Who does this...

 

Saturday, February 24th, we spent the day with KOS09, as our group is known in Peace Corps.  We are the 9^th group to Kosovo, which started receiving groups in 2014.  We have 9 members in our group and we will be joining 26 current Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs).  One group has just celebrated their first year of service and the other group arrived October of 2023.

Our day reminded me of a professional development day at the beginning of the school year, when we were introduced to new staff, ice breakers, new goals, and agendas for the year.  It was, however; more fun and more relaxed, because I did not have a classroom to set up, new software to learn, yearly online coursework to complete, or any of the myriad of other tasks weighing on me during the start of school.  I enjoyed the day and what it had to offer.

We are Peace Corps Trainees (PCT) for the next 11 weeks and will be sworn in as volunteers on April 26^th.  KOS09 is a diverse group of people all in their 20s, except for Thom and I.  These are just a few of the interesting facts that I learned from our group members yesterday.

• One of our PCTs was a Rotary Youth Exchange student who went to the state of Parana, Brazil to the city of Curitiba the capital of the state of Parana.  Our son also exchanged to Parana, Brazil; but was hosted Cia Norte, which was more remote the Curitiba.
• One PCT lived for two years in France and already speaks French, Spanish and is working American Sign Language.
•  Another PCT was a special education teacher in North Carolina and worked up until a week ago.  While both of her parents primarily grew up in the U.S., her mother is Venezuelan and her father is Panamanian.
• Two of us have master’s degrees.  Mine is in Instructional Technology and the PCTs is in data science.
• Our group has a PCT whose father was a Peace Corps Volunteer. 
• We had two PCTs who flew in from California.  We are not sure which travel the furthest to attend, but we believe it was the PCT from San Francisco.
•  While three of our PCTs graduated in 2021, we have one PCT who graduated in 2023.

KOS09 -- Official Orientation Photo

     We spent time during our orientation reviewing the mission of Peace Corps, the three goals of Peace Corps, the core expectations for our services, reflecting, and getting to know one another.

  

     Because of the small size of our group, we finished early and several of the group were climbers and boulderers.  Three members of our group were belay certified.  Two members of our group had not climbed before.  There was a gym (Movements -- Crystal City) about a half mile from our hotel and so eight of us went to the climbing gym for a couple of hours before dinner.  One of our group opted to work out at the facility at our hotel and she joined us for dinner later.  We had a fun time at the gym cheering each other on as we climbed, talked, and got to know each other better.

I am looking forward to service in Kosovo!!!!