Long Overdue Update, Part 1: Let’s Git Ya Swore In

November 30, 2009

Training is over; in retrospect, it went by too fast.

It officially ended a week ago today, when I took an oath to defend the United States against enemies foreign and domestic, and to do all I could to help the Nicaraguan people during my two years of service. I got great pictures of the ceremony, and of us all dressed up, which I put on facebook up with ones that I took at our final youth group ceremony; they say more than my words can:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2836038&id=2301314&l=44cfc28698

I did not get pictures of the debauchery that was the All Volunteer Conference (AVC) that followed. All 170 volunteers from around the country, including the 36 newly minted TEFL and Environment volunteers, converged on one hotel in Managua. We celebrated; we danced; we jumped into the pool; we learned about biodigesters and how to garden organically and create a drip irrigation system and make a cheap durable oven and make wheat flower tortillas and veggie tacos and who to talk to if we needed technical knowledge to do just about anything. It was great.

But it was also bittersweet. After the dance at the end of the AVC, we got split up and swept along, with all of our possessions, to different Americans’ houses in Managua to celebrate Thanksgiving. I had a great dinner with about 30 volunteers and our country director and his wife, and above all was so happy to find two other people who knew how to play euchre, who together with me were able to teach Liz how to play, and played two games with me, just like I would have been doing back home with my cousins and my brother had I been there. Then after being swept back to a hotel with all of our possessions (for a third time that week), we said our goodbyes sleepily in the heat of trying to leave the next morning.

I won’t forget Dolores. I’m grateful for the people I met there, and all the kindness they showed me during these past three months. Although I couldn’t take them with me, I’ll keep their words and deeds with me in my mind and in my heart for some time to come.