End of Training

It’s nearing the end of training now and it’s bittersweet. I’m happy to be done with training so I can finally move out to my site for real and start working in my community and getting to know the people. It will be sad and weird to leave everyone though after spending the last nine weeks together in such close quarters. We are not allowed to leave our sites for the first month of our service and we’re not allowed to leave our region for the first three months, just to ensure that we really are integrating into our community. We will all get back together in January for our IST (In Service Training) back here in Hamdallaye, which will cover things like how to get certain projects started and how to get funding. It’s been a rough PST (Pre Service Training) too, so far out of 48 total people that we started with in Philadelphia at staging, we now have 40. People have left for different reasons, personal, medical, and administrative; but regardless, we miss them all.

This Thursday is the GAD Auction (Gender and Development) at the American rec center in Niamey. Different things like trips and dinners are auctioned off and all the money goes to GAD so then PCVs can get funding later on for projects dealing specifically with gender and development. Friday is Swear-In when we officially become Peace Corps Volunteers. The ceremony is held at the US Ambassador’s house and apparently a ton of people come. Most of us are getting traditional complets made of fabric we've gotten at market; my host mother is making mine. Usually, we have a dinner served at her residence but because it’s Ramadan and people can’t eat until after sunset, we are being bussed back to the Peace Corps site in Hamdallaye for dinner. Saturday is our “recovery day” and most of us are going back to the Ambassador’s residence for an ultimate Frisbee tournament and swimming. Then Sunday is when we head out to our different regions to start Installation—this is when we meet all the important people in our region and town, like government officials and traditional leaders. And then my two years of service as an official Peace Corps volunteer start....