Swearing In

The Swearing In ceremony is a rites of passage of the Peace Corps experience. It signifies the end of the 3 months of training and the marks the beginning of Peace Corps service as an official volunteer. The ceremony was held at a restaurant next to a lake outside of Veles. Two members of each host family were invited as well as current PC Volunteers, all of PC Staff and some dignitaries, such as the Mayor of Veles, US Ambassador, director of NGO US Aid and the Macedonian president Branko Crvenkovski (he wasn’t able to make it, so a minister came in his place). About 300 people attended and everyone was dressed to the nines. We sang the national anthems of both Macedonia and the US. There were speeches by the Mayor, the PC Country Director, and two of our colleages, Sara and Keith. At one point they asked our host family members to stand. I noticed that more than a couple had tears in their eyes. Then they had the 32 of us stand up one by one as they read our names, home states and Macedonian cities where we are going. Next the US Ambassador gave her address and then had us collectively raise our right hand and give our oath of service, and “swear in” as PC Volunteers. I don’t remember much of what we had to say except to uphold the US constitution. I’m going to try to get my hands on a copy. It was also noted in the speeches about the fact that we are the 10th group of PC Volunteers in Macedonia. That’s pretty cool.
Afterwards there was a little reception of food and music (unfortunately no oro dancing), as well as lots of photo taking. It was then that I discovered that there were more people that I knew who had attended, including the Macedonian grade school teacher that I’d worked with in Veles for my practicum. There were also several Mac 9’s in attendance, including a married couple, Sean and Jennifer, who are in a village about 9 km away from me.
That night my family held a little party for me, since they know how much I enjoy dancing the oro and the traditional Macedonian music. They called up a few of their friends/relatives and soon we were all dancing and singing in my grandma’s living room. One of my host cousins plays the accordion, which is one of the most common musical instruments to play traditional music. One popular song that I like is called “Makadonka Dayvoika”, which means “Young Macedonian Girl”.