Drum Roll Please…..
We are officially Peace Corps Volunteers! Yay :) Now, this might not seem like a big deal to you all, but we have been working for 2 months and had to pass quite a few competency tests to finally get the ‘privilege’ of being able to call ourselves volunteers instead of trainees.
The official ceremony took place at the US embassy. All the Americans got dressed up in their best Malian outfits and the whole occasion was very formal and made us very proud of what we are doing. The US ambassador said a few words, we took an oath of service, and a few volunteers gave speeches in the local languages which were filmed and played on television that evening. Next we headed to the American club, where a feast of cheeseburgers, quesadillas, french fries, potato salad, fruit salad and chocolate mousse awaited us! When doing my research about Mali before coming, I remember being confused as to how excited everyone seemed about this meal, but after 2 months of toh or rice and sauce, this is a HUGE deal.
The rest of our training class organized a huge night out in Bamako to celebrate, but Jim and I decided to use this opportunity to celebrate our 1 year anniversary, a few days early, by spending 24 hours at the Radisson, Bamako’s nicest hotel. We got to enjoy lounging by the pool, air conditioning,' The Office’ in French, and an incredible breakfast buffet. It was such a treat to relax after such a stressful and challenging 2 months.
We are heading out tomorrow to our regional capital to buy furniture and supplies before officially moving to site, early in the week. We are very excited (though it WAS pretty hard to leave the Radisson :) ) to go to our new home. However, that means we wont have internet for about a month. Thanks again for reading along and we’ll try to post more pictures soon!
~Joye
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