From Trainees to Volunteers!

Yesterday I woke up a Peace Corps trainee and went to bed a real Peace Corps Volunteer. And how do I feel? Well, it is hard to describe…Yes, I am a tad scared, nervous, and excited. Although we have had three months of training to prepare us for this moment, I still feel like I am entering into a world of uncertainty…While training was definitely helpful, I still feel like no matter what, each site and each volunteer is so drastically different, that each PC experience depends on the volunteer; as much as it can be a collective experience, shared with other volunteers, community members, host families, and work agencies, it all comes down to the individual volunteer…though of course, there are many variables at play…

According to other PCVs, these feelings of uncertainty and anxiety are absolutely normal…So, I am resolved to just take my time getting used to my house, my new job (whatever it entails!) and to just enjoy the ride…However, I am already aware of the fact that I am going to have to be proactive and take the initiative, especially because unlike most PCVs, I don’t actually directly work with my immediate community. Through the women’s NGO (CODEFEM), I will be working with three municipal governments about 4-6 hours away from my site, which is awesome because I will get to travel to other communities. However, this will make it hard to meet people in my own community. However, I hope to find some secondary projects (perhaps working with an all girl youth group or local women’s group) in my actual community. Also, unlike most PCVs, my site is actually a HUGE city (65,000 people), so for me at least, this makes it harder to make the more personal connections…(big city life…) that I found so easy to make in my training community (which was pretty much one street!!!)

Anyway, this week has been charged with emotion; lots of goodbyes…starting with my host family, who actually threw me my own personal despedida (goodbye party) complete with dominos pizza and my very own purple traje jacket (Traje is the typical skirt and shirt worn by indigenous women). My host parents and even one of my host sisters started crying, which made me cry, and it was all kind of a mess! I am going to miss my host family so much as they were amazing…

The following day, all the host families of San Luis Las Carretas (my training town) threw all four volunteers (four of us lived in one training community) a joint despedida. Also, we had our swearing in ceremony at the US Ambassador’s house (it was pretty fancy!) then we all went to Antigua to celebrate and say goodbye to one another…It is strange because we won’t see each other again for three months (we have an event called reconnect where Peace Corps checks in with us after our first three months; also, after our first three months, we are officially allowed to travel to other sites as well as take vacay time…for our first three months of service we have to stay put! So most of us really won’t see each other again until February) Hence, it was a little sad…

but every end just leads to another beginning, right?