Swear In

The swear in process was surprisingly quick and efficient. In the morning we all piled into a bus and went to the Ambassador’s house. It’s a nice house with a lot of grass, and a pool- where greeted people, and then sat under a tent while people talked (in French and English) about what it means to be a Peace Corps Volunteer – and some even quoted JFK.  It’s interesting because when I was on the plane back from South Africa I saw this show called Kennedys and it was about the first election that tried to put JFK in the white house. It had the guy that played Carmine Falcone from Batman Begins in it. Anyway, now when I hear anyone talk about JFK I always picture him looking a little like Greg Kinnear. Regardless, it was a nice ceremony where everyone who spoke said some very sincere things. After that we ate cake, and drank some soft drinks- then we were kicked out of the Ambassadors house (because he does have a real job) and we went across the street to the Rec center which has some amazing food (including a taco salad) and a pool- and we spent a few hours there. I jumped in a few times it was cold but very nice and extremely refreshing.

After that one of my friends and I ventured into downtown Ouaga to buy cots, stoves, and any other miscellaneous items that we hadn’t yet purchased. It was a fairly mindblowing experience having people assault you from every direction trying to sell you things and then have them run off to get someone who does have what you’re looking for if they don’t have it. It was surprisingly hectic yet congenial at the same time.

When we returned to SIL (the place where we’re staying) we got changed again and went out to dinner- it was kind of like a one last goodbye dinner where we ate food that wasn’t rice, beans or chicken and we spoke in English! The group I was with chose an Indian restaurant which was surprisingly good and then we went to a Turkish place for desert- all in all- a good pair of choices. After that we went to a bar- and met up with a lot of other peace corps volunteers (95% of the people at the bar were American) and then we left for a club called the majestic which has a lot of mirrors and a lot of dancing. I don’t really “do” dancing but it was nice to spend time with everyone before we all split up.