August 17, 2009
Training is over and as of last Thursday, Aug. 13, I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. Last week seems like a blur of activity: our portfolio presentations on Monday, the language proficiency interview on Tuesday, the auction of stuff the A15s left for us on Wednesday, the swearing in on Thursday, and moving on Friday to our new sites. And now, it’s on to the work we came here to do.
The swearing in was very moving. The ceremony took about 2 hours, with plenty of media coverage. They played both countries’ anthems, and believe me it was good to hear ours. The US Ambassador to Armenia spoke to us and then administered the oath. It’s actually the same oath that State Department workers take. Kyle, who lived next me in our training village, was one of two new Volunteers to talk. He’s really an awesome speaker, even in Armenian. One of the training villages put on a short skit, which was hilarious. Some of us had formed a chorus and they sang an Armenian song and did an incredible job on it. After the ceremony there was a small reception for us and our host families. When the host families, we met with the A16s, those who have already been here for a year and then went out with them for a while to celebrate.
It was difficult the next morning leaving the family I’ve lived with for the past 12 weeks. They have always been very supportive and patient with me as I struggled with the language. There were 10 of us living in that house, so there was always something going on, or someone else visiting. In a way it reminded me of my house when all the kids were home. I will miss them, but I know I will see them again over the next two years.
The trip to my new village took about 8 hours, but that included stops to let off 4 other volunteers along the way. Of course we got lost quite a bit, as neither the driver nor us knew exactly where we were going. We had only been to our new sites once. But we all finally made it. My new host family is small, only 5 people, but again very nice and hospitable. I again gave the boys here Uno, which is a great ice breaker. We’ve have played at least 3 times every day since.
School doesn’t start until Sept. 1, so I have 2 weeks to get settled and acquainted with this village and the nearby town. I walked into town on Saturday, it’s 5 ½ kilometers downhill, to meet some of the other PCVs who live nearby. It’ll be nice to get together with them during the year. Of course I took a taxi back up the mountain to get home. Yesterday I went to dinner at my counterpart’s home and her sister is going to show me a shorter way to get into town. I may even be able to walk both ways.

I am school today meeting all the teachers. It will take a while to learn their names, especially most of them don't speak English. But they are all very nice and I look forward to working with them