PST Week 4 : June 13–19

Training drags on. In most Peace Corps countries, pre-service training lasts 3 months. In Fiji, only 7 weeks. Thank God. It would be daunting to think that we’re only 1/3 of the way thru. We are actually on the downhill slide toward swearing in which occurs on July 4 – Independence Day! (In more ways than one).

Although out village is great and the host families are treating us well, the actually training part is a grind: language lessons, technical project/program sessions, cross-cultural workshops, safety and health education, and more. All necessary, of course, but much of it is redundant. Our time is highly structured and on top of that, we are required to complete competency questionnaires and worksheets (to prove that we’ve learned what they are trying to teach us) and perform trainee activities (to put into practice what we’ll be expected to do once we’re at site). I know there is purpose and utility in all this training but it’s a bit much. Most of us are chomping at the bit to just get out there are start doing it already – for real. 

We’ve had two placement interviews so far during this time. It’s like a job interview – or more like a job match. The Peace Corps staff discusses your background and interests and tries to match you with the appropriate sites that they have identified for Volunteers. It’s all very coy. Even before we arrive on the islands, they have our resumes and other information from our Peace Corps application process and they have scouted out the prospects for Volunteer service throughout the country.  There are a limited number of options so it seems obvious that much of the matching is done before we even get here. So it feels more or less like a conversation for them to confirm that they are heading in the right direction in placing each of us in the right place.

They don’t reveal many specifics during these interviews so the process from the trainee perspective involves a lot of suspense and guess-work. “How do you feel about traveling by boat?” “How would you handle having no electricity for most hours of the day?” “Are you comfortable working with women’s groups?” We all debrief each other after our respective interviews and try to figure out where we could possibly be headed for service based on what we now know are some of the existing sites and where other Volunteers have served. At the same time, if our short tenure with Peace Corps has taught us anything, it is that All Bets Are Off. Situations are constantly changing and what you think might happen may never occur or be the complete opposite of what you expected.  Probably the number one rule of survival as a Peace Corps Volunteer: be flexible.

Here’s what I’ve been able to glean from my interviews and training experience so far:

Oh, wait! First, what I thoughtmy PC experience would be like going in: as a business volunteer, I would most likely be in an urban setting, working with an NGO or maybe a government ministry, most likely working with the Indo-Fijian population and thereby learning the Hindi language that is spoken here.

Now… here’s what I’ve been able to glean from my interviews and training experience so far:

I will be placed in a rural village working with the native Fijian population and thereby learning the Fijian language (which I have been doing since week one: VinakaVakalevu!) working on projects defined by the community in an unstructured setting (aka not a job, per se). I’ve been asked about my marketing skills and if I’m comfortable working with women and youth/children.

Your guess is as good as mine.

The suspense ends this Friday - the day after I’ll have a chance to post this blog entry. So now you can all share in the suspense!