We are finally here!
After 19+ hours of total flight time and 3+ hours on a tightly packed bus, we have finally reached our training camp site in Lokossa! For the next 12 weeks, we will be training here and in our assigned villages with host families as PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) until December when we get to be sworn in as PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers)!
((PSA Peace Corps really loves their acronyms))
We spent our first full day here in Lokossa with several orientations learning about safety & security & Malaria, getting a bunch of vaccinations, completing our LPIs (Language Placement Interviews) to benchmark our French speaking abilities, and starting informal French lessons. Tomorrow will be full of more interviews with sector trainers and med staff, bicycle and zem (moto) training, and the beginning of real French lessons with our LCFs (Language & Culture Facilitators).
Things are moving très vite here! We are all in a daze from traveling, and I have yet to catch my breath and resonate on the fact that I will be here for the next 2+ years.
Even so, I can already tell that I am incredibly lucky to have this group of 44 people in my cohort and as a support group here. Everyone is so supportive of each other, and there is an acute sense of relief that comes with finally not having to explain or justify the decision to do Peace Corps to someone.
And while I expect to learn much about Beninese culture, there is also the unexpected joy of the random things that can be learned from my fellow PCTs: how to juggle from Theresa. How to successfully walk a slack line from Brittany. How to efficiently peel a hard-boiled egg by blowing on it from Bryan. I sit amongst an impressive group of people, and I am trying to figure out what obscure talent I can throw into this eclectic mix.
In the mean time, during our free time today a few of us played around with a volleyball while practicing the French alphabet. Minus all the interviews and vaccinations, it feels a bit like summer camp here—the meals in a mess hall, 10 pm curfew, and lots and lots of bugs (and only a few bites so far). But they keep reminding us that PCT gets really intense really fast, so I’ve been trying to mentally prepare for that.
This Friday we will meet our host families and move in with them. And next week officially marks Week 1 of training.
Bonne chance to us all!
