This week was filled with preparations. I hadn’t fully appreciated how much paperwork would need to be completed prior to my departure. It seems like everything is coming all at once now that it’s November.
I needed to get medical clearance from the US Dept. of State so I went in for my physical. The medical clearance form is about 8 pages long. I had planned to just leave it with my doctor so she could have an assistant fill it in but she thought it would be easier to just go through every question with me at that time. It took us extra time but I was able to leave with much of the form completed. What I didn’t realize was how many blood tests I’d have to have done. In addition to the normal cholesterol screening I expected, I needed to be screened for TB, HIV, and several other diseases I was sure I didn’t have. I also didn’t have my childhood immunization record so I needed to have a titer done to prove that I was, in fact, immunized against Polio, and MMR. All this added up to ten, count them, TEN viles of blood drawn. Oh and I also got my flu shot…
I’m happy to report that my blood passed all the tests (thank you super smart A+ blood) and I have been medically cleared for my Fulbright .
The next piece of paperwork that I am still in the process of completing is my visa application. Applying for a non-tourist visa is much more involved than the normal 30 day tourist visa. I received a link to the online visa application and was asked to complete it ASAP. Unfortunately, I don’t have all the required information. For example, I need to list my address in Uzbekistan, which I don’t have at this point. I also need my arrival and departure dates. Again, I don’t have those either. I’ve sent an email into my contact at the US Embassy in Tashkent asking for some help but of course its the weekend as I am writing this. The 10 hour time change also complicates communication because I’m usually asleep when they reply and they are asleep when I reply.
While I wait to hear back from the Embassy about my visa, I’m using the time to try to pin down my travel plans. I really want to arrange our flights with only one connection but that is proving to be quite difficult given that I have to fly on US carriers and would rather NOT spend $5000+ per ticket.
Finally, I’ve been asked by my contact at the Uzbek Ministry of Education to put together a PowerPoint for the head School Psychologists with information about the methods and activities I would like to use for both the teachers and students in the pilot schools. It’s not clear to me exactly how much detail they would like but since I’m generally an overachiever, I’m working on a fairly detailed plan with a menu of activities from which we can select the final ones. Since I’m in country yet and have no experience with Uzbek culture, I’m not sure yet which activities will be the most culturally appropriate. My plan is to send a variety of possible exercises and work with the local school psychologists to select and adapt the best ones for their schools.
Experience Fulbright 