Tomorrow we swear-in and take our oaths as Peace Corps Volunteers. It’s been a long, difficult nine weeks of training, having virtually no free time and eating, sleeping, and studying on a schedule dictated by others. We’ve been living out of backpacks since day one and even though we were considered one of the family in our homestays, we all still felt like guests. 40 of us were on the invitation list for staging, 39 of us showed up, and 38 of us will swear-in tomorrow. Today one of the Peace Corps staff said “Thursday you are going home.” Home! To our new homes in Tanzania. To have our lives back. To decide what and when we eat, and for many of us, to never cook rice again. (Okay, maybe we’ll go without for just one week.)
So I rocked my language tests, I got a fancy swearing-in dress made, I bought an extra bag to carry all the luggage I’ve acquired since arriving, and I’m getting a playlist ready for my 13 hour bus ride to Karatu. Below are a few pictures to remember the Peace Corps training experience…
Our training site at CCT in Morogoro. A beautiful, quiet community center with the Uluguru Mountains in the background.
My awesome CBT group: Georgi, Phillip, Kat, and Paff.
Our CBT school, Sumaye. This is where the five of us had language classes and internship taught.
A hot and humid day of language class at Sumaye. Notice Paff is wearing the same thing as in the previous photo.
My second try at "microteaching." Before teaching students at Sumaye we gave a couple 20-minute lessons to our CBT group.
I don't know who these came from but I think they are awesome. They gave me a 5000% happy boost when I found them on the PCT computer in Morogoro.
See! I told you Tanzania has huge spiders.
Tanzania just has cool insects in general.
My lovely host family in our front yard.
My dadas and my mama, third from the left. The three on the right came to visit from Dar.
Me at Mikumi. Yes I was on crutches. I'll explain later.
Me and Veronica at Mikumi. This lovely lady helped me the day I was injured.
Our site announcement ceremony at CCT.
The best day of the training was the last: we spent the entire day learning how to create a garden in our communities.
My mama giving me another khanga at our CBT farewell. She also bought the fabric for the dress I'm wearing and had it sewn at a fundi near our house.
