Month Two, the End of Training

The last month of training was a bit hectic.  After a week off from language because of the field trip, it quickly became crunch time to learn enough SiSwati to pass the LPI (Language Proficiency Interview).  We are expected to reach Intermediate Mid, but Intermediate Low is considered passing, meaning only that we are not required to retake the LPI at IST (In-Service Training, which occurs in November).  During the last month we also found out about our permanent sites.  We were all supposed to visit the sites for OJT (On-the-Job-Training), which was coordinated with a counterpart workshop.  The counterpart for those of us in education is more of a supervisor, as it was typically the head teacher/principal who came to the workshop.  The workshop and OJT were pushed back a week because of a possible teacher’s strike.  The strike was then pushed back, and while the counterpart workshop went ahead, OJT was cancelled because the strike ended up taking place right when we were supposed to be visiting.  They tend to be overly cautious about our movements when there are possible disturbances in the country, which is just fine with me.  It would have been nice to see the sites so that we could do a little bit of planning, but being a PCV is all about being flexible, as we’ve all learned again and again. 

The last week of training, we had our second round-robin testing day.  Round-robin is a day where we have numerous tests and meetings, with the CD (Country Director), APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director, there are 3 APCD, one for the health project, the education project, and for administration), medical officer, safety and security, cross-culture, etc.  We had previously done mock LPIs, to gauge our level of language learning halfway through training, and I had received Novice High, one step below Intermediate Low.  This time I got Intermediate Low, so I passed, although I would have liked to do better.  The highest score was Intermediate High, which several people received.  We also met with the security officer from the U.S. embassy during that week.  The last day on our homestead, we packed up and then all went to the college for a host family appreciation celebration.  There were speeches by the CD, a host family member, one of our teachers, the college president (where we were training), and two of the trainees.  The teachers and the trainees also prepared some sort of entertainment, they sang a song and we danced to a couple songs, one popular in America and one popular in Swaziland.  Then we all had lunch, and the families were given a couple bags of groceries to take home as a thank you.  We went back with the families to wait for the arrival of the trucks that would pick up our stuff, although the truck was already waiting for me when I got back.  So I quickly threw everything on and said my goodbyes to the family.  I gave them a couple drawings of Michigan my dad did before I left, a deck of cards, and a small photo album of pictures I had taken of the family, and a couple they had taken with me.

We spent the last night at the college so that we could leave early in the morning to get to Mbabane.  It was a crazy evening, as all of our stuff was arriving on the small trucks from our three villages and being transferred to one large truck.  In that mess were tables, chairs and beds that went back to the PC, bags that we would need that night and in Mbabane, and then all the stuff to go to our permanent sites.  The arrival of the trucks was quite spread out, so the early stuff had been taken inside before the big truck arrived, and then had to be brought back out.  As it was getting dark, it started to rain a little bit, and there were even snowflakes.  Some of the trucks arrived after dark, and it was a nightmare for people to figure out which bags went where, with some people digging around on the big truck for bags they needed that night.  The truck finally got filled, covered and locked up for the night, and then we could have dinner.  That evening, we had a medical wrap-up session, which was a jeopardy style quiz game on such fun topics as Diarrhea, HIV, STIs (Sexually-Transmitted Infections), and first aid.  It was a raucous game with lots of yelling, but my team came out on top so we got to be first in line for ice cream sundaes.  Then we went back to our rooms and enjoyed being all together in the same place once again.