May 19, 2008 Swearing in

Monday morning, between 9:15 and 9:30, we made our way from our little hotel to a huge 5-star palace of a hotel. (When we had done a mapping exercise early on in training, and had had to construct a map of our training city from memory, we had referred to this swanky place and its neighbors as the “Fancy Pants Hotels.” Because they are. When movie stars come to town, this is where they stay.) The Fancy Pants hotel lived up to its name. The decorations were breathtaking, the ceilings were enormous (in a country where 12-foot ceilings are standard, that’s saying something), and the courtyard was landscaped by an artist.

After a few rounds of oohs and aahs, along with a bunch of pictures taken of each other in our own fancy-pants finery (ranging from a three-piece suit to jellabas to the full spectrum of the business casual rainbow, we made our way up to a meeting/banquet hall where the chairs had been set up for our event.

Health and Environment trainees faced each other across the front of the room, separated one more time, in front of the podium for the speakers and assembled notables. Our families, Peace Corps Staff, and other invitees all faced the podium from a little further back. Come to think of it, I think the chairs were set up pretty much the same way for my high school graduation.

I took a bunch more pictures of the assembled Trainees, the big Peace Corps banner, etc, and then it was time to get down to business. There were a series of speeches, from Moroccan dignitaries (translated by our Training Coordinator, since only ~12 of us have learned Darija, which is what he was speaking); from our Country Director, who spoke in careful Darija as well as English, addressing our host families and us, respectively; from the Ambassador’s representative, who spoke in French and didn’t translate his remarks; and then from three Trainees. One representative of the highest scorers on the Language Proficiency exam, in each of the three languages we’ve been studying – Darija, Tamazight, and Tashelheit – gave talks. The Tam speech was the funniest, according to the laughter of the invited Morrocans. (It was also the only one I understood more than a quarter of, which may also be part of why I enjoyed it.)

And then came the big moment. The Country Director – who will be leaving Morocco before the next group swears in, so this was an emotional moment for him, as well – instructed us to raise our right hands and repeat, line by line, the oath we had all signed and sworn a few days before, to protect the Constitution and to serve the people of Morocco. Most of us were misty-eyed before we got through the paragraph-long oath. The girl next to me was clutching my hand for emotional support.

And then we were no longer Peace Corps Trainees. So long, PCT status, hello two years of service as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Then there was feasting, more picture taking…and there was great rejoicing. :) Eventually, we said goodbye to our host families – mine was one of the last to leave – and ran back to our little hotel to grab our bathing suits. The Fancy Pants hotel, of course, had a pool. And we were allowed to avail ourselves of it for the next four hours. And there was great rejoicing. ;)