Where to begin…
The past few weeks have been quite busy and full of many
different experience, including swearing in and moving to my site for the next
two years.
The last few weeks of training and in Mvouni (the village we
stayed in during training) have been full of many different events and
activities. Especially spending time with my family and friends of Mvouni and
preparing to move to my new home in Hetsa.
The past few weekends in Mvouni have involved cleaning up
the Primary School, painting a world map, and teaching at the Club America in
the village. During the weeks I was busy with training and Model School. Upon
returning home I would just spend time with my family or some of the other
volunteers. Instead of trying to explain all the different events we did
leading up to the last few days in PST (Pre-Service Training) I feel pictures
best describe each event.
The last few days in Mvouni contained many events,
especially a goodbye ceremony and swearing in at Moroni. To celebrate all of us
making it through training we held a Karaoke party with both Group 1 and Group
2. It was a good final hoorah with everyone before departing for our designated
islands, and to celebrate finishing training. The following day some of
volunteers and I attended a picnic, that some of our friends from Mvouni put on
for us. Wednesday was a bit nerve racking as we had our language placement
test, although I do not know the final score, I think I did pretty good.
Wednesday was also a day of celebration in the village. Mvouni (the village we
stayed in for 2 months) held a huge event to celebrate having us and to say
goodbye. The event consisted of a soccer tournament, a basketball game,
traditional Comorian dancing, Taekwondo exposition, and a speech from the mayor
of the village. It was a sad event while also happy. It was for sure hard to
say goodbye to the village that welcomed us all into their homes. When the
ceremony ended one of the volunteer’s host mom held a little dinner for me and
another volunteer to thank us and say goodbye. Upon completing dinner, we went
to attend a dance party that the village was hosting for us. It ended up being
a bit different than what we would consider a dance party. That meaning some of
the different dance groups of the village created dances and performed them for
us. Also us, Peace Corps Volunteers, made an appearance and did a little
dancing too, we ended up doing the electric slide. After a very long night I
crashed as we had to be up early for our swearing in.
Swearing in was simple but a nice event. We had a little ceremony and a reception. Both my host family from Mvouni and my new host family in Hetsa attended, which was good to let them both met each other. Upon being sworn in and taking a few pictures I said my goodbyes and headed to site.
So far site life has been treating me well. Of course there
has been some difficulties when it comes to finding things to do, as I am use
to always being busy and here it is a much more laid back life. Besides that,
minor hiccup all has been good. I have been settling in, meeting people in my
community, attending soccer matches, and I even attended a Comorian dance
party. Within the next few weeks I will be beginning school, continue to get to
know my community, and start to get into a routine. Soon I will post an update
with more details of what I am doing at site and about the different events I
am attending.
Until Then.
