I am a volunteer!!!
Last Thursday, I officially became a Peace Corps volunteer. We had the official signing of papers on Wednesday but we had the ceremony at the ambassador’s house on Thursday. My two host moms and one of my host dads came down for the ceremony. I was so happy they came. I almost started crying after we took the oath. It was just the culmination of years of thinking I wanted to do Peace Corps then actually filling out the application and following through with the process. Not to mention the three months of training that I have been doing since September. I had to call my dad afterwards because I left like I had finally followed in his footsteps and was finally in the same shoes he was in when he served.
I am relieved that I am finished with training and I am looking forward to moving to post tomorrow. I am been doing a lot of shopping in Lomé for all the things I need for my house as well as food you can't get anywhere else in the country. Like cheese. I bought a small block of feta cheese the other day and boy was it good!!!! Some of the others went out to eat Chinese food but I went to get Lebanese food, which was very good. There is a large Lebanese population here so I think I will be hitting up the Middle Eastern food places often when I am Lomé.
Training ended well. We had a large World AIDS Day celebration. We had a march the night before with torches and chants. It was mostly kids but it was a lot of fun. Only problem was that the kids were having a little too much fun playing with the fire and so brush on the side of the road near village caught on fire and got quite large. But it was put out quickly. We then showed a short film on STIs. The sound was really bad so the message of the film didn't really carry. On the actual World AIDS day, we had another march with all of the school children from Primary school to high school. There ended up being a lot of people. After the march, the morning was filled with speakers and sketches and music. Everyone really enjoyed it. In the afternoon, all of the trainees played soccer against a team from the middle school. In Middle school here, ages can range from 12 to 25 depending on when people started attending school. SO the team we played against were around 15 or 16 years old. Some were even playing barefoot which made the game all the more interesting. Most of the trainees, myself included, had never played soccer before in their life. So it made for an interesting game. We ended up tying. It was a great ending to a lot of planning and preparation. Everyone in the village really enjoyed the day’s events. There were only a few problems that came up but nothing too bad.
I passed my language test so I guess my French is good enough to go to post. I am still going to do tutoring in French and Nawdoum, but just speaking every day in French will help it improve.
Thank you to everyone who has written to me. Internet will be much more reliable when I am at post so I will be able to email people back in a more timely fashion. But letters and packages are still welcome. But now you can write PCV instead of PCT! Very exciting!
Oh I guess I didn't talk about what we did here for Thanksgiving. We had the day off from training so some people did a Turkey Trot in the morning. I slept in. Bt in the afternoon we all went to Adeta for Thanksgiving dinner. The Peace Corps cooks all came up from Lomé to cook the meal. I wasn't exactly like home but it was good regardless. I didn't get that homesick, which is good. I might around Christmas though.
I am relieved that I am finished with training and I am looking forward to moving to post tomorrow. I am been doing a lot of shopping in Lomé for all the things I need for my house as well as food you can't get anywhere else in the country. Like cheese. I bought a small block of feta cheese the other day and boy was it good!!!! Some of the others went out to eat Chinese food but I went to get Lebanese food, which was very good. There is a large Lebanese population here so I think I will be hitting up the Middle Eastern food places often when I am Lomé.
Training ended well. We had a large World AIDS Day celebration. We had a march the night before with torches and chants. It was mostly kids but it was a lot of fun. Only problem was that the kids were having a little too much fun playing with the fire and so brush on the side of the road near village caught on fire and got quite large. But it was put out quickly. We then showed a short film on STIs. The sound was really bad so the message of the film didn't really carry. On the actual World AIDS day, we had another march with all of the school children from Primary school to high school. There ended up being a lot of people. After the march, the morning was filled with speakers and sketches and music. Everyone really enjoyed it. In the afternoon, all of the trainees played soccer against a team from the middle school. In Middle school here, ages can range from 12 to 25 depending on when people started attending school. SO the team we played against were around 15 or 16 years old. Some were even playing barefoot which made the game all the more interesting. Most of the trainees, myself included, had never played soccer before in their life. So it made for an interesting game. We ended up tying. It was a great ending to a lot of planning and preparation. Everyone in the village really enjoyed the day’s events. There were only a few problems that came up but nothing too bad.
I passed my language test so I guess my French is good enough to go to post. I am still going to do tutoring in French and Nawdoum, but just speaking every day in French will help it improve.
Thank you to everyone who has written to me. Internet will be much more reliable when I am at post so I will be able to email people back in a more timely fashion. But letters and packages are still welcome. But now you can write PCV instead of PCT! Very exciting!
Oh I guess I didn't talk about what we did here for Thanksgiving. We had the day off from training so some people did a Turkey Trot in the morning. I slept in. Bt in the afternoon we all went to Adeta for Thanksgiving dinner. The Peace Corps cooks all came up from Lomé to cook the meal. I wasn't exactly like home but it was good regardless. I didn't get that homesick, which is good. I might around Christmas though.
posted by Alia at 10:02 AM
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