Friday, August 12, 2005

woot!

I am officially a peace corps volunteer. I raised my right hand and swore to defend the united states from all enemies, foreign and domestic (how this applies to the peace corps exactly, I don't know) plus some other stuff this morning. We've been back and forth between the peace corps main office, our hotel, and the embassy several times between yesterday and today, attending a few more talks and going to various activities. The personnel here at the peace corps office is really stellar, and it makes me feel good knowing these guys are backing us up.

The swearing-in thing happened this morning at like 9 am. It was kind of understated, which is fine by me. Several people gave speeches of course, including myself - Feeling very nervous and slightly hung over, I got up behind a podium with my khakis and hideous tie and spoke on behalf of the PAM section of trainees that were getting sworn in. I thought it went pretty well and I can post the transcript here if yall want, although it is like 75% spanish.

Afterwards we took a ridiculous amount of pictures. I didn't bring my camera, but most of the ones that other people had were digital and I'm going to try and track some pictures down to post here. Myself and all the other men trainees have been growing mustaches for the past 3 weeks just for this event and we look pretty hilarious. Unfortunately that amount of time was enough for me to get about a quarter inch of fuzz on the upper lip so I had to leave some "Hulk Hogan" fumanchu straps so you can actually see the damn thing. Should've colored it with mascara but we thought about that too late. Ooooh, also I think somebody might have a picture of me behind that wooden thing with a microphone and the Hondura, US, and Peace Corps flags in the background. I'd like to get my hands on that.

I'm going out to Choluteca via bus this afternoon with my enormous load of crapola and I'm gonna stay in a hotel tonight because the last bus up to the aldea leaves at 4 pm. Probably won't have any more communication for the next while, like maybe a week, but I will check back in when I am able to. *hugz*

Gabe

1 Comments:

At 9:40 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gabe,
Gee, I hope we get the picture of you behind the podium with the flags supporting you. I'm not surprised that you somehow found the energy to party in spite of the penicillin. (How you feeling?)
Hopefully, you didn't get as wild as your dad did during those Peace Corps bashes.:)
I'm so excited for you on this first leg of getting set up. These times remain forever posted in your real brain-type memory to pull and enjoy whenever you like.:)
We would love to read your speech. Many of us can read it, and the others, I know, would enjoy trying!
Remember phone number, OK? Even if it's only a temporary one til you get settled. Good luck getting all your stuff up the hill. We are all awaiting pix of the new digs.
Love,
mom
P.S. Maya got accepted into Cornish and is really excited. A word of congrats for her is definitely in order.

 

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