My life for the next 27 months
Job Title: Community Environmental Conservation Extension Agent
Staging Date (Washington, DC): February 18, 2014Pre-Service Training (in Panama): February 19 – April 24, 2014
Dates of Service: April 25, 2014 – April 22, 2016
Overview of Pre-Service Training
Pre-service training is the first event within a competency-based training program that continues throughout your 27 months of service in Panamá. Pre-service training ensures that Volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to effectively perform their jobs. On average, nine of 10 trainees are sworn in as Volunteers.Pre-service training is conducted in Panamá and directed by the Peace Corps with participation from representatives of Panamanian organizations, former Volunteers, and/or training contractors. The length of pre-service training varies, usually ranging from 9-11 weeks, depending on the competencies required for the assignment. Panamá measures achievement of learning and determines if trainees have successfully achieved competencies, including language standards, for swearing in as a Peace Corps Volunteer.
Throughout service, Volunteers strive to achieve performance competencies. Initially, pre-service training affords the opportunity for trainees to develop and test their own resources. As a trainee, you will play an active role in self-education. You will be asked to decide how best to set and meet objectives and to find alternative solutions. You will be asked to prepare for an experience in which you will often have to take the initiative and accept responsibility for decisions. The success of your learning will be enhanced by your own effort to take responsibility for your learning and through sharing experiences with others.
Peace Corps training is founded on adult learning methods and often includes experiential “hands-on” applications such as conducting a participatory community needs assessment and facilitating groups. Successful training results in competence in various technical, linguistic, cross-cultural, health, and safety and security areas. Integrating into the community is one of the core competencies Volunteers strive to achieve both in pre-service training and during the first several months of service. Successful sustainable development work is based on the local trust and confidence Volunteers build by living in, and respectfully integrating into, the Panamanian community and culture. Trainees are prepared for this through a “homestay” experience, which often requires trainees to live with host families during pre-service training. Integration into the community not only facilitates good working relationships, but it fosters language learning and cross-cultural acceptance and trust, which help ensure your health, safety, and security.
Woven into the competencies, the ability to communicate in the host country language is critical to being an effective Peace Corps Volunteer. So basic is this precept that it is spelled out in the Peace Corps Act: No person shall be assigned to duty as a Volunteer under this act in any foreign country or area unless at the time of such assignment he (or she) possesses such reasonable proficiency as his (or her) assignment requires in speaking the language of the country or area to which he (or she) is assigned.
Swearing-In
Swearing-in – the big day all trainees look forward to – is scheduled for April 24th, 2014. This day marks the exciting culmination of Pre Service Training, the beginning of Peace Corps service, and the moment where each trainee becomes a Volunteer. The event takes place with the U.S. ambassador to Panama (or her designate), representatives of U.S. government agencies, the Peace Corps Country Director, and also participation of host country agencies.
Housing and Site Location
The small and medium-sized communities (populations of 150 to 10,000) in which Volunteers live and work are located one to 16 hours from Panamá City. Like most Panamanians, Volunteers live in simple concrete-block houses with cement floors and corrugated tin roofs or wooden huts with dirt floors and palm thatch roofs, depending on the location of their site. Since living with a family provides special insight into Panamanian culture, improves language skills, and facilitates integration into the community, you must live with a host family during training and your first three months at your site. After that, you may choose to live alone.Indigenous communities generally have the most rustic living conditions, and they can be remote. Sometimes getting to a community may require at least a two-hour walk or a ride in a dugout canoe. Most houses in urban and highly populated areas have running water inside or outside the house. In some cases, it is necessary to boil water and add chlorine to make it safe to drink. In some rural sites, and in many indigenous communities, water must be obtained from springs or streams. Many homes have a simple pit latrine, but latrine construction is often one of a Volunteer’s first activities. Electricity also varies depending on the site. You must be flexible in your housing and site expectations and willing to adapt to the discomforts that come with rural living.
