Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Swearing In


I got a pretty sweet haircut the night before the swearing in ceremony.  I call it something between the monk do and the bull cut.  In other words, I would have never asked for this cut in 100 years, but when in Ghana, expect to be surprised by the variable understanding of phrases such as “not too short.”

Our homestay families provided us all with a final outfit for our ceremony.  Usually, the trainee matches their family members but since I was moving to the north, my father presented me with a traditional smock from my region!  This was not a cheap gift and I am very thankful of it (even if it is pink). 

At the ceremony, I sang the National Anthem with a fellow Volunteer, performed The Lion King’s “Circle of Life” in Sign Language as our language presentation, and took the oath to formally become a Volunteer.  All of the Volunteers also got to perform 2 traditional dances for the homestay families. 

After the ceremony, we all went back to our homes to pack to leave the following morning and ultimately move to our respective sites. 

So we are all finally official Peace Corps volunteers now.  It has been a very long 10 weeks and I won’t lie about being glad it’s over.  But now the real work sets in, as I get ready to spend the next 24 months here. 


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