27 June: Site Announcement
Posted By Sika on September 9, 2009
We weren’t there for Health ‘08’s site announcements. Health ’06 did a great event for ours, but due to scheduling problems we didn’t get to stay in Dedza long enough for the ’08 site announcements. This year, site announcement was at All-Health, like it was for us, and so we could all be a part of them. Luckily for me, I was PCV of the week in the days leading up to All-Health. Alex and I clued the first-years in on the various things we could do—sashes or crowns with site names on them, a map with volunteers on, some kind of find your sitemate/who you’re replacing game. The first years, sad about what they had missed out on (and I didn’t even tell them about the roll of Charmin Derek passed on to Michelle in an elaborate ceremony—I think they would have cried if they knew they missed out on that), decided what they wanted to do.
Since the first-years were in their midservice sessions, and Alex and I were PCVs of the week but were often chilling out while waiting for the trainees to be in a session for which we thought we might have useful contributions, we decided to get started on the sashes. Alex is a much better artist than I am—eventually I started finding excuses for Alex to draw the pictures on mine so when they compared sashes, the trainees wouldn’t think we loved some of them and hated others. Alex labelled the appropriate sashes “Tonga Alliance”, over which Dawn, because of her jealousy over speaking Tumbuka instead of Tonga, drew the Chitipa Wrecking Crew symbol.
We were so full of stealth. When the trainees came out of their sessions, we were like ninjas—folding up the sashes* so sneakily and yet innocently there’s no way they knew we were up to anything at all. When Alex and I had to go back to the village with the trainees, the first years finished everything we started and continued with all the other awesome plans they (*cough*Judy*cough*) had come up with.
When it finally came to the end of the week and time for All-Health and site announcements, we were all thrumming with excitement. Ken was the only one who got the list of who was assigned to which site before the announcements started. I told Edith she was smart not to tell the rest of us, because I knew I’d tell—and I’m not the only one. I’m good at keeping secrets that need to be kept, but I’m no good at keeping happy secrets. Just ask my mom what happens when I get her a present early.
At first it seemed a bit of a letdown to have to hold the actual announcements after we ate chicken and sausage and cheese(!) and drank minerals and beer and had the cakes the first-years made and danced and sang along to Bohemian Rhapsody.
Eventually the site announcements were made. I think, although everyone was equally excited before, in the end only those of us being replaced or getting sitemates had that excitement satisfied. The newbies got their sites, but didn’t know what it meant, and wouldn’t until site visit.
We had regional group meetings, North, Central, and of course the best: South, so the trainees could learn more about the region at least. Bryce expounded in a Bryce-like way about why we the south didn’t need a name—like Tonga Alliance or Chitipa Wrecking Crew. He made sense, and is probably right, although he was obviously making up everything—even his position on the matter—on the spot. But it’s an irrelevant point of view. We are, always have been, and always will be, the Dirty South.
Then there was more dancing and gift giving (from Health ’07 to Edith and Cornelius) and the newbies had to go back to the village. Transport to Lilongwe was leaving for the first and second years, and for the first time I had to really say good-bye to people in my group. I surprised myself and everyone else by bursting into tears. I blame Bryce: he was nice to me. Well, nicer. Well, Bryce-nice, which is close enough. Becky thought it was hilarious and for the rest of that day and up until we got to Balaka the next day would periodically yell, “Cry, Sika, cry!” Which didn’t work, much to her disappointment.
The next day Peace Corps transport took the 4 of us going south and dropped us at the Dedza roadblock, to start hitching home.
*and later the map, which originally was going to have a little dot for every volunteer, and then just for the health volunteers, and then, eventually, just the first-year health volunteers.
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