Swearing In

It’s official… Michelle and I are Peace Corps Volunteers! Now, some of you might be wonderful why I’m saying we’re only volunteers just now when we’ve been in South Africa since July. Let me explain.

The first 2-3 months in country volunteers spend time training during what is called “Pre-Service Training” or PST. During PST, volunteers are referred to as “Peace Corps Trainees” or PCTs. PCTs learn the local language, culture, customs, and develop skills pertaining to their project. In our case, we have been learning isiZulu because we are in the KwaZulu Natal province of South Africa where isiZulu is the dominant language. Since Michelle and I are education volunteers, we participated in workshops on topics such as literacy, language acquisition, classroom management, differentiation, and many others. Peace Corps calls these technical sessions. Satisfactory completion of the workshops, in addition to passing an oral language exam and a couple of written exams, means that PCTs qualify to become “Peace Corps Volunteers” or PCVs.

Joe & Michelle Excited to Have Taken the Peace Corps Oath

If you’re already putting two and two together, then you might have already guessed that Michelle and I fulfilled all of the required described above. We completed workshops and passed our exams, which means that we qualified to become official PCVs with the Peace Corps.

It was quite an exciting day to Swear In. It’s called Swear In because all incoming PCVs pledge to serve the U.S., South Africa, and the Peace Corps diligently during their term of service. It was really cool because we raised our right hands, took the oath, which we heard from Michelle’s dad who was in the Air Force the oath was similar to that of the military, and were recognized by the Country Director.

Incoming South Africa 30 Peace Corps Volunteers Taking the Peace Corps Oath

Swear In was a cool rite of passage because it acknowledged the work the incoming volunteers and I had done since we initially applied to join the Peace Corps, including interviews, exams, workshops, practical teaching, and other training. Since Peace Corps’ inception, over 200,000 volunteers have sworn in to serve in more than 170 countries all over the world. We are now part of a network of people, both U.S. Americans and host country nationals, who committed themselves to improving the state of the world. In South Africa, this means we will be helping with education. In the coming months, we will learn about the state of our schools, develop partnerships with fellow teachers, and prepare to go into the classroom. It is an exciting time.