It's official

I am now a Peace Corps volunteer! In case you are now wondering, "wait, then what were you the past 10 weeks?" I was a mere trainee - definite upgrade. Peru 19 was lucky enough to be the first-ever group to have our swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Ambassador's residence in Lima - quite the elegant venue. However, it did come with the small downside of security prohibiting the entrance of cameras, so I currently only have photos from the hours leading up to the event. Here we have the 41 volunteers of Peru 19, plus Lulu:

Me, Heidi, and Jackie in front of the training center as we loaded all our bags onto the bus:

The deluxe and enormous bus that the 13 of us business volunteers had all to ourselves - heading off to Lima!

Our swearing-in ceremony also served as an event to honor Aquiles Lanao, one of the fathers of microfinance in Peru, and also the first host-country-national Peace Corps Program Director in the organization's history. To honor Aquiles, many former Peru PCVs and staff attended the ceremony, including two familiar faces. I had the great pleasure to be able to reconnect with John Hatch, FINCA's visionary Founder, and Professor Kevin Healy, whose Latin American Studies class I took at Georgetown. Unbeknownst to me, both of them had connections to Peace Corps Peru - Dr. Hatch as a former Regional Director, and Professor Healy as a volunteer.

After we'd taken our oath of service and the reception had come to an end, it was back to the buses to drop our extremely large number of suitcases off at our hostels in Lima. Then we taxied out to our Country Director's house in the upscale La Molina neighborhood for a post-swearing in fiesta that included a barbeque, dance floor, bonfire, and pisco sours. I was excited to finally try anticuchos for the first time - these are pieces of cow heart cooked on skewers kebab-style, and are a very common food in Peru. They basically taste like really tender pieces of beef, and are pretty delicious (if you avoid thinking about the fact that you are eating cow heart haha).

Upon leaving Sanjay's house around 9pm, we were by no means done celebrating. Training was over, we were official volunteers, and it was our last night together as a whole group until our Close-of-Service conference in two years. So we of course made the most of our time together with a night of fun and dancing in Barranco, Lima's hipster neighborhood known for its lively nightlife. When Heidi magically found the door to a hidden late-night sandwich shop, the night was complete.

*Update: here is the link to the Embassy's flickr account with photos from the swearing-in ceremony. http://www.flickr.com/photos/usembassyperu/sets/72157631193379704/show/