I bet you didn’t know how awesome we are

I said this to our Project Specialist after her first day with us on Field Based Training (FBT).  Because, honestly, she had no idea just how awesome we are.

Monday, the 8 Marketing trainees left for FBT in Chimaltenango.  Over the course of 5 days, we visited 3 volunteer sites and at least 10 other places of interest for Agriculture Marketing volunteers.  We learned about mushroom cultivation, organic farms (with delicious strawberries), textile associations, coffee cooperatives, and so much more.  Some of the sites were in the mountains and we were driving down the side of the mountain on unpaved roads, some of which had been hit pretty hard with derrumbes.  Although I made sure my seat belt was secure, it was impossible to be too scared because it was so beautiful.  I looked out at the mountains with wispy clouds rushing by and all I could say was, “Man, I love Guatemala.”

On Tuesday and Wednesday the 8 of us gave “charlas,” or informal presentations to a mushroom group and a coffee cooperative.  The charlas were about 30 minutes…in Spanish.  It was a little overwhelming and each of us was nervous going into it, but the groups were amazing and I think everyone did really well.  My “charla” was on river contamination at the coffee cooperative and everyone participated and helped to make it work.

Probably the best part of the trip, besides all the learning of course, was getting to hang out for 5 days together with our technical trainer, Spanish teacher, Project Specialist and APCD (the big guy).  It’s possible that the 8 of us were just a little too much awesome-ness for them by the end, but they took it all in stride.