PCV: Paid Caribbean Vacation

Well, its official... I am a United States Peace Corps Volunteer. I can finally be referred to as what my blog is titled: PCV. It happened on October 22, 2009 and from that day on for 2 years I will be serving as a Youth Development Volunteer in the Orange Walk district village of Yo Creek.
The swearing in ceremony happened at the Belize House outside. I think they tricked us by saying it was a house and we all thought this would mean air conditioning and inside but we were duped yet again. It was held outside and it was a very sunny and hot day. Host families came as well as different counterparts of the 40 trainees that became volunteers. We all had to stand, raise our right hands and repeat some words about upholding the consitution of the United States of America and to promote peace and all that jazz. After that... we were PCVs. Easy as that.

This is our PC class of 2009. I think I got cut out of the picture, I was supposed to be on the right side but I guess thats tough luck when you dont have a camera and rely on stealing pictures from other people. We came in with 41 and 40 made it to swearing in. This is remarkable considering the class before us came in with 42, had 35 swear in, and now have 28 remaining. Some people drop like flies. We seem to have 40 dedicated people ready for the long haul.

This is our Country Director Dr. Stephen Miller and Ambassador Thummalapally (Tom-al-i-pal-i). The Ambassador swore us in before Steve got up and made a speech about how we need to be just like an Ol Blues song. It was touching. He never fails in delivering something in a new and interesting way. The Ambassador has only been in Belize for about 5 weeks. He just came from Colorado Springs and was appointed to be the Ambassador of Belize to the United States by the President himself. That President, Obama, just so happened to have been the Ambassador's college roommate or something. Talk about good luck.

The most depressing part of going back to Belmopan was finding out the day before swearing in that Steve would be leaving. He also got appointed by Obama to take a job in Washington for the Peace Corps. He will be missed and we wont get another country director until sometime around January. The things I will miss the most about Steve are how he always seemed to be totally in control while appearing not to care, and how he always had quick little jokes that not everyone understood. He told me during out picture when we were swearing in "welcome to the mafia." Meaning that he was a sociologist as well and we had some kind of secret team now.