Host Family Farewell and Swear In

It's finally official, I am a sworn in Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV)!! Last Saturday we had our host family farewell party. Only your parents get invited because if we invited all the kids there would probably have been hundreds of guests. (Even with just the volunteers, parents, and Peace Corps staff we still had over 80 people). It was a nice way to say goodbye, there were some speeches and the PCVs did a traditional Rwandan dance. I'm sure our families found it extremely entertaining, especially since we had only briefly practiced it three times. 

Me, James, and Nikki (the Karama Krew) at the farewell.

Mama, Me, and James' host mom. 

Karama subsite with our host families

Saturday was host family farewell, then Monday was our final language test. I was super stressed out about it for some reason and was anxious until Wednesday, when I finally found out I passed. Thank god, because if you don't pass you have to spend two more weeks in training and I really could not cope with that. Wednesday afternoon we piled all of our stuff into a huge van and moved to Kigali. (I felt like I left with twice as much as I brought and I really haven't bought anything...how does that happen??)

Friday morning we went to the US Ambassador to Rwanda's house for official swear in as PCVs. (You have to successfully complete training to be a volunteer, until now we have been called PCTs- Peace Corps Trainees). We heard some speeches, including one by the Rwandan Minister of Health, who made an unexpected appearance. She was very well-spoken and I really enjoyed her speech (even more impressive considering she made it up on the spot, because she did not expect to have time to come to our ceremony). Then we got to give our lovely awkward cultural dance again.

Karama with our language teachers, Zilpah and Moses

                           

Me and my site-mate Bob, he lives in the same village and teaches English

Our Health 5 group of 20 people. PC Country Director Steve Miller on the left, Ambassador Koran on the right.

Rocking our awesome African clothes!

It seems super strange to be done with training. There were some days where it seemed like it would never end. Its definitely a huge relief, but when I move to my site tomorrow, thats when the real work begins. It is definitely still surreal that I am going to spend my next two years in this wonderful country. It hasn't been easy, but I have definitely enjoyed my experience so far and look forward to what is ahead. 

It has been a fun few days in Kigali. We got to go shopping for our homes and eat way too much amazing food. (Which I am dearly paying for today as I am trying to fight off a pretty rough stomach bug- but definitely feeling tons better than I did this morning!)