Swearing In

November 15th was Swearing In. When I arrived in Botswana on September 13^th it was as a Trainee. The Swearing In ceremony officially marks becoming a Volunteer. Swearing In was on a Thursday and earlier in the week leading up to it, our training schedule was finally relaxed a bit. I know I haven’t mentioned training very much, but it was exhausting. We were at the training center from 8:30-4:30 every weekday and 9:00-1:00 on Saturdays.

For Swearing In they wanted two volunteers to give speeches in Setswana. One was to thank the staff, host parents, Peace Corps, etc. The other was for the volunteers. After thinking about it for some time, and being encouraged by some friends I decided to do one of the speeches. The other girl, Kristin, and I decided that she would give the ‘Thank You’ speech, and I would give the one to the volunteers. We would each give our own speech in English and read the Setswana version/translation of the other one’s speech.

After I wrote my speech I had lofty dreams of translating it into Setswana by myself. The combination of our busy training schedule, and my limited Setswana dimmed that dream. My LCF (Language and Cultural Facilitator aka Setswana Teacher) Tiro was kind enough to translate it for me. After I got the Setswana version of Kristin’s speech I practiced every night. I’m not even exaggerating; I practiced that speech for almost a week.  There are some Setswana words that are not for the faint of heart, and needed practice if I didn’t want to completely butcher them. One such word was: ikiteileng. Another: motlhotlho. Kristin definitely got some of the harder ones in the translated version of my speech like: mmantswitswidi (poet) and my personal favorite tlhakatlhakaneng (mixed feelings).

On Swearing In day the speeches were my favorite part. Kristin went first and I read the Setswana version. Everytime I finished a section I got a huge applause from our host parents and any Batswana in the room. It really helped because I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t shaking like a leaf (I’m not a big public speaker). The constant postitive reinforcement was nice.  The best part was how impressed everyone was with Kristin and I. They looked at us like we had just whipped Setswana out on the spot, and were translating on the fly. One of the speakers at the main table even mentioned he had a son looking for a wife. Classic. When that same man stood up to give his speech it was in English then he randomly switched to Setswana. He then proceded to look straight at me speaking in Setswana (since of course, I had just proved with the speech that I was fluent). I just smiled and laughed in time with the Batswana in the room understanding about a quarter of what he said. I guess I was convincing because later other Volunteers thought I had understood him. I love things like this.

I really liked the speech I wrote too and it went over well. In a nutshell, that was Swearing In. It didn’t feel like a big deal, more just like the end of training. I’m glad I was able to give one of the speeches. I’m even more proud I made it through the Setswana one. I even got a marriage offer; this is one of the many reasons I love African cultures; that would never happen in America. It was nice to officially be able to call myself a Peace Corps Volunteer. The next day we all left for our sites.