So the training begins

The Beginning in a Comorian Homestay and Village

The past few days have been quite a whirl wind of experiences, emotions, and education.

On Friday afternoon I learned that I will be serving on the main Island, Grand Comoros, for the next two years. After overcoming the long awaited announcement of Island placement, we had to be yet again placed in a nerve racking situation of meeting our host families for the first time. I lucked out and did not have to wait long, as once I grabbed my bags my family was already there to greet me. Once I said hello to my host mother, one of our neighbors (who has become a close friend of mine), and someone else that has a relation to my family (have not quite figured out what though), we headed off to our village, Mvouni, which is a village close by our hotel/training center. Once at the house I tried to settle in a little by putting my stuff up. Not long into being at the house our neighbor came by and picked me up to go met her sister. After some time, there I headed home for dinner and family time. Due to lack of language knowledge and exhaustion from the day I headed to bed shortly after.  On Saturday I woke up and after getting ready was greeted by our neighbor who took me over to see another volunteer, which so happens to live right behind me. We all decided to talk a walk around the village, so we grabbed our notebooks and headed out. On the way we ran into several other volunteers who were either hanging with their family or were out on walks also. After a good time walking around it was time to head home for a rest. Once home however another neighbor took me to meet some of her friends, and to invite me to her wedding that would be occurring in July (after Ramadan ends). When I finally finished with my adventures I decided to take a little nap and arrange some things around the house. A little before dinner some of the other volunteers were outside my house so I greeted them and then went back home to eat dinner. When dinner was finished my friend came and we went to see some of her friends for a short time. Then it was off to bed for me. Sunday brought a day of more adventure, meeting people (who still to this day I do not remember their names), and learning my way around the town. The day began with meeting one of the volunteers at their house and a bunch of our friends. We hung out there for a bit then decided to migrate to another volunteer’s house. After which we proceeded to walk around until one of the volunteers was called to the house. Thus we went back to her house and hung out there until I was called to go home. It was quite a fun time as all we did was hang out, talk, and learn some about the Comorian culture. Since Sunday I was fasting instead of eating lunch I went and hung out with another friend once I was home. Followed by meeting several other volunteers and talking a walk around to different houses and greeting everyone’s host families. Here it is quite different than in the USA, in the sense that most people just come over whenever and will talk for hours on end. It started to get dark out so I headed back home for dinner and after a little time with the family I went to bed to prepare for training the next morning.

Monday morning brought training and a walk to our training center. The day was basically full of learning the language and skills to help us teach English here in Comoros. Once the day was finally over we all hung out for a bit to breathe for a minute or two. Then we walked home where I ate dinner. Then that evening I went on an adventure with one of my family members to find me a Bubu (a traditional dress found here in Comoros). It was quite an interesting time, unfortunately we did not succeed in locating one, but it was nice to see the town at night and how well lite it was by moonlight. Tuesday was an exciting day for all of us volunteers as we met the 1^st group who came to Comoros last year. It was really great having a chance to mingle with them and learning about their experiences so far. It really made me excited to start teaching and to be at my site already. It was also great as we learned some pointers that they themselves wish they knew. After a nice afternoon with them I headed home for the evening. The evening was quite an interesting one as once dinner was finished my host mom asked if I wanted henna, which I agreed to. Upon completing the Henna she proceed to paint my nails with the Henna. (Personal Recommendation, DON’T DO IT). It was a very interesting time, and brought lots of laughs. However, personally the results were not as nice as I would have liked them, and probably won’t paint my nails anytime soon. Another thing which occurred Tuesday was that I learned our running water was working again. Since I came here I have been using water from a well, so that fact that I had running water was quite a surprise and an exciting moment. Here it is not common to have running water nor electricity. Wednesday was a pretty normal day of training. The evening brought some more interesting news when we learned the electricity was back on for our house, however we are fortunate enough to have solar panels at my house, it was still great news. Thursday was a very interesting day as it decided to pour down rain all day, so our adventure homely luckily was met with rides. After which me and some other volunteers walked around the village for a little. Then I returned home for dinner. After dinner I was given the experience to visit a mosque. And although I have not a clue what was going on I picked up the moments quite well. It was also nice to talk about with my friend the differences and similarities between our religions. After visiting the mosque, we went over to a volunteer’s house and hung out with some of our friends before proceeding to return home and go to bed. Friday went from a very exciting day, and looking forward to the weekend, to a very interesting one. In the morning we had training as usual. After training ended we all hung around until lunch was ready. However, when lunch finally became ready we all headed down the stairs (which were slippery from the rain) and due to my misfortune I fell landing me in the capital for the weekend. I will say I am alright, the worst part of the fall is over, it really only left me with bruises and a hurt elbow. But even with the misfortune it really has helped me to be appreciative for Group 2, Peace Corps as a whole, and my host family/village members. As although it is nothing to severe that happened to me everyone has been supportive and constantly making sure I am ok and do not need anything. It makes me feel really safe that no matter what will happen in the next two years I always have people to go to and we all will take care of each other. So as for now I am in the capital of Comoros, Moroni, for the next few days. Let’s see what occurs over the weekend and this upcoming week.

Until Then.  

FYI: Photos soon to come! 

First Days in Comoros

Wow, the past few days have been both fun and quite busy. First off I am officially in Comoros, going into day 4. So far it has been a wonderful experience as well as a learning one. But let me start from the beginning, staging in Washington DC.

The Beginnings

So last Friday I left Indiana. After saying goodbye to everyone I headed on a plane to DC, where I would spend one evening. In DC I also met for the first time the other 19 PCV in Training that would be serving in Comoros with me. Once I arrived to DC I was greeted by one of my fellow cohorts and we proceeded to go to the hotel. Once all settled we decided to enjoy the free time by exploring our nations Capital. So we headed into to downtown and walked around the National Mall for an hour or so. Although I have been a few times to DC and visited the important places, it was great to be able to see all the monuments again, especially since it has been a few years since my last visit. After we walked around a little we headed back to the metro and hotel to meet the rest of the group. As a group we hit it off really well, everyone was super nice and open to getting to know one another. Upon completing our staging activities, we headed to a tapas restaurant for dinner. There I was greeted by an old friend from University. The food was amazing and the company even better. When we finally finished our time eating, I said goodbye to my friend and the remaining volunteers and I headed back to our hotel to get ready to go out in DC for the evening. Since I had another friend, whom I had met in Italy 6 years ago, living in DC me and two other volunteers went to meet up with her for a little. After a wonderful time catching up with her we headed to U-Street to meet with the other volunteers. It was a very interesting, but fun time with everyone. Finally, after a while we decided we needed to get back to the hotel to shower up, as we had to be down in the lobby at 5am and leave at 5.30am to the airport.

In Transit

The next morning (well really a continuation of the day before) we all grabbed our belongings and headed to the Airport to begin our roughly 21-hour journey via flight to Moroni, Comoros. Once we checked all of all our bags, entered through security, and located our gate we realized we has about 5 hours to kill at the airport. So we ended up hanging out until the time came to board the plane. Our first leg of the flight was a 12-hour plane ride to Ethiopia. Our plane ride was quite different than other planes I have been on. Since it was such a long flight many people just stood up and stretched and hung out in the aisles. Although I managed to make it through the flight, from personal preference, I highly do not recommend taking a 12-hour flight, if at all available. Once we finally landed we all celebrated that the longest part of the flight was over and we continued on to our next gate/flight, which was to Nairobi, Kenya. This flight was a quick two-hour flight. Once in Kenya, we had a little time to kill. So we all just hung out (Personally I kept secretly hoping our flight was cancelled, and that we spent a night in Kenya, but in a positive way it was not). Then it came time to board our last flight that would take us to Comoros. We all hopped onto the plane and waited to see the first views of our new home. When we finally arrived it was a little cloudy to see much from up above, but we did see some when we started to descend. It was beautiful what little we saw. When we landed we were greeted by some of the country staff, and quickly went through customs and onto the cars to head to the hotel. When we arrived to the hotel we completed some basic logistics forms and sat down for our first meal in Comoros. After a wonderful meal we all said goodnight and headed to our beds for a full night sleep.

In Country

The first day was full of interviews, particularly in relation to establishing where we would be serving for the next two years as well as beginning our lessons in Shikomori, which is the language spoken here on Grand Comore. In the middle of the interview point the staff arranged for a vendor to come up and we were able to buy bobos (a local dress) and scarfs (as during Ramadan women must cover their heads). Upon completing the interviews and all we decided to take an adventure off the hotel property and visit the local village. It was quite an experience and the hills we walked were definitely something that will take adjusting too, especially since nothing is quite that flat here. However, besides that it was nice to walk around and get our first insight as to how the villages look in Comoros.

The following day was met with more meetings, but this time at the end of all the sessions we had a fun break and went into Moroni, the capital, where we broke the fast with the Peace Corps staff (note us personally were not fasting, just the staff). This was truly an incredible experience, and there was so much food that we did not know what do with ourselves. Everything though tasted amazing! Upon completing dinner, we packed into the cars and headed back to our hotel for the evening.

On Wednesday our day proceed as normal, with language lessons and technical sessions. Followed by dinner and passing out for the evening. Thursday continued for the same in the morning, however the evening was a little different. With Friday being our last day in the hotel and all together we decided to celebrate by watching the sunset all together and following dinner watching a movie as a group. It was a great time, especially having us all together just relaxing one last evening before we head off to our host families for the next 3 months.

Today, Friday will be a day that is both exciting and a little nerve racking. We will learn our island assignments (There are three main islands here in Comoros and there will be a volunteer on each island), as well as we will be meeting our host families that we will be staying with for the first 3 months. This will be an interesting experience as majority of them speak only Shikomori, and we all only speak about 5-10 words in Shikomori. However due to France colonizing them we may be able to get by with some french, which I speak none of, but could at least utilize my Spanish/Portuguese/Italian. So let’s see how that all will play out.

So far though my time here has been great. Besides learning some basic things that are realities for Comorians everything is going quite well. Of course we have been lucky enough to be living in a hotel for the first week. So let’s see how it goes upon going with a host family and all. Though I rather look forward to the challenges that I will be faced with.

Until Later