A Little Thing we call…Field Based Training

This week was amazing, in fact I’m gonna go ahead and say it was the best week so far. We started our journey in Trujillo, the capital city of La Libertad (the Department we traveled to). We had a bunch of current volunteers come visit and give a panel on their experiences. It was fun meeting them and helpful to hear some reassuring words and get some questions answered. Then we headed up to Otusco where we spent the week in the mountains. The ride up was beautiful but a bit frightening (haha). I sat in the front seat because I get motion sick, but that meant I had a full view of everything… apparently it’s not dangerous to pass people around blind turns as long as you beep first. Needless to say I was doing some praying and closing my eyes, but we made it there in one piece. When we arrived there- 6 prospective volunteers with our trainer- we were warmly greeted by the only gringa in site, our host Nicole. She is super sweet and laid back, making our whole trip smoother. The altitude took some getting used to, but the air up there was so pure!

We taught a three day session about business concepts and entrepreneurship to students at the institute, which is an alternative for university since many can’t afford it here. They were only a bit younger than us, and were pretty surprised to hear our ages. At first it was difficult to get the class participating since they were very shy, but after a little while (and some icebreakers) we got them going. It was definitely a challenging experience teaching in another language in a different cultural context, so I’m glad we did it in groups of 3 and not on our own. On the last day, they ran their own businesses and competed for profit. The winning group made these amazing chocolates with nuts and raisins and sold all of them- they were so excited! Afterwards, we gave them certificates (a big deal here) and took pictures. They all wanted pictures with us…it’s fun feeling like a celebrity for a little bit J

Some memorable experiences from the week:

• Our egg sandwich lady- every morning without fail we would stop in at our favorite breakfast spot- fresh egg sandwiches, coffee, muffins, mmmm I miss it already. They lady was so sweet and it was so cheap too!
• The yogurt/cheese store- more tasty treats, all fresh, and the store had some really cool marketing as well
• Visiting Trigo Pampa (nearby farm)- half an hour walk through the beautiful, mountainous landscape took us to one of the coolest farms I’ve been to. They really have their act together- everything is farmed organically, with the crops positioned along the hillside according to the amount of water needed. No organic chemicals used at all. And the farm is practically run by the students at the Institute where we taught, the ones who are studying agriculture/animal raising.
• The recycling lady- we couldn’t understand what she was saying most of the time, but she was the sweetest little lady with the biggest smile, and was ecstatic to receive our empty bottles so she could resell them for recycling.
• Trying Cuy (Guinea Pig) for the first time...veeeery interesting. I still want to try it fried cuz I think it'd taste better :)

Overall, this trip made me even more excited to get to my site and form relationships and start my life there. We find out on Tuesday where we will be going!!!! Thanks for reading, and I’ll be writing back soon with the news!