Swearing In

On August 17, 2012, I was officially sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteer. Huzzah!!!

You may be asking yourself, “wait, didn’t she join the Peace Corps and go to Africa in June? Hasn’t she been in the Peace Corps this whole time?”

Well, when I received my invitation, I too thought it meant I was in the Peace Corps and 100% accepted. It turns out that’s not quite the truth. Since June 4 my title has been Peace Corps Trainee, and that title came with a certain level of probationary status. For instance, we were not allowed into the Peace Corps office compound. More than that though, our lives were completely different from the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer. We were in pre-service training, which is a time set aside both to train us for the following two years of service and to let us decide if Peace Corps is right for us and to let Peace Corps decide if we’re truly right for it. The completion of our training was marked by an interview with the Country Director, to determine if we’re ready for service.

Thus, swearing in was in no way an arbitrary exercise – it marked the true beginning of our service, and as such was a BIG DEAL. What do I mean by a BIG DEAL? I mean that we got all dolled up and were taken on our one and only trip to the U.S. Embassy, to be sworn in by the U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia himself. Incidentally, since every U.S. Embassy is technically American soil, I returned to America for a few hours that day. Weird, right?  Anyway, the proceedings included a very nice speech from the Minister of Education for Ethiopia, from our Country Director for Peace Corps Ethiopia, from the Ambassador himself, and from three of my fellow volunteers. I’ve never felt more patriotic than when they played the national anthem and we swore to uphold and defend the constitution of the United States in our service as employees of the U.S. federal government, so help us God.

It gets better though – there was a reception! By better, I of course mean it got tastier. The food was clearly imported especially for the embassy – we had cucumbers, cheese, sushi, and even a chocolate brownie with chocolate frosting. My mouth is watering again just typing such delicious words. We collectively gorged ourselves, and then we were shooed out to return to the country we had signed up to serve. It was a lovely experience, and made us feel properly official and accomplished.  

The Ethiopian Minister of Education, U.S. Ambassador, Peace Corps Ethiopia Country Director,
and PC Education Program Manager

Me with my certificate of completion for Pre-Service Training,
and my program.

Me and my language teacher, Tenagne