About a month and a half ago, I had the great privilege of swearing in as a Peace Corps volunteer. The swearing in ceremony is the moment a Peace Corps trainee becomes an official Peace Corps Volunteer, and is probably the coolest ceremony I have ever participated in. In a battle between any of my graduation ceremonies and swearing in, swearing in would have KOed graduation in the first three minutes. It’s just that cool. I’ll expand.
At each swearing in, five volunteers are selected to speak. One deaf education and one science education volunteer are selected to thank the officials that helped bring us to Kenya (the government, the ministry of education, the headmasters of the schools we serve at, etc.). Three other volunteers are picked to give a commencement-style speech; one gives it in Kenyan Sign Language, one in Swahili and one in English (the three official languages of Kenya). A couple of weeks before swearing in, I learned that I had been selected to give the speech in Swahili. I was really excited, but really nervous because while I’d gotten fairly proficient at basic tasks in Swahili (like bargaining with Matatu touts, greeting people, explaining why I’m in Kenya), I hadn’t really achieved a level where I could express abstract ideas or feelings (I think the only “feeling” word I had was “to become happy – Kufurahi”).
The deaf education volunteers trained in another town from us; so even though DR (English) and I worked on the speech before we travelled to Nairobi, we couldn’t finalize it until meeting with KR (KSL) a couple of days before swearing in. This meant that the translation of the speech into Swahili wasn’t completed until the morning of the ceremony. So while everyone else was practicing reciting the oath (the standard issue “I swear to protect and defend the constitution of the United States of America…” oath), I was outside trying to read through the speech 100 times before we had to leave. I’m sure I looked like a crazy person, pacing back and forth, speech in hand, repeating three word phrases under my breath, over and over again.
Then the time came and we all loaded on a couple of busses for the drive over to the country director’s house where the ceremony was being hosted. He and his wife have a beautiful home on the outskirts of Nairobi. They had set the yard up for the celebration, with big white tents for shade, rows of chairs, banners and red white and blue everywhere (it looked really nice). As we waited for swearing in to start, we watched a traditional music/dance group and loitered around drinking lattes (they had a coffee company making LATTES, I had 5… I was really missing coffee at that point), snaking on American junk food (Doritos, Cheetos and brownies), admiring the cupcake version of the Peace Corps logo and taking as many group pictures as we possibly could. It’s funny how two months in the village can really make you appreciate little things like good coffee and cheetos.
Then we all sat down for the ceremony. The training manager welcomed everyone, the country director, an embassy official and an official from the ministry of education all spoke, then we said our oath and officially became volunteers. Our group was one of the last to swear in during the 50th anniversary year of Peace Corps, and many of the comments made reflected on the legacy of Peace Corps around the world and on returned PCVs. It’s an experience that tends to change people, to shape their world-view and character, something that few Americans can even fully understand. Joining the Peace Corps is a bit like gaining life-long membership in a funny little club of interesting, service-minded individuals. One speech giver even made the comparison, “if the marines are the few the proud; Peace Corps volunteers are the fewer the prouder.” Now, I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m happy to join the fold. Completing that oath was a moment of pride for me, of hope for what I can accomplish while I’m here, and of excitement about being exactly where I want to be at this juncture in my life.
Then we gave our speeches. KR went first with the KSL version, then I went, then DR finished with the English version. I hadn’t realized how long that freaking speech was until I was about a third of the way through and my mouth was tired of forming all the unfamiliar sounds (I’m pretty sure it’s the longest uninterrupted period of time that I’ve spoken in Swahili). I made it through though, and I think I did a respectable job so “iko sawa, hakuna shida” (it’s okay, no problems). A few more speeches were delivered and then it was time to celebrate.
First we had cake at the ceremony, then we returned to the hotel changed out of our fancy clothes and ventured out into Nairobi. A big group of us went to explore the Peace Corps office, others went to pick up a few items at the big stores (some things are hard to find in the village), while still others went to museums. That night, we went out to dinner in the Western-style restaurants that Nairobi offers. I went with a group of about 15 to a Mexican restaurant for fajitas and Sangria. We capped off the night with some dancing back at the hotel (the Macarena definitely made an appearance for the first time in many, many years). It was wonderful, simple and fun. One by one, people dropped out to go to sleep (most of us were departing early the next morning for our permanent sites), and we said our goodbyes. It was hard to leave everyone, over the 10 weeks of training we had become a funny little family, but exciting to move on to the next stage in our time in Kenya.
Peace and Love, M
