So it has been quite some time since I have published a blog! These last few weeks have seemed to both fly by and drag on. Ever since we got our site placement the last few weeks of training was all about getting in as much time with the other volunteers as possible and honing our Portuguese skills so that when we get to our schools we actually have the ability to teach. With all of the anxiety and anticipation of getting to site, yet sadness that we would be leaving a bunch of people we have gotten to know very well over the past 10 weeks, it has been quite an emotional roller coaster these past few days. But now with all of that said and done as of December 8th 2011 I became an official Peace Corps Volunteer! Yesterday, was a huge day for us. We all got up bright and early to catch a 6:30am Bus ride into Maputo City, where we chilled at the Peace Corps office there for a little while before heading over to the United States of America's Ambassadors residence, where we had our swearing in ceremony. It was wonderful to meet our Ambassador to Mozambique, Leslie Rowe, who was a fantastic hostess, and very interesting to converse with. We got a chance to chat with her after the ceremony for a bit and it was interesting to hear about her life in the foreign service, she had served in a number of countries and speaks fluently something on the lines of 3 or 4 languages. The way she spoke about the foreign service made it seem like a very interesting career path to take.
Anyways, to talk a little bit more about the ceremony I have to say that I am very honored that out of all of the volunteers in our training group, my group choose me to represent them by giving a speech in front of the ambassador and all of the guests who where invited to the swearing in ceremony. I was super flattered and very excited to give the speech (which was in Portuguese!) and I'm happy that my group choose me. An interesting fact about the Peace Corps swearing in Ceremony is that, we as Peace Corps Volunteers take the same oath that the Foreign Service Officers, and the President of the United States take when they get sworn in to their positions.
After the swearing in ceremony which took most of the morning the other volunteers and I headed back to the Peace Corps office to grab our stuff and then headed to a hotel to spend our last night together, it was hard saying good bye and I am going to be very excited to visit the other volunteers at their respective sites when I get the chance.
Well that's all for now, after this next week I'm going to have a whole bunch of new things to talk about because I'm moving to my site! Super excited!
Take care :-)
