To be honest, the majority of the past few weeks has been mundane, just review of training and preparation for our final departure. We did leave our training communities this past Monday and it was sad to say goodbye to Mama Rita. We had a nice going away party though with all the trainees and their families that doubled as a cultural exchange event, so of course we presented them with a show of our different states and gifted them such great tunes as the cha-cha slide and electric slide...they probably think American music is super wierd now to be honest.
After we left Santa Rita we spent the next couple days in the Peace Corps office and dorms there. This was a fun time since we were able to hang out with the trainees from the Sustainable Ag. Systems sector. Filled with mostly last minute administrative duties and review of what we had learned before, these days passed quickly which lead us to THE DAY that we had been waiting for...swear-in.
I am sorry to say that I do not have that many photos from Swear-In Day, but it was held at the ambassadors house and did not feel quite right to be snapping up photos during such a fancy pants event. I do have a few though which I took myself and a few that I can take from other people. There is a word here used fairly often, ye-ye, it means the Panamanian equivalent of "hoity toity" or something like that. Suffice it to say however, that the ambassador's house was quite ye-ye. A large house with staff and bathrooms significantly larger than my future Peace Corps home, it expressed more of a feel of some official building than a place I would want to be my house. The ambassador himself was quite the opposite though, a nice guy with a down to earth sense about him. The swear-in ceremony started promptly at 2:00 and went until approximately 2:45. We heard short speeches from the ambassador, some leaders of Panamanian organizations and a representative we chose from the EH and SAS sectors of our training group. We also sang the Panamanian national anthem (it went horribly, the music played quietly and much faster than we had practiced...the ambassador even made a joke about how it is fortunate that we did not come here as a choir) and the US national anthem (which proceeded substantially better). After the singing we all recited our swearing-in oath and then adjourned for a lot of hors-d'oeuvres. Finally, 4:00 on the dot we left the ambassadors house, took some pictures, and went on to our post swear-in celebrations!
After we left Santa Rita we spent the next couple days in the Peace Corps office and dorms there. This was a fun time since we were able to hang out with the trainees from the Sustainable Ag. Systems sector. Filled with mostly last minute administrative duties and review of what we had learned before, these days passed quickly which lead us to THE DAY that we had been waiting for...swear-in.
I am sorry to say that I do not have that many photos from Swear-In Day, but it was held at the ambassadors house and did not feel quite right to be snapping up photos during such a fancy pants event. I do have a few though which I took myself and a few that I can take from other people. There is a word here used fairly often, ye-ye, it means the Panamanian equivalent of "hoity toity" or something like that. Suffice it to say however, that the ambassador's house was quite ye-ye. A large house with staff and bathrooms significantly larger than my future Peace Corps home, it expressed more of a feel of some official building than a place I would want to be my house. The ambassador himself was quite the opposite though, a nice guy with a down to earth sense about him. The swear-in ceremony started promptly at 2:00 and went until approximately 2:45. We heard short speeches from the ambassador, some leaders of Panamanian organizations and a representative we chose from the EH and SAS sectors of our training group. We also sang the Panamanian national anthem (it went horribly, the music played quietly and much faster than we had practiced...the ambassador even made a joke about how it is fortunate that we did not come here as a choir) and the US national anthem (which proceeded substantially better). After the singing we all recited our swearing-in oath and then adjourned for a lot of hors-d'oeuvres. Finally, 4:00 on the dot we left the ambassadors house, took some pictures, and went on to our post swear-in celebrations!
G-75 EH Group Photo
G-75 "Samboozers" (a.k.a the guys going to live in the Sambu region)
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