Anticipation...again

I have completely renounced all my principles as a historian and have failed to give an accurate outline of my daily routines for the last month or so. Someday I will give a better overview.

Today is moving day. We were sworn-in as Volunteers this past Friday, during a ceremony at the Ambassador's house. We took the same oath as the Vice President and committed the next 24 months to faithfully executing our duties as the newest Peace Corps Volunteers.

It feels a little like I just graduated from Peace Corps training, a little like I'm leaving home again, and a little like I'm not prepared, but in actuality, have no choice. I've merely skimmed the surface of this adventure. Over the next few weeks I'll make attempts to figure out how to "do life" in Huehuetenango. I'll set up a room with a new host-family (with whom I'll live for the next three months), while I try to figure out all the steps in Spanish. It sounds like an easy task, but scares me a bit.

This past week we talked as a training group and expressed our commitment to service. When I can't figure out how to get from point A to point B, or I can't figure out how to cook a meal when I can only find Tortrix and water in the town, I'll have no choice but to go with the adventure and chalk-up the stories I will have when I'm 90-years-old.

Commitment to Peace Corps Service
24 March 2009

I like to think of my commitment to serve in Peace Corps as a linear progression of both paperwork and emotion. Whether my commitment began with the first few hours spent working on my application, during my extensive interview, once I was nominated, after I was invited, or finally upon leaving the U.S. and becoming a trainee, in a few days my service will actually begin. I’ll swear-in as a Volunteer, I’ll move to Huehuetenango and I’ll start all over, making more new friends and attempting to integrate as the newest resident of San Sebastián.

As I undertake this somewhat vague task of teaching others and creating a sustainable system, I will learn equally, as I work with what Peace Corps promotes as “a spirit of cooperation, and mutual learning and respect.” And though it’s likely that two years will bring enchantment, countered by disenchantment, joy, countered by frustration, and accomplishment, countered by defeat, I will do my best to remember why I first committed to become a Peace Corps Volunteer: to know more thoroughly another culture, as I do my best to act as an ambassador for my own culture.

I hope the next two years will be filled with challenges to make me stronger and goals to keep me moving forward.

-Mark Forsberg

The bus rides are beginning. The move is starting. The adventure is underway.