Swearing In And Hitting The Road

Swearing In And Hitting The Road

Peace Corps A 22 Swearing In Ceremony

It Seems like Time has passed so quickly that I need to save the final moments of  our Pre-Service Training so that it will not be lost in the blur of everything that has happened since coming to Step'Anavan.  The Swearing in Ceremony was very meaningful and memorable.  I had very mixed feelings but I was very happy to be there.  My mixed feeling came from wanting to be with my family in Iowa for my Sister-in-law Harriet Krutsinger's funeral but finding that the only way I could finish Pre-Service Training and enter into Peace Corps Service was to finish my last class and then to miss this Swearing In Ceremony.  Normally if there is a death in a person's family you can catch the soonest flight home but during Pre-Service Training you usually have to complete all of your classes in order to be able to Swear In as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  Since I would have missed most of the Family Funeral gatherings with my families support I stayed to complete my training and Swear In as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

It was a very meaningful Ceremony with a lot of memorable parts of the Ceremony.

The Speeches in English and Armenian was meaningful to both Peace Corps Volunteers and are Armenian Audience 

The Musical Performances was the Highlight of the event starting with this beautiful Duet.

This Solo and Instrumental Accompaniment was very moving.

Everyone was entertained by this excellent version of Armenian Dancing.

All that was left was to say good bye to those who we have spent the last 3 months preparing to serve here in Armenia with.  It was a very Memorable Event that we will all remember but it always helps to have a place like this to store and share the memories.

In the end we all had to say goodbye to the friends and host families that we have grown so close to in the last three months.  There will be many times that we will gather together in different locations with our Peace Corps Family during the next couple years.  But they will never be as meaningful a time as we have had during our first three months together.  We have all hit the Road to our new lives in different parts of Armenia.  So much has already taken place since then that I will share that at another time.  If you want to keep up to date on my day to day Peace Corps Experience you can check out my Facebook Page where I share many of my memorable day to day activities.

https://www.facebook.com/donkrutsinger

For now we can remember the past as we Hit The Road Running in serving the people of Armenia as Peace Corps Volunteers.