Swearing In Ceremony, Manunu

8/22/07

After twelve weeks of training, today marks our official induction into the Peace Corps. We are to become “Peace Corps Volunteers, PCV”.

The morning began somewhat auspiciously. On the journey from our Apia Hotel to Manunu, we approached a speed bump. Instead of slowing down our hired bus continued on towards another bus which was on the speed bump. It suddenly became apparent WE HAD NO BRAKES! As our bus served to avoid the bus ahead of us, an oncoming pickup appeared at the speed bump. Without even downshifting we hit the speed bump at full speed miraculously squeezing between the two vehicles. Unperturbed our diver continued on. After yelling at him to stop, the bus finally came to a halt on an upgrade. We quickly disembarked thankful we had avoided a real tragedy.

The Village of Manunu was decked out for our ceremony which was held in the church. There were speeches by various officials, staff, and a speech in Samoan by Lini in our group and one in English by me. A big lunch was served followed by more hugs, kisses, and gifts.

Somehow the whole event was muted. Maybe we were tired of it all and simply wanted to move on to our permanent villages; maybe the goodbyes to our host families were just one to many. The whole event, although well done, didn’t have the impact we had anticipated months before. But at least now, we were Peace Corps Volunteers.

Upon returning to the Peace Corps office in Apia to pick up our bicycles, mosquito nets, water filtration systems, locks, door entry codes and other stuff, bedlam reined. No one seemed to know or care about us anymore. It seemed like staff were preparing for the next group as we struggled.

That night the current volunteers held a nice pizza party for us at the hotel. We were now part of their world. It was the end of us being “Trainees”.