EC 83 Swear In for Service

On Wednesday last week, ten new volunteers took the oath of any U.S. government official and became Peace Corps Volunteers. For the last 8 weeks they have been in intense training, which included sitting in a classroom all day being lectured at, man I don't miss those days!

This group of trainees turned volunteers is a unique group to the island. For the last two groups (EC 79 and 81), we have had one male volunteer. In this new group, there are SIX male volunteers. Nothing like mixing up the dynamics right? It has been a really good learning experience for all of us though and I think they are going to be a great asset to not only the Peace Corps, but to Grenada.

People in attendance at the ceremony included a feature address by the Hon. Minister of Education Franka Bernardine, words on behalf of the government of Grenada by Hon. Prime Minister Tillman Thomas, a motivating speech by the newly appointed Peace Corps Country Director Kevin Carley, and the official oath given by Charge de Affairs Mr. Bernard Link. Also at the ceremony were the current host families of the new volunteers, who so graciously rented out their families for 8 weeks, counterparts of current and new volunteers and community members.

After the ceremony, we headed to Jon and Steph's house in St. Paul's for the traditional celebration of good food, cold drinks and a peace cake! We have a few rituals (which I cant disclose, no hazing though) that we introduced to the new group in hopes they will pass it down through the next groups as well.

The Newbies with their traditional peace cake. Special group of people, haha!

Overall, it was a good time for everyone involved. It really put into perspective the limited time we have here as volunteers and just how quickly it goes by. I remember like it was yesterday being in their shoes, sitting on the stage and taking that oath to "defend our country from all foreign and domestic enemies". Wow has time flown or what? From this month exactly, our group of EC 81 has just one year of service left to Grenada and the Peace Corps. I'm proud of myself and my fellow group members for making it this far, and I can see the next year going super fast as we really get our projects going.

My host momma, who was also a host momma for one of the new volunteers.

To the new group....Thanks for being awesome and welcome to the family!!!!