12/15/2004

The past few weeks have been such a blur with the end of training that I've literally not had time to write. Between the end of our model teaching, various luncheons, parties and ceremonies, culminating with the rush of swearing-in, the mad scramble to pack everything up, and heading out to site, it's been memorable. With all that in mind, I'll try to recap as best I can.

We milked our time in N'Djamena for all it was worth, enjoying the life of nice restaurants (relatively speaking), air-conditioning, parties with the Ambassador, and constant reassurances that we'd be done with training before we knew it, and then we'd be off. Although it certainly was fun living high on the hog (or perhaps 'high on the goat' would be more accurate around here), I'm glad to be gone, off and living what feels like the real Peace Corps experience. On top of that, the truth is that N'Djamena isn't an especially pleasant place, with the open sewers, copious amounts of dust in every lungful of air, and just the general 3rd-World Capital feel of the place, which is of course exactly what it is. The Chadian Minister of Health described N'Djamena as the 'dirtiest city in the world' recently– I think she may be right.

Which makes it even more amazing to step into the artificial First-world life of most of the ex-pat community here, even if it's only for one night. We spent the day before departing to our sites with Casey, the Deputy Chief of Mission (Second-in-command after the Ambassador) of the US Embassy for her 14th annual Christmas party and reading of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." Inside her spacious and well-lit house, with the air-conditioning turned down to near-Arctic levels, drinking egg-nog with brandy and snacking on cookies, it was pretty easy to forget that it was a hot, dusty, 100+ degrees just outside the windows.

But I need to backtrack a bit; I wouldn't want to forget our Swearing-In. Yes, we're all officially Peace Corps Volunteers now, and it's an exciting feeling to know that we all made it through training (a rarity according to Nelson, our Country Director), and that the best times should lie ahead. It feels a little crazy to look back now, and think that less than a year ago I was writing for XPress Online, taking four other classes, living with three roommates, and waiting to hear back on the Fulbright application I'd filled out to go teach in South Korea. Well, although the Fulbright committee rejected me, I did end up going abroad to teach English after all. I managed to find a place that was at least 30º hotter, more than 150 places lower on the development scale, with a commitment for twice as long at 1/10th the salary, but it's OK though- the scrawny cow chained to the engine block in my 'front yard' keeps me company, and I don't really like kim-chee that much anyway.

OK, I'm getting sidetracked again. The swearing-in ceremony was very nice, actually, attended by the US Ambassador, the Chadian Minister of Education, a Congressman from New Jersey whose name I forget already, and various other important people. Speaking for myself, (and I imagine most of the others in our group) it meant far more to have all of our training staff, and particularly 11 of the 13 volunteers who arrived last year present. It was surprisingly quick, maybe 45 minutes- told us to raise our right hands, repeat after him, and voila, training was over. We'd all had (except for Roger, who didn't like the fabric) pieces of clothing tailored in advance, using an almost iridescent dark orange material, which really lent a certain group cohesion to thing, pretty symbolic of how close we've all grown in three months.

Precisely because of this, it was really tough to break up and head to our villages, something we knew we'd have to do eventually, but for me at least, always seemed far away. But suddenly we were racing around, buying last minute supplies, packing boxes, getting measured for bicycles, jumping into one of four Land Cruisers, and heading off.
They say that the scariest moment of the whole Peace Corps experience is watching the car drive off without you for the first time. Surprisingly, I wasn't really that bothered by it– I knew it had to happen eventually, and my bigger concern has been getting set up and settled-in. As I write this I've been in Gounou-Gaya two days, done some basic household work, and managed to cook on a wire grill with charcoal and kerosene without hurting myself– it's encouraging, and I just hope I'm ready for everything that lies ahead

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