After 8 weeks of training I finally got to swear-in and now I am officially a volunteer with the U.S. Peace Corps!!! It was a bittersweet farewell. I was leaving my first home in South Africa to start afresh in another place. It actually kind of felt like graduating from high school and then going to a junior college only it happened faster. I graduated, there was a short celebration, then I was swept off to where I was going to spend the next two years of my life only an hour and a half away from home.
U.S. Ambassador Bost attended the ceremony and gave an excellent congratulatory speech/warning lecture and then had to leave promptly due to a crisis with a U.S. citizen in-country. He said how honorable it was to "give up" two years of our lives to volunteer and how much more valuable that is than money. Then he reminded us that we represented the United States of America and that we are all U.S. ambassadors; he followed that up by pointing out that he is the big ambassador and we are just tiny ambassadors. He stressed many times throughout the speech that we are here serving our country so our country will protect us if something goes wrong. The main point he was driving home was "DON'T MESS UP!". Then he left.
The rest of the ceremony was filled with speeches by the volunteers in the languages they learned, traditional song and dance, and then a feast of traditional food. I took a few pictures with my beloved Ndebele group and then said goodbye to my trainers and then my supervisor whisked me away to my site.
I am Bruce, father of Michael. Your sister Cate forwarded your blog site to me. I find your experiences fascinating and I look forward to following you during your adventures. It had to be very hard to leave your loving family but it appears that you are finding a lot of love in South Africa. I look forward to reading your blog and I look forward to someday meeting you.
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