YAAAAAAAAY! WE DID IT! This past Thursday, me and the other trainees officially became volunteers when we took the oath at our Swearing In ceremony. It was a nice ceremony, which took place at the historical Skampa Theater in Elbasan. We had many speakers including the governor of Elbasan and Earl Wall, the PC country director. Also, three of the volunteers also gave speeches IN SHQIP! It was unbelievable! All their practicing showed off because they sounded like natives! It was great.
And guess what?! We even had a celebrity there! Well, a celebrity to the Albanians. It was none other than the U.S. Ambassador, Alexander Arvizu. Never heard of him? Well, each and every Albanian goes all starstruck when he enters the room. He was the one that got to swore us in to be volunteers.
After the ceremony, we got to see his fame in action as everyone hurried on stage and gathered around him to get photos. It was really funny because he was open to taking pictures, but he tried so hard to make it about the volunteers rather than himself. He’s a very sweet man.
Now here’s a funny story…
So, when Ian and I went up to the Ambassador to get a photo with him, we said hello and introduced ourselves. He began by asking the same standard questions like “Where are you from?” and “Where will you be serving?” We answered politely while trying not to move our mouths too much since there were like 4 cameras pointing at us, trying to get good photos of us. After snapping a few, Ian turns to the Ambassador and tells him that his father grew up in Colorado Springs (which we had learned from the previous time we met the Ambassador that he also grew up in Colorado Springs). The ambassador got intrigued and asked “Which high school?” Ian tells him. The ambassador shouts of “No way?! I went there too. What year did your father graduate?” Ian fumbles a little while trying to guess what exact year his father graduated (I mean, who in the world knows the year their parents graduated from high school?) Ian guesses “Maybe ’73 or ‘74”.” Then the ambassador’s face got really excited! You have to remember that we’re standing next to the ambassador, surrounded by eager Albanians who are desperate to get a picture with him and here we are stealing his attention. Then the ambassador replies, “No way?! What’s his name?” Just as Ian tells him the name, the ambassador’s face lights up. He then shouted, “Get out of here?! I was really good friends with him! He was ahead of the German club and I was ahead of the Spanish club!”
How freaking crazy is that? What a freaking small world! I mean, what are the chances that Ian and I were placed for the Peace Corps in the one country that’s U.S. ambassador is none other than Ian’s father’s good friend from high school? W-E-I-R-D!
But I thought the funniest thing of all happened after we realized this crazy coincidence. The ambassador looks at Ian and says, “You’re father didn’t come to the 20th (or whatnot) reunion. I was very disappointed.” It was as should have known why his father ditched the event. SO FUNNY! Wow! Way to disappoint! Hahaha. jk.
So yeah, that was the Swearing In ceremony. The following day, we said goodbye to all the volunteers and PST staff and headed to Tirana for one last fun day before heading to Bajram Curri. We met up with the other Extreme North Group + Miranda and Mark (that’s what we like to call ourselves since we know we are going to be spending a lot of time with each other) and spent the day living it up in Tirana. We crashed at Marty’s new apartment (a fellow new volunteer) and then headed up to Bajram Curri the next day. It was a great way to start off our lives as official volunteers!
No comments:
Post a Comment