Swearing In.....
On Thursday morning we headed to the Peace Corps office for one last closing session with Solo, our training manager. After the session we hung out for a bit and then headed back to the hotel to rest and shower before the buses picked us up at around 2:45. Spirits were high and we were all really excited! When we got to the Venue, The Tourism and Hospitality Leisure Training Center, all of our host families were waiting outside for us with new island shirts and dresses and various other gifts for us! Cole and I got a super fancy mat, a purse, and some jewelry! After a few minutes of chatting with our families, we all changed into our new matching dresses and shirts and headed inside. The power went out shortly before the ceremony began, no one knows why… It eventually came back on after the ceremony was over. The ceremony started around 3:30. There was an opening prayer, welcome and acknowledgements by Solo (training manager), a “Readiness to Serve” address from Keith Honda (Country Director), A speech from Nik Karr (acting director of programming and training and a former PCV in Vanuatu), a speech and the administration of the Oath of Service from HE Walter North (US Ambassador to Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and PNG), Vanuatu Acceptance of G27 from Mark Bebe (Director General, Ministry of Justice), presentation of certificates from Nik Karr, HE Walter North, Keith Honda and Mark Bebe, a speech on behalf of our training communities and host families given by our Nguna Host Papa, Luna Tasong, a speech on behalf of the new G27 volunteers given by our own Rusel King, presentation of gifts for the staff by myself and Laura Loveland, and finally the dedication of new volunteers and closing prayer!
On Thursday morning we headed to the Peace Corps office for one last closing session with Solo, our training manager. After the session we hung out for a bit and then headed back to the hotel to rest and shower before the buses picked us up at around 2:45. Spirits were high and we were all really excited! When we got to the Venue, The Tourism and Hospitality Leisure Training Center, all of our host families were waiting outside for us with new island shirts and dresses and various other gifts for us! Cole and I got a super fancy mat, a purse, and some jewelry! After a few minutes of chatting with our families, we all changed into our new matching dresses and shirts and headed inside. The power went out shortly before the ceremony began, no one knows why… It eventually came back on after the ceremony was over. The ceremony started around 3:30. There was an opening prayer, welcome and acknowledgements by Solo (training manager), a “Readiness to Serve” address from Keith Honda (Country Director), A speech from Nik Karr (acting director of programming and training and a former PCV in Vanuatu), a speech and the administration of the Oath of Service from HE Walter North (US Ambassador to Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and PNG), Vanuatu Acceptance of G27 from Mark Bebe (Director General, Ministry of Justice), presentation of certificates from Nik Karr, HE Walter North, Keith Honda and Mark Bebe, a speech on behalf of our training communities and host families given by our Nguna Host Papa, Luna Tasong, a speech on behalf of the new G27 volunteers given by our own Rusel King, presentation of gifts for the staff by myself and Laura Loveland, and finally the dedication of new volunteers and closing prayer!
After the ceremony there were refreshments and kava. We said goodbye to
our host families after a while and then a bus took us to the hotel to drop
off our new things and change, and then took us to a restaurant/bar called War
Horse. There was live music there so we hung out for a long while, ate dinner, danced,
some volunteers handed out superlatives written on paper plates, and then we
headed to Voodoo club for more dancing and then ended the night at Electrorock
(another Vila club). It was a really fun swearing in day/night! And now…WE ARE
OFFICIAL PEACE CORPS VANUATU VOLUNTEERS!!!
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| G27 Peace Corps Volunteers |
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| G27 married couples! |
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| Us with our host families from Lelepa and Nguna |
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| We are PC volunteers!!! |
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| Superlatives and celebration after swearing in! |
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| Out celebrating after swearing in! |
After the VAC meeting, a big group of us headed to Island Time, a
restaurant here in Vila, to hang out with Hannah because she got back to
Vanuatu around 4:00!!! She will finish training this week and swear in on
Friday and then head to Santo! We are all SO happy she is back and her dad is
doing well! We hung out and ate there and then Cole and I came back to the
hotel. A group of people went out on the town, but we decided to stay in and
watch a movie. Here are some photos from the pizza/pool party!
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Saturday we went and had breakfast in town at a place
called Numbawan Café. It’s outside and right on the water. During breakfast we
watched 3 men use a crane to pull pieces of a boat and other debris, which was
there as a result of Pam, from the water. After breakfast we went and talked to
a guy about getting scuba certified. We are going to start the process now and
finish in June when we come back to Vila for “reconnect” (more training). After
a quick trip to the PC office to use the fast(ish) internet and facetime a
little, we came back here to pack some of our ridiculous amounts of stuff. Cole
was packing up some clothes and picked up a pile of clothes that had been
sitting on a table in our room only to discover that thousands…literally,
thousands…of ants had decided to make a home of them. There were not only a ton
of ants, but also what appeared to be ant eggs? He put the clothes in a bucket
and filled the bucket with water in order to drown the little pests. Brilliant.
We got most of our stuff packed which was quite an accomplishment! When it’s
all said and done here is what we will be taking with us to our site: 2 big
suitcase type bags, two big backpacks, 2 small backpacks, two buckets filled
with stuff, one dry bag filled with stuff, one giant PC issued mattress, one
mat, and one large tupperware container filled with stuff. RIDICULOUS.
Saturday night almost the entire G27 group, and some G26ers and extendees,
went out in honor of our last Saturday all together in Vila until June!
Now, for our last few says in Vila we are all just relaxing, hanging out, finishing up packing, some people are buying things for site here in Vila (we aren’t because it will be easier to buy things in Luganville), getting things we need from the PC office, and enjoying our last few days all together before we head to the islands!!
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| Bus selfie on the way out on the town! |
Now, for our last few says in Vila we are all just relaxing, hanging out, finishing up packing, some people are buying things for site here in Vila (we aren’t because it will be easier to buy things in Luganville), getting things we need from the PC office, and enjoying our last few days all together before we head to the islands!!
On Tuesday night at 6:00 the Santo volunteers and the Malekula
volunteers (14 of us I think) will board the Vanuatu Ferry and head to our sites!
The Malekula peeps are scheduled to arrive at 11:00 am on Wednesday and we are
scheduled to arrive in Luganville, Santo at 8:00 pm on Wednesday. It’s gonna be
a loooong boat ride, but it should be fun with all of us there. It is also easier
to carry ALL of our stuff on the ferry than on a plane! Should be quite a
little adventure! We will stay the night in Luganville on Wednesday, purchase
everything we need for our site on Thursday, stay the night Thursday and head
to Narango, Santo…our new home…on Friday. We’ll get settled in over the weekend
and get started on Monday!
Some random thoughts/observations:
There are no such thing as car seats here. I will never get used to the
flies. Wild is a really good book (Thanks, Brittany!). I miss Murray so much.
Seriously, SO much. I am looking forward to lots of things about our site…one
thing I am NOT looking forward to is not having a bathroom inside of our house
again. It’s no fun to wake up in the middle of the night and have to go outside
of your house to use the bathroom! I will admit that I was too scared a few of
the nights on our week at site and went in a bucket inside the house. A
brilliant suggestion from a current volunteer. Don’t judge!!! I am so very
thankful for our laptop and external hard drive. Watching movies and sitcoms
feels like home and it’s really really nice to have. We are lucky enough to
have some solar power in the school’s “office” and should be able to charge our
laptop from time to time, so hopefully we will still have that luxury at site!
We are also looking into purchasing a solar panel/set up for our house so that
we will have a light and be able to charge more electronics. We’re going to
hold off on that to see if we really need it though, or if we can survive with
the PC issued solar lights and the one solar charger that’s already there!
Tuesday is going to be such a weird day! I know I’ll be happy to finally be
heading to Narango, but so sad to say goodbye to all of these awesome people
who have become our really great friends.
THANK YOU for all of the emails, comments, likes, etc congratulating us
on swearing in. They all mean a lot to us and we really appreciate it.
If you would like to send mail we found out that it really helps with
customs to include “Peace Corps Volunteer” in our address. So, here is the
final address update…If you sent something to Santo using the previous address given, it should stilt get to us so no worries!
Cole and Caroline Smith
Peace Corps Volunteers
PO Box 203
Luganvile Post Office
Santo Island, Vanuatu
South Pacific
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