PCJ 104

For Review: A PC term consists of a 26-28 month commitment. 2 years of this is the actual PC ‘service’ in which you’re living and working in your respective community/organization. The first 2-4 months of any PCV's term consists of training. During this time, you’re technically a Peace Corps Trainee (PCT), and won’t become a PCV until you complete training and attend the swearomony, becoming an official Peace Corps Volunteer.

Banana Tree sprouting in our yard

-PC holds 4 major conferences/trainings throughout a PCVs service

• Pre-Service Training (PST), held the first 2-3 months in country
• Early Service Conference (ESC), held roughly 4 months after being sworn as a volunteer/after PST
• Inter-Service Training (IST), held in the middle of your two year stint as a volunteer roughly a year after being at site.
• Close of Service (COS), held in the last months of being in country

-Although PC strongly encourages PCVs to remain at their site as much as possible, there are other random PCJ obligations that pull as away from time to time

• Quarterlies, which has recently become Trimesterlies. 3 times a year, PCVs and staff hold a conference to discuss the overall functioning of PCJ. This includes everything from safety and security meetings to Open Forums with PC staff to VAC meetings. Depending on their roles, not all PCVs are required to attend these meetings, but are encouraged to do so. (For example each one of our parishes has a PCV that acts as our warden. Wardens oversee safety and security for PCVs in their respective parish, and are in direct contact with our Safety and Security Coordinator. All wardens are required to attend Trimesterlies for the safety and security meeting.)
• Wardens meetings, occurring after every Trimesterly, in which we get together with other PCVs in our parish to discuss safety and security issues.
• Random committee meetings. Jamaican PCVs have a number of opportunities to get involved in random PCJ committees and networks existing within PC circles. As mentioned before, Matt is our VAC Treasurer, and Julie serves on SPA. As a result, one of us usually has to travel into Kingston once a month to attend a meeting. 

Book club members checking out their new books after the weekly meeting