. The guy was actually laughing at this point because he and the lady he was sitting next to had talked to me about five times by then. He told me to hang on a sec and promptly hung up! Or maybe we got disconnected, but I sure wasn't talking to anyone anymore. I went online to my toolkit to see if there was any contact info for anyone on there but I only found the number to the headquarters office. I even checked the archives of the yahoo forum to see if anyone had any success with finding their po's. I ended up calling headquarters again and got a new person. This time I explained everything about how I was waiting for the invite for two weeks blah blah he listened and then transfered me to the placement office machine. So very frustrated and starting to loose it I went through some old emails seeing if there was any contact info where I could possibly get ahold of my old recruiter. I then found at the bottom of an old forgotten email there was a direct number to a student aid in the african placement office! I called and she was there! I told her my situation, she took my info, looked up my file, reassured me that my spot was still open and available for me, and said to wait two more days and if the letter still has not arrived she will have it sent again. She even gave me the name and extension number for my placement officer! Wow. My faith in the peace corps staff and humanity in general was restored. This is of course only one example out of dozens during the medical screening process where I stretched my level of patience and persistence. Before applying for the peace corps knowing me I definatly would have gotten frustrated and given up on this last epic battle but I'm surprized by how much persistence I have now and it actually paid off! Hot diggity!