Trainee No More

Hey All!

As of yesterday I am now officially a Peace Corp Volunteer! Yesterday there was a big swearing in ceremony with lots of important people, including the American ambassador, the Peace Corps Country Director, a handful of traditional chiefs, the mayor of Bagante, and some other people who I know were important because they got the good seats, but I’m not quite sure who they were exactly. Also it was really awesome because all the host families were invited and they all dressed to the T. You could really tell that they were all so proud of us and my host mom and dad were no exception. They both came looking amazing in their traditional clothes and they you could tell they pulled out all the stops. The ceremony lasted about an hour, and at the end well all took the PC oath and then viola! we went from trainees to volunteers.

Post ceremony there was a luncheon and then we all had to say goodbye to our families. Not gonna lie it was a lot harder then I thought it would be. I know I’ll go back to visit, but when I watched them walk away everything became really real. Like Ok from now on you’re on your own! Yikes! It’s a little intimidating, but very exciting at the same time!

Post-Post ceremony all the new volunteers spent the afternoon and then pretty much all night “celebrating” We had a nice dinner together and then just enjoyed each others company for the rest of the evening. This morning everyone got up early, packed up all the stuff and then headed out to post. It was really sad to leave everyone, but on the bright side now I’ll have places to stay and excuses to do a little traveling around CameroonJ

As I’m writing this now part one of the trip is complete. Aislynn and I left this morning for Bafousamm and arrived no problems. Were spending the night here in a hotel and then catching the first car out tomorrow morning at 5:30. Should get to my post sometime between 2-3 in the afternoon.

That’s all for now! I hope everyone’s enjoying the holiday season!

Peace,

Kate