Tech Week

Hey People! You need updates and I’m bad with blogging so let’s get to it. Tech Week was very similar to Tech Weekend but this time instead of being in Cochabamba we went to Santa Cruz to visit some sites. The bus ride took 11-12 hours to get to the city where we spent 1 night. The next day we went to a site called Concepcion which is about 5 hours outside the city. Conce (as everyone calls it) is a somewhat larger site and has all modern living necessities such as internet, calling centers, running water, electricity etc. We did a Teacher Taller or Workshop there with some teachers from Conce and surrounding communities. That lasted a few days where we talked about different learning styles of students and how to implement classroom activities to accommodate theses students. We made up lesson plans with the teachers and went and taught at the local elementary school. From Conce we went to visit 2 much smaller and more rural sites. Both do not have electricity and only one I think has running water. One of the sites is called El Carmen and the other San Miguelito Sur. In both sites we did health fairs where we talked about nutrition and hygiene. We spent a couple of nights in El Carmen in the library that was built by a couple of PCVs a few years back. We slept on mattresses on the floor and in our mosquito nets. Some people even slept outside. They only have latrines in these types of really rural sites and let me tell you if they are constructed weird (aka might be leaking) such as in one of the sites well then they become very not fun to use. I was very glad to get back to Conce where the bathroom was decent. As for the showers, they are cold, but they feel good. Everyone showered a lot on tech week, yay! When we got back to the city we went out one night with some of the SC volunteers to a salsa club. I had a great time getting to know people so that was chill. Then we headed back on the PC bus. I felt like the ride back took FOREVER but we made it! The Monday after tech week everyone found out their sites. I forgot to mention we had another interview about our site placement over tech week. Anyway, on Monday we had a big BBQ where we found out our sites. The sites were in these red clown noses (like balls) that were stuck cleverly inside a big PC Piñata. We broke open the piñata and everyone grabbed a random ball. We went one by one in the center of the circle to yell out the site of whoever we had in our hands. I actually had my own site! That’s when I found out I would be going to Tarija! I was so excited and it was so much fun. So now I know my site and it’s called La Merced. It’s about an hour an a half outside of the city and VERY close to other volunteers so I am very happy. This past week I have been here in Tarija on my site visit getting to know everything. I have so much to tell about the site visit but I will save it for my next blog and when I get back to Cochabamba. We are leaving tomorrow evening but I will be there in an hour since Tarija people get to FLY (sweet deal) because we are farther away aka Southern Bolivia. What I can say for now is that I had a great site visit and am very excited to start work there in a few weeks!!! Once we get back we swear-in in 2 weeks I just can’t believe it : )