How do you take no information and then try to logically guess where you are going? Peace Corps Wiki, that's how!!!

So, what does a person do when they’ve got research skills, a lot of time to kill and an insane need to have information (any information!!!!) on what is going to happen in the next three years of her life?  Well, she tries to logically deduce from available data where she might be going in the Peace Corps and when.

Thanks to all those research methodology and statistics and data analysis classes I’ve taken, I’ve created a matrix of likely possibilities for where I might serve.

If you are an applicant looking to do the same kind of thing (or even just to know which country you might be going to based on your nomination for your program and departure date), I gleaned this information from the Peace Corps Wiki (a fantastic tool!) and used it to try to give myself a sense of where and when I might be going.  I took the data from both the Placement Calculator and the Timeline section of the wiki site. 

I’ve included countries that:

·         Show Invitations with departures in 2011;

·         As of 2009 Peace Corps data had programs in either NGO Development or Community Development.

I’ve eliminated the following:

·         Departures that take place in less than 7 weeks.  I haven’t been reviewed by placement yet and know they give you the requisite 6-week notice;

·         Departures to Spanish speaking countries.  I don’t meet the Spanish language requirements;

·         Departures to French-speaking Africa. I don’t meet the French language requirements.

I’ve prioritized the data by:

·         FIRST: Countries that have both NGO Development and Community Development;

·         SECOND: Countries that have NGO Development only;

·         THIRD: Countries that have Community Development only.

I’ve organized the data in each subset in:

·         Descending order by the number of volunteers serving in those countries;

·         I’ve assumed that programs leaving in less than 9 weeks are the least likely (as a result of timing) and so have been moved to the end of each data subset.

WHAT DID I LEARN??

#1 Would be the Ukraine and wouldn’t leave until the end of September (Nooooooooooooooo!!!! On both the place and the date!!!!!)  But there are 31 possible programs in the next six months, so that is good news.  What I don’t know is how many of these still have spots, also, I don’t have data on current programming, so some of these could be no longer operating and there could be new additions.  I will update as more information becomes available.  Was this a helpful exercise?  Yes, at killing time and exerting some illusion of control.  Ultimately I’m still left knowing nothing useful.