Hello Friends

So, we just got back from visiting our sites, finished training, got sworn in as volunteers by the US consul, celebrated Thanksgiving, and then attended an all volunteer conference. This was definitely the busiest week we’ve had in country.

I am officially no longer a trainee and now a full-fledged Peace Corps Volunteer! WOO HOO! What that means is that I should be getting more money, that I will be at my site consistently for the next 2 years, and that after a 3 month long community diagnostic, I can begin to get to work to make my community healthier. Or at least that’s what’s supposed to happen.

Swearing in was nice. The US Consul to the DR had to fill in for the Ambassador because the new DR Ambassador hasn’t gotten to the DR yet. They rented tents and set them up at the training site. It rained, as it apparently always does but the tents kept us pretty dry. I looked fancier than usual, which was fine except that I realized, once again, that I hate to dress up. All of the girls really looked nice in all their makeup and whatnot. We were all supposed to get up and introduce ourselves and say where we were going, and I got up to do that and looked out into the faces of all of my friends and their host families all dressed up, and completely forgot the name of my site. My boss was standing up next to me and helped me out. But yes, it was embarrassing.

The next morning we said goodbye to our host families in the capital and headed down to a large, very fancy country club that PC had rented out for us for Thanksgiving. We played games, swam, jumped off the high dive, danced, sang, ate a ton of food, all of it American and all of it delicious, especially the stuffing and pumpkin pie, and had fun. That night and the following I stayed at a hostal in the colonial zone of the city which was lovely. We had hot showers, which are such a lovely treat. My family invested greatly, all of them were gathered at my house for Thanksgiving, and called me up on my new cell phone. I felt so blessed. Adjusting to being away from home for such a momentous day as Thanksgiving really wasn’t as hard as I thought it could be. There’s something about being a room with over 100 people going through exactly what you are, being away from home and all of that, that really helped me to feel fine. Still, it was wonderful to hear the voices of them all.

The next day was the All Volunteer Conference. It was at a lovely hotel which I ended up getting to spend the night in last night. The conference was long and informative, and included a slide show. Of the pictures of my trainee group, I’d say easily over 50 % of them were from my camera. Shock shock surprise surprise. I was proud. The volunteers in general are pretty friendly and meeting them all was awesome. I wish I’d had more chances to converse and learn more about them, but what we had was great.

The rest of the weekend was spent meeting other volunteers and hanging out with the group I trained with. We all had to say goodbye and good luck to each other as every has been heading off to their sites. It’s not easy for training to be over. We used to get to see each other pretty much every day, and now we might not see each other again for a very long time. We are trying to get together for New Years, but lord knows how many people will be able to get there. We had a great time during training. I’m definitely now appreciating the accuracy of a statement my friend (who is serving in St. Kitts) said, It’s a mean joke the PC plays on us, having us get together for so long and become such good friends, and then shipping us off to the ends of the earth. We aren’t quite the ends of the earth, considering we can see one another, and get back to the US in a matter of hours, but it sometimes feels really far.

So now I’m off to my site. Wish me luck!