All Sworn in and Ready to Go

On November 13, 2009, Jessie, I, and 60-some other trainees from Batch 268 were sworn in as Volunteers. It was fun and exciting, though not necessarily exciting for a blog reader.

The biggest part of the day was that we were sworn in by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. During Counterpart's Conference, which leads up to Swearing In, we had heard that Clinton was in town. There were rumors that she might make an appearance. On Thursday it was confirmed.

I keep trying to think of a way to explain why this was so cool, but as I always remind you, I am not a very good writer. It was exciting to have someone so high up the political ladder conduct something that is so important for our transition from Trainees to Volunteers. By having Secretary Clinton swearing us in, I felt somewhat validated in what we are doing here. Mind you, I don't necessarily feel that I need the validation, but prior to coming here, I was questioned a lot about what the Peace Corps is and how valid a program it is and blah, blah. Maybe this acknowledgment is enough for those naysayers...maybe it isn't.

Here are some pictures (sadly we weren't allowed cameras in the U.S. Embassy, so no Clinton pics).




This is a picture of all the trainees from La Union. These are the people I know best in the Philippines. They represent 3 training clusters (2 Education, 1 CYF). They are scattered throughout Ilokano-speaking Luzon now. It is sad not seeing them regularly.





Here I am with the other 4 CYF Volunteers and 2 trainers that I trained with for 12 weeks. These are the people that I saw every Monday through Saturday (and most Sundays). It will be odd not having them here in Caba with me.

Note, the shirt I am wearing is called a Barong. It is a formal shirt that my host dad lent me for the event. He wore it at his wedding. Pretty awesome, eh?

Ok. That's all I've got for now. Keeping watching Twitter to the right. Also, we have a new mailing address...send us presents. Or send us Amazon.com gift cards to my email address. We have a Kindle now and books aren't cheap!

Pis Out

Training is Done

Week 11
11/01/09 - 11/08/09

Week 11 was our last week of training here in La Union. For most people that means moving onto a different site after swearing in on November 13, but for us it just means starting are permanent jobs here. We are both really excited about it, though it this point there is not much to say. Lots of potential...

This week also had us doing our Language Proficiency Interview (LPI). Jessie is an ace and did just fine. I was nervous because I had a practice interview at the beginning of the week and totally blanked on all that I had learned. That got me reviewing...and got me a little freaked out. Thankfully, I knew more than I thought and did just fine. This morning I briefly talked to my LPI interviewer and she said that I "passed." I will get more detailed notes later in the week.

Either way, training is done now. It's weird, I feel like I have been here forever, but at the same time, everything is flying by so quickly. It has been great, though.

Tomorrow we travel to Manila for Counterparts Conference and then Swearing In.

After this post, I will probably not give weekly updates. I feel like I don't always have something good to say in a given week. I will still update regularly through Twitter, though, so keep looking to the right hand column of this screen!

Pis Out