Swearing-in Ceremony

Well, it is official. Ryan and I are officially Peace Corps Volunteers! Our Swearing-in Ceremony was Friday. This was truly an amazing and humbling experience. We had the opportunity to be sworn in by the United States Ambassador to the South Pacific, and the Tongan Prime Minister. Our host families who have taken care of us and introduced us to life in Tonga also came to celebrate with us. Our host mom Tia came and adorned us with traditional flowers worn during ceremonies. 

Everyone in group 77 wore traditional Tongan dress as a sign of respect at the ceremony. Ryan looked amazing as he wore his wedding outfit...well, minus the pants. But don't worry.... his tupenu was present. I wore a puletaha and a special tapa kiekie. Tapa is very special to Tonga. It is a traditional cloth made out of ponded bark from the Tapa tree. I felt so honored to be given this treasured kiekie by Tia. 

Both Ryan and I participated in the ceremony. I read a verse of a Tongan hymn. Yep, in Tongan. Scary, but soo cool. Ryan was selected by our group to give the speech of thanks to all who had worked so hard to prepare us to be successful volunteers. Needless to say, he wowed the room. He was incredibly brave, and chose to deliver portions of his speech in Tongan. The families hugely appreciated this. After the ceremony, our new country director, his wife, and every person on our training staff offered Ryan a teary eyed thanks for his words. He truly captured the essence of what the Peace Corps is all about, and I think it touched people to hear Ryan promise, on behalf of our group, that we were here to serve the Tongan people. His humbling of himself in front of an entire group of powerful people made that promise seem less about the words, and more about the action behind them.

All in all, the ceremony was beautiful. It was such a poignant moment for all of Group 77. There are no words to describe what it felt like to take the oath of service with 13 other amazing individuals,  while the many wonderful people who have worked endless hours to bring us to this moment looked on. Ryan and I feel ready and excited to move to our new home and begin our work in the two Tongan communities we will be serving.

Thank you to all of our friends and family in America. Your many prayers, emails of encouragement, and that crap all you Iowa boys send have lifted Ryan and I up in moments that were hard. The Hawkeyes, sadly, have not. All your love and support helped us in ways you will probably never know. Thank you so much for your role in helping us make it through Pre-Service training. We could not have done it without each and every one of you.

We move to our new home in 4 days. We will post pictures of our house as soon as we can. I think we are as anxious as you to see what our new living quarters will look like. I spent some of our very dwindling funds on a buttload of rat poison and cockroach killer. I have no doubt this was more important than an industrial size jar of skippy peanut butter...I don't care what my husband says. (Hopefully he doesn't read this post too close because I am not sure he is totally aware that I made that switch. As far as he knows.. the super size jar is packed somewhere in our luggage.) Ahh... the joys of marriage in the Peace Corps :)


With our wonderful Language Trainer Alisi.

With our Training Manager Elenoa and our Language Manager Lose. Without these two no one in Group 77 would have ever made it through PST. The support and guidance they show on a daily basis is nothing short of amazing.

With our host mom Kaliotia, who is next to Ryan. As for the other lady, lets just say Tongans LOVE being in pictures and have no problem jumping into random ones when they see the flashbulbs!