Oh Sweet Glorious Food: Swear-In & Thanksgiving

I’m officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! 38 of us were sworn-in this morning at the US Embassy in Dar es Salaam (we only lost one during training due to a program change she didn’t like). To get into the embassy, the guards (locals) were having us individually sign-in. Then
Andrea, our Country Director (CD), arrived and was rather miffed because the guards have the guest list and having ~120 people sign-in individually would take forever. I think they learned not to mess with Andrea.
Our ceremony was in the main hallway of the embassy and was kept to 1.5 hours so as not to disturb the workers’ whole day. It was covered by ITV, a popular news channel here, though we didn’t get to see it. The guest of honor was , the minister of Tanzania Institute of
Education (TIE), who gave a speech after Andrea. Us soon-to-be-volunteers led the audience in the Tz & US national anthems then we all went onto the stairs facing them and performed a song in Kiswahili set to the tune of the Beatles’ “I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends”. Paul accompanied all songs with his concertina (like an accordion), which was really cool. He then gave our speech in Kiswahili with Mindy, doing the English version, to finish our portion of the entertainment, I mean ceremony. Ambassador Alfonso Lenhardt (retired 2-star Army general & whose wife I sat next to during the ceremony) gave a short speech and swore us in as Peace Corps Volunteers. We were then officially PCVs. (Although we swore-in as Peace Corps Volunteers, the written statements we signed actually read “Peace Cops” J)
The ceremony was all well and good but the snacks at the reception were the best part of the whole thing. We had tender, marinated shish-kebabs and scrumptious samosas (meat & veggie filled pastry dough triangles). Then they served us the congratulatory cake. It was so good, I couldn’t help myself and had 2 pieces. In fact, I’m pretty sure most of us newly minted PCVs had more than one serving of the snacks served. We also took our CBT group pictures and the guys did a mustache picture to commemorate their brilliant pan to (almost) all grow mustaches for swearing-in. Not to be left out, us girls took a picture in which most of us are sporting finger mustaches – mustaches drawn on our fingers.
During our break between events, PC graciously drove ~6 of us to the Zain store in the middle of the city to buy modems or take care of other issues. If I really do have a computer or 2 at site that work, I will also have Internet. Cross your fingers. I also needed to go to the post office to send out a couple of 50th birthday packages but the Zain store workers were too slow to have time for us to stop at the main PO. Instead, one of the PC staff had the PC driver drop off the others at Msimbazi then directed us to a nearby PO. Unfortunately, this PO is really small and does not have Customs forms. The person working was able to tell me how much each should cost to send so I will have to ask someone from PC to send them with some cash I give them. I very highly doubt I will have a chance to send them once I leave for site early tomorrow morning.
After most of us had changed clothes and some had shaved, we headed to the ambassador’s residence for Thanksgiving dinner. To be sure, the place was beautiful outside (where we ate) but let’s be real, we mostly cared about the food. For our 2 months of training, we were hoping and praying that we would get served Thanksgiving dinner on the day we swore-in because we will be traveling on the actual Thanksgiving Day. Some people lusted after specific foods but I think many of us just wanted some good “American” food. We were not disappointed.
Among the foods served at dinner were green salad, fruit salad, corn, mashed potatoes, chicken (turkey is imported & extremely expensive), cranberry sauce, and rolls. I had a food baby from just dinner but still went up for a plate of dessert: pumpkin pie, apple pie, vanilla ice cream, brownie, and cookie. If I could gurgle like Homer Simpson, I would. Oh man was it good. They even had us take fresh fruit and extra desserts for later (esp for traveling tomorrow).
Back at Msimbazi, I packed up my bags again and was glad I’d left a small box of things at PC-HQ that I won’t need for awhile (including a few heavy books). Then I hung out for awhile and got some pics from the events today on my jumpdrive. Eventually I went to bed for a few hours of sleep. It’ll be weird not seeing everyone for several months.