Tech Week - through Pink Eyes...

We´ve survived another week, and compared to culture week, it was worlds apart. My culture week was in Santa Clara in Chiriqui, about a stone´s throw from Costa Rica. The climate was Amazing! We were in the mountains, at altitude, surrounded by coffee farms, and it actually got cold at night, and even during the day at times! No sweating for a week - what a treat! The views were gorgeous and the town was quite well off, comparatively speaking of course.

I showed up recovering from my pink eye and moved in with another host family, and started eating a lot of food (which lead to a rather unpleasant gassy period on Tuesday night: Very little food one week + tons of heavy food the next = pain).

Tech week is all about the technical aspects of our work, and my group was focused on agricultural work and artisan groups. We spent our week preparing and presenting charlas (presentations) on accounting and marketing concepts for two different groups. We also taught Junior Achievement in the local school one morning. Much of the week was spent learning about working with youths, and preparing for our charlas, but it was great to get our hands dirty and start working. And better yet, information that we´ve gotten about our site suggests that the groups in our future community want to learn about accounting and marketing as well as other things, so we´ve got somewhere to start!

No crazy illnesses or injuries this week - aside from the again noteworthy painful gas experience, and I did fall down in a gravel road when walking down a hill, and happened to land right on the same spot I hit last week in the river in the Comarca! My bug bites stopped itching and are healing now, just in time to return to our training community and get some new bites!

My host family experience was great - I actually stayed with another trainee in a home with a mom (her husband and son are living in the U.S.). The house was big, we each had a bedroom, and we had walls! Yes, walls! Like I said earlier, it was like being in a completely different world. And the contrast really made me think about poverty levels. When I got to Panama a month and a half ago, I would have thought that people in this community were very poor compared to the U.S., and they are, but here, they seem so wealthy when you see other areas. I´m greatful to have had the opportunity to see quite a few places in Panama so far, and to really see that contrast. It´s been very eye opening.

Other highlights - on Friday we went to a large finca and did a coffee tour. We got to see how they process their coffee from start to finish, and then got to do a ¨cupping¨ afterward. They roasted the beans for us, then ground them. We then sniffed them in a particular way, and then we added water, sniffed the foam, then slurped and swooshed, etc. The coffee was STRONG, but good. We learned that coffee has a 100 point scale of quality and this was ranked in the 90´s. After the cupping, they brewed up some coffee and enjoyed some time relaxing on the farm and checking out their collection of local bugs and artifacts.

And after two weeks of hard work and travel, on Saturday we had a little free time and we got our first taste of Panamanian beaches! Most of our group met up at a small, undeveloped beach site and enjoyed the sun, waves and warm water before returning to the city area last night.

This week we are in training pretty much like normal, but we are getting ready for our site visits that take place in the middle of next week! We are really excited to get into our actual communities and start seeing what we´ll be doing for the next two years! Training is nearly over now, and has really flown by. Swearing in gets closer everyday!