I'm an official PCV!

The day has finally come (well yesterday) that I got to swear-in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). No more being called a trainee! :)

So, we got to all hang out at the hotel here in Managua for the last couple of days which has been really fun. We had our ceremony yesterday. We all got dressed up, ate breakfast, and then PC shuttled us over to the really nice hotel for the ceremony. As they were setting up, we took tons of pictures together and our families started arriving so more pictures were taken. The first part of the ceremony consisted of thanking the families for all they have done for us the past 2 1/2 months. We presented certificates to the host mom's and took pictures. Then we had some snacks while they changed things up inside. The second part of the ceremony consisted of speeches from a volunteer from each group, kind of like a valedictorian speech. Then, the U.S. Ambassador gave a speech, which included us swearing-in, and then our country director gave a speech. We then were called up one by one to shake hands with our country director, the U.S. Ambassador, and our APCDs. Then we signed our life away on a paper that was whisked away quickly and we were handed a PC pin.


Kellie, Julia Elena, Jess, & Me



Host mom, me, host aunt



The whole day was pretty exciting and we got McFlurry’s to celebrate, of course. We then came back to the hotel to change and hang out. Our country director invited us all over to her house to celebrate Thanksgiving since our host families would obviously not be celebrating. This was very nice. We were shuttled over to her house and we scarfed up as many appetizers as we could and then eagerly waited for the Thanksgiving dishes. We were pleasantly surprised to see and eat such great food: mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, cranberries, turkey, sweet potatoes…and then pie!
Many of us were wearing our PC polos so we had to take pictures in those since they are so cool and we are pretty excited to finally have them.

After eating all of that food and spending about 3 ½ hours there, we were all getting pretty sleepy so we had out trainers take us back to the hotel. It was a nice night to relax and hang out with everybody before leaving today. It feels weird that we’re actually leaving for our sites and leaving our friends, but hopefully we’ll see each other for Christmas or New Year’s. But for now, I’ll be heading back over to Boaco…not sure when that family farm trip will be, but I’ll keep you posted!

Check out more of my pictures in my Facebook album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2055629&id=51701128&l=c7751ed468