Well everyone, it’s official, I am now a Peace Corps Volunteer! Last week, 33 of us gave the Oath of Service and Peace Corps Pledge to officially be sworn in as the 35th cohort to serve in South Africa. The day was filled with inspirational speeches, songs, and dances. I got shivers as our group proudly sang the South African and United States National Anthems, and teared up a bit as we belted out our cohorts favorite song; Shosholoza, one last time. A week before sware in, we had our Family Appreciation Day. It was a huge party, complete with a traditional cow slaughtering, to show gratitude to our host families. Culturally, only men are allowed to prepare the cow meat, but I think they saw the 'Wisconsin Hunter' in me and I was allowed to help. I’ll leave out the gory details of the meat processing, but I’ll just say that every single part of the cow was used. With all the excitement of these days, there was still a pit in my stomach knowing that it was the end of all that I had known in SA so far. The following days were filled with tough goodbyes to my host family, teachers and entire cohort as we all headed out to our final sites. I was shocked at how close I got to other PCV’s during these first months. When picturing my Peace Corps Service, it didn’t occur to me how much I would rely on other volunteers and how inspired I would be by them. We are now scattered throughout villages in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga. Now, I'm writing from my new village. Here is a photo of my room and belongings for the next 2 years. Even being just 3 months into service, I already feel like I overpacked. Over the next few weeks I will be attempting to transform this room into a fully functioning kitchen, bedroom, shower, and toilet (yes, I go to the bathroom in a bucket in my room once it get’s dark). Stay tuned!
9 Comments
|
AuthorJosie Petersson Archives
October 2018
Categories
All
|