¿Qué ondas?

I finally had some time to relax over the weekend and was able to type up this blog post:

This may end up being a long one as I have a lot to talk about. As I mentioned before I am living with a new family in a new town for Field-Based Training (FBT). We have been here for two weeks and it seems like those have gone by pretty fast. Our group is now 18 as the 3 projects are all doing FBT in different locations. I’ve enjoyed getting to know the other Business trainees a lot better over the last few weeks. I’ve also felt more comfortable opening up a bit and cracking more jokes. Some seem to have designated me the comedian of the group and I certainly like to have a good laugh whenever possible. Of course I have been taking the training seriously as well. Last week was a lot of work as each trainee had to visit a business in town, interview the owner, and then write up a mock business plan for that business. My knowledge of business plans was limited but we were given advice on how to make them and I feel like I learned a lot going through the process. I’m glad we are now getting into the more tangible business stuff.

Because next week is holy week all of the schools have the week off and many people have work off as well. My host brothers/uncles/cousins are all taking a trip to Guatamala but since we are not allowed to leave the country during training I will be sticking around here with Besy, my host mom, Milagro, my 7-year-old host sister, and Maicol, my 2-year-old host nephew. I am definitely okay with staying here though, as many other trainees will be around as well and we will have time for some fun. There is a little place in town were people can pay to play videojuegos (videogames). I went a lot the first week because it was a good way to hang out with my 17-year-old host cousin Marlon, as well as meet some other people from the town. I quickly became known as “the videojuegos guy” among other trainees. Now, however, a number of other trainees have checked out the place as well and it actually turns out that it´s a pretty good place to hang out, especially since there isn’t always a whole lot to do here.

We have also found ways to be active. The first week after class we played some games of volleyball and soccer. This past week was harder as we had a lot of homework. Weekend mornings some of the trainees have started getting together to do a workout at a local playground. Yesterday morning we did some pull-ups and did some lifts using large rocks that were lying around. We also did some sprints up the dirt road but after one I felt as if I had to throw-up. It turns out I had a heat stroke and had to lay down for awhile and drink a lot of water. That was the first heat-stroke I’ve ever had and now I realize I have to be more careful about staying hydrated.

Another running joke is that I am “the pizza guy”. It started when we had our 2nd technical this past week. In these interviews we talk to the 2 leaders of the business project, Jorge and Jesus, about how training is going and a little bit about site placement. I talked about how I’d like to teach a class to highschoolers on economics or business basics, and maybe an English class as well. I also expressed a desire to work with a library and do some promotion of reading among other things. Then, for some reason I brought up the idea of starting a pizzeria with some local townspeople. I got the idea when I read about another Volunteer that had tried to start up a pizzeria earlier. It had the chance to be profitable, but due to disagreements among some of townspeople working there it was shut down after about 2 months. Anyway, I prefaced my idea about the pizza shop by saying it was a bit more “out there”. Still, Jorge had to remind me that we need to be open to the needs of the community once we get to our site, and a lot of what we do will likely be based on those needs. We can’t go in expecting to start off building a pizza place, especially if it is not something the community needs or wants. I realize this and had just gotten a bit carried away. Anyway, the interview went well other than that. I told some other trainees about how I had brought up the pizza shop and it’s become a bit of a running joke.

There’s much more I could talk about but this post is already pretty long. I should let you know that I have a phone here. So far I have only called my parents but I was thinking of calling some friends back in the states with whom I have only connected over the internet. Might try and do that this coming weekend, stay tuned. I´m also thinking I will try and put up some pictures in my next post.

¡Hasta luego y que les vaya bien!

P.S. Today we got the results from our 2nd Spanish interviews and I am now an ¨Intermediate High +¨ so I am moving up which is pretty cheque in my opinion.