Best Tech Week Ever

The AG volunteers had a whirlwind tour of the Santa Cruz department visiting several of our potential sites and sites of current volunteers. The road was bumpy, the road was long; many hours were spent in the bus with the master Don Roque behind the wheel navigating the twists, turns, dips, bumps, debris and the occasional fording of rivers. Over the nine days of travel our group of 15 trainees, 1 current volunteer, 2 trainers and Don Roque (el jefe) expanded as we picked up other volunteers in each of the 4 cities we visited. Bus time was fun but intense. We were loud, messy, tired, antsy, dance-y. Many bathroom breaks were taken on the side of the road and it’s not very often that you get to pee in a ditch in the dark with your teacher as your look out, but in PC it’s just another bonding experience. The views along the way were amazing, traveling through the valleys you are naturally surrounded by mountains and gorgeous views. Everyone was constantly snapping pictures trying to capture the scenery but it just doesn’t do it any justice, but as my friend Pat said, “A picture’s worth a thousand words right, so a thousand pictures, that’s like a billion words.”

We worked with bees…a lot. Hives were inspected, Queen cells and nucleos were made and transplanted, people were stung, honey was harvested and just about every beehive product you can imagine was consumed: honey, nectar, pollen, wax, propolis, royal jelly and bee larva (full of protein but the texture is awful!) We learned some more about product transformation, we made lip balm, wax for candles and beehive panels, a miracle mix of honey, pollen and royal jelly, which is actually really tasty and of course straight up honey. Bee keeping can actually be a profitable venture and it has been one of the most successful projects of Bolivia’s AG program so that’s why we do so much of it. Besides bees we also worked with a women’s group making peach marmalade and I was in a group that gave a charla to them on basic beekeeping. So many charlas were given during tech week that I coined the phrase “charla high” which is the feeling you get after you’ve given a charla because you were able to communicate in Spanish and now it’s over and you don’t have to worry about it any more. You can also get a “charla high” when listening to a charla where the speakers are obviously pouring their heart and souls into the charla and you are so moved by the experience that you just feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Other highlights include the passion fruit ice cream that we had in Villa Esperanza. The second night we were there we were invited (treated) by the site’s volunteer Armando (who hasn’t shaved or cut his hair since he got here almost a year ago and looks like Jesus, Moses or Papa Noel depending on which Bolivian your talking to.) But anyway there’s just something about sitting outside in a light rain under a passion fruit tree eating homemade passion fruit ice cream that made me stop and realize how lucky I am to be here.

Let me wrap this up before I get too sappy. I wanted to be brief but it was a really full 9 days. Our group was extremely lucky not to have anyone get seriously sick aside from the cold that went around from person to person. EE had some car trouble, NR had some altitude sickness and stomach issues and actually came home 2 days early, but AG stayed strong. Maybe it was all those bee products we consumed or maybe it’s because we’re just that awesome. Although I must say that after 13 hours in the bus on the ride home I was ready to be back with the host fam. So that was tech week: travel mosquito tents were assembled, disassembled and assembled again, many carbs, fried eggs and empanadas were eaten, karaoke was finally sung, showers were rarely taken, and I definitely learned a lot about AG and my fellow volunteers. On Monday we find out where our sites will be, we know most of them were decided during tech week based on our interviews and the opinions of our project director and trainers, but we still have to wait for the big reveal. Some people will be happy, others will undoubtedly be disappointed but this experience is what you make of it, your site is what you make of it and every site has the potential to be amazing. I just want to know and go! I was really hoping to upload some pics today but the internet gods were not smiling upon me and it just didn´t work. As a consolation prize check out the blogs of some of my fellow PCVs, 2 out of 3 of them have pics up on their blogs and you might even spot me in a few of them. The links are on the right hand side of the page. Enjoy!