“I, Caleb LaRue, promise to serve alongside
the people of Mongolia. I promise to share my culture with an open heart and
open mind. I promise to foster an understanding of the people ofMongolia, with
creativity, cultural sensitivity, and respect. I will face the challenges of
service with patience, humility, and determination. I will embrace the mission
of world peace and friendship for as long as I serve and beyond. In the proud
tradition of Peace Corps’ legacy, and in the spirit of the Peace Corps family
past, present, and future I am a Peace Corps Volunteer.”
Eleven
weeks of training have come to an end. On Saturday the 15th of August,
Sally and I attended our swearing-in ceremony and are officially PCVs. It has
been a long hot summer, but not a bad one. We have made many friends, many of
whom are on their way to sites on the other side of the country. Some people
are as far as a 50 hour bus ride from Sally and I’s new site.
We spent
most of last week in Darkhan attending final center days/training. Since it
was the third time that we stayed in New Darkhan, it was fun to visit various
restaurants and enjoy some Mongolian-American food. We also were able to meet
and dine with our site mates. There are 6 PCVs from our cohort that will be
going to the same aimag. Four of us will be in in the aimag center (Chinggis
Town).
After a
week of training we attended the swearing-in ceremony. It was surreal. I found
myself often wanting to slap myself. There are moments in life where you can
almost somatically feel chapters changing. Moments that enormous amount of
time, effort, and planning are needed to achieve. And when you finally find
yourself in that moment time seems to shift into hyper speed, and you find
yourself on the other side forever in a different chapter. Sally and I have wanted to do the Peace Corps
together for almost 6 years, prior to that it was something that we each
thought of often. Here we are.
The
swearing-in ceremony was pleasant with speeches and presentation of
certificates. It was almost like a graduation into Peace Corps after months of
training. The highlight of the ceremony was the cultural performances that were
done by PCVs. Sally’s group performed a popular Mongolian song and meshed it
with “When I am Gone.” The songs sounded really good together and the
combination of Mongolian and American music was a neat symbolic moment. Two
other groups performed: a Mongolian dance and a solo song. The solo singer did
a really good job.
After the
ceremony we had a short reception and spent time with my host mother and sister
who had come to see us swear in. They presented us with a nice house warming
gift for our new apartment in the form of a small statue of two Mongolian
horses standing side by side.
We traveled
by bus to UB where we dined on amazing Cuban food. (For reasons unknown to me or my fellow PCVs a Cuban chef has set up in Ulaanbaatar.) After
one night in the dorms we loaded all of our stuff, ourselves, and our two
supervisors into a taxi destined for Chinggis Hot.
PST is
over, the real challenge and job begins now.
~ Caleb
Great blog post Caleb.
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