Field based training

So we just came back from field based training. I encourage you all to consult Matt Ladd's blog which is linked on the right and see if he has put anything up about it because he had a very interesting experience of it. I am not going to steal his thunder, and most likely he'll have some funny account of it.

As for me and the trainees that went with me, we had a reasonably uneventful time by comparison, but memorable and pleasant by all regards. We went to Jayaque which is high up in the hills and as such has a wonderfully mild climate. Not too many bugs, a nice breeze and never too hot compared to the rest of the country. Beatiful views and nice people as well, perhaps the only fault is that the town itself is one big hill and you always seem to be walking uphill no matter where you are going.

We got acquainted with the town, met our families and picked up trash with a group from the school the first day. It was cool to see the kids get involved, but upon buying some goods, I was disappointed to see some of the kids throw their trash on the ground after we had spent over an hour picking up countless bags worth of trash off the ground and one of the students had given an impromptu chat about why littering is bad. So much for work and information inspiring a change in behavior. I think some of them got it, but honestly I think that eventhough they all seem to know the repurcussions, they still don't really care. Unfortunate indeed, we have our work cut out for us.

The second day was uneventful, we painted a basketball court with some motivated kids. Hard, good work, but not much to say about it. I got paint all over my hands and shoes.

The third day was charla day. Two seperate two hour charlas can really wear a person out. Thank god that we were giving them in teams, I would have wanted to shoot myself if I had to do that alone. The first charla went really well. The little kids ate up our dinamicas and they loved Whitney because she knew so many fun games. Will and I would have been a little lost without her, so thank you Whitney, you saved us from failure. Speaking of failure, the second charla didn't go as spectacularly well. Will got sick and left, which meant we had to do his part without prep. Additionally we had prepared a charla for older kids and then we were presented with a slew of kids from 1st to 9th grade. Let me tell you that giving a mixed age charla is not fun, half the group is always either confused or bored. Luckily the other half is usually somewhat engaged. Our facilitator ensured us that we did a good job given the circumstances, but I think it was a bit of a failure on a whole. Can't win 'em all though. At least I know what its like now.

Today we hiked up close to the peak of the mountain that Jayaque is on. Beautiful views, I love hikes for that reason. I could have done without all the spider webs though. I did enjoy myself though. Its interesting to hike through coffee fincas and see some of the families living in shacks that are clearly there to work the land at rock bottom prices. I felt sorta bad for them being so removed from the town and living in such shacks. I have a better idea of what it must have been like when coffee was the dominant export here. I don't know that life is any better for the people in the fincas, but at least its not everyone's life here anymore.