Swearing-In Ceremony

The most exciting day of PST was swearing in! Not only because it meant that I would soon be traveling to my permanent site, but also because I had the honor of giving the swearing-in speech for our Silozi class in front of our Country Director, US Ambassador to Namibia, and the Namibian Deputy Minister of Education.

In English, the body of my speech read:

"Today is the culmination of eight weeks of language, technical, safety and cultural training. As we know, it is a long application process, and most of us have been waiting for this day for twelve months or more. During those months, we could never have imagined the warm welcome that was waiting for us in Namibia. When we arrived at the training site, our trainers sang welcome songs to us, and it has been as though everyone we have met has had a welcome song in their hearts.

The six of us going to Zambezi Region come from all over the US and each of us takes a different piece of the US to their host community. We have come to work with promising business ventures and educational counterparts here in Namibia. We have come to prepare a new generation of Namibians for an increasingly interconnect global community in which Namibians will play an important role. We have also come to learn. Over the next two years, we look forward to getting to know our counterparts, learners, and communities. We can only hope to do justice to the hospitality that has been extended to us in the short time we have already been here.

This process has been facilitated by fantastic language trainers. We have been prepared to serve in Zambezi Region by the enthusiastic, kind-hearted and patient Mama Rosa, whose teaching style and sense of humor has been an excellent preparation for, and introduction to, the Zambezi culture and people. We could not be more excited as we prepare for two years serving the people of the Zambezi Region and are excited about the future as we prepare to go to our sites.

Thank you all and god bless."