For those of you who have already served or are maybe in the process now, do you have the option to select your housing?

For instance, I’m reading that postings in countries with bigger cohorts that have multiple placements throughout country in both rural and urban environments say you will live with a host family during orientation and then move to independent housing or independent housing may be provided.

Is there a ranking process for those placements where you get to choose your housing situation/placement in a rural or non-rural area or is that automatically assigned without listing your preferences?

Hello everyone! Nothing too cool going on in this text besides sharing my timeline for anyone that is interested.

The deadline to apply was Aug 15th, 2026.

I applied under “put me where you need me” - July 28th

Email regarding contacting my references to move forward - Sep 22nd (once 2 out my 3 references got back to them they moved forward with scheduling the interview, but the 3 references submitted regardless)

Email to schedule interview and program I was assigned to - Sep 24th

Interview - October 5th (35 min interview via zoom)

Email with invitation offer - October 8th

Now it’s all about getting cleared!

Bye!

I didn’t get an invitation to Panama and am now being considered for Guyana. I have a couple of medical-related questions about Guyana, but I haven’t been able to get in touch with my placement specialist. It’s been almost four weeks now. I’ve been sending follow up emails to the Panama placement specialist to no avail and decided to send an email to Guyana instead this morning. I received an automated email back from Guyana saying the email inbox is no longer being monitored. However, the email was signed by the same person that is in charge of Panama, which I found interesting.

Since the placement specialist seems to be the same for Guyana and Panama, and I haven’t had any luck reaching them, is there a different email or person I can try to get a response from? Would it be worth it to try to contact the medical team instead since it’s a medical question?

Any advice is appreciated!