T.I.P.C.

This morning on our way to the training center, people we’re a little more jovial than usual on a typical Monday morning. People would climb into the combie, smile and say, “Four more days you guys!!!” This Friday we swear in and finally, after years of dreaming, we finally become Peace Corps Volunteers and our two years do service officially commence. Training isn’t terrible, it’s just not what we came here for. Day in and day out we have hours of training and technical sessions and after two straight months with no holidays, it’s getting old. Plus, now we feel sufficiently prepared with our newly acquired language skills, cultural understandings, and a steel trunk full of books on everything from the PVC-compiled cookbook to the riveting, “Monitoring and Evaluation of the Civil Society contribution to tackling HIV/AIDS in Namibia, 2006 Report.” We are ready.

So this morning we sang extra loudly to our PC training anthem and thought nothing of it when Linda, our very sweet and straight-laced Training Director, quieted us down for an announcement.

“Due to the national elections taking place this year in Namibia and the heightened concern for your safety, Washington has requested that we implement additional language trainings. Language is a key factor in your safety so we have decided to extend training for an extra week for additional language training.”

There was a huge uproar from the crowd. “What? You’ve got to be kidding me?! Linda, are you joking?”

“No, no. I have never been more serious.”
“What! This can’t be happening!”
“We will be informing your host families and supervisors this afternoon. I’m sorry, this is the way Peace Corps works. Please break for your language classes.”

People were fuming! T.I.P.C. This is Peace Corps (what we say when something has no other explanation).

I could barely pay attention in language class because I was just trying to reorient myself. I was so looking forward to moving to my permanent site this week, it would be just like PC to delay us at the last minute!

Language class ended and I was texting the other PCV’s at my site letting them know that I wouldn’t be coming this week, when Linda walked by. “Did you call your supervisor yet?”
“No. Do I need to? I thought you were going to do that? ”
“I was only joking,” she laughed.
I screamed her name like Jeff screams Garfield in the comic strip!

I never saw it coming from Linda of all people! She’s like our training mom. She takes care of us and makes sure we don’t go out alone at nighttime and that our host families are feeding us vegetables. Turns out one of my friends was the mastermind behind all of this and they got us good! We were so punk’d!

Oh man, T.I.P.C. We never know what’s going to happen next!