Swearing In

Yesterday morning at 10:00am we were supposed to swear in as official Peace Corps Volunteers. However, nothing actually happens on time so it was more like 11:00am when it happened. If you want a visual think high school or college graduation. Our swearing in ceremony occurred at the American Ambassadors residence with several Gambian government dignitaries in attendance (the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Forestry and the Environment). These two ministries were represented because of the two sectors that were swearing in - Health and Community Development (HCD) and Environment and Natural Resource Management (ENRM). Sarah and I are both HCD volunteers. Like any other graduation ceremony there were speeches - the Peace Corps Country Director spoke, the Minister of Health and Social Welfare spoke, and finally two volunteers spoke (the same speech was given in both Wolof and English).

Two things to note....

I was very impressed by the speech given in Wolof because not only were jokes told, but more importantly - the Gambians attending the ceremony laughed. It is one thing to be able to communicate in another language, it is another thing to be able to effectively joke in another language. Sure one of our trainers helped translate the English speech into Wolof but the delivery was such that Gambians understood the humor.

The other cool thing was the oath we took (it is the same as the presidential oath with two words changed). It had the nice effect of making me actually feel a part of something larger than me. Apparently it's a cool feeling...go figure...

After that we had some free time until that evening when the older volunteers threw us a little party with some really tasty food - so if any of them see this - thank you!

It's been a long time in coming, but we are now official Peace Corps Volunteers - woohoo!

P.S. Apparently it is a good thing for people to be wearing matching outfits ("Asobi")

Here are some pictures from the ceremony:


All gussied up and ready for swear-in


Most of the ladies


The guys


The view from the Ambassadors house


Artsy shot


Swearing in


Shaking the hand of the US Ambassador to The Gambia


Shaking the hand of the US Ambassador to The Gambia


The four "trainees" with one of our trainers from our training village

All three of the couples in our training class