BrittaAbroad: Sworn in!

This Tuesday was “Swearing In” for my group of trainees, the K’21s. After 7+ weeks in country, after hours upon hours of Peace Corps training sessions, after passing our language proficiency tests and managing not to mess up too badly in any other ways we took an oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States, and officially became Peace Corps volunteers.

The week leading up to Swearing In was a whirlwind. I had my language proficiency interview, an oral test measuring ability to communicate, functionality over precision. I talked about my family in America and described how to make pizza. I managed to score “intermediate mid,” which seems a little optimistic to me, but I’ll take it!

We also spent the last week saying goodbye to our wonderful host families. Six of us Peace Corps volunteers lived in Gavrilovka, and our mothers worked as a team to keep us healthy and happy. We ate meals at each other’s houses, played with each other’s host siblings and learned about Kyrgyz life from all the “apas” (mothers). On our last Sunday in town, we cooked an American feast for the apas – fried chicken and bruschetta, meatballs, cole slaw, a giant salad and brownies for desert. It was a hit.

And soon enough, we found ourselves packed into a crowded auditorium in Bishkek, on the brink of beginning that “real life” in Kyrgyzstan that I’d heard much about. The Ambassador spoke and administered the oath, several of my fellow K’21s gave excellent speeches in their new languages, a dance troupe organized by a K’18 performed a pretty wild montage, and my friend Max did a stunning job playing both Kyrgyz and American songs on his mandolin. Our host families from the Bishkek area attended, as well as our new host families and counterparts. A video of the ceremony is on the interwebs, and should be available for at least a month at: http://www.justin.tv/pckg01

After the ceremony, we said our goodbyes, collected our embarrassing amounts of luggage and hopped into vehicles bound for our new sites. Toktogul is five hours and two mountain passes south of Bishkek. The drive was gorgeous. I had been told all throughout my training that the Bishkek area is a strange bubble that doesn’t really represent Kyrgyzstan, but in my mind I nonetheless equated Bishkek with the whole country. As we drove south, I realized that I was finally seeing the real deal. Herds of horses grazed in the hills, women squatted over cooking fires outside their yurts, and everywhere, everywhere those staggering, sky-scraping mountains.

As we came over the second mountain pass, my host mother pointed to the land spread out below us. “It’s Toktogul,” she said. The town was nestled between mountains, with a large lake on the far end of the lush little valley. The low evening sun gave it all a warm glow.

Real life didn't look so bad.