Tech Week is the culmination of 5 weeks of training, classes, and lectures and the first real chance for all us trainees to get a real idea of what it means to be a volunteer in a real community.  While training and lectures gives us an idea of what certain activities involve, we never have the chance to see it put into action let alone actually co facilitate any of these activities.  

In groups of 6-7 trainees, we all went to visit a successful volunteer in their site where they had already created a number of opportunities to use a variety of tools to practice as well as finding a host family in their community with an open room and willing to host 1-2 gringos (rare).  I had the fortune to visit a volunteer named Chris in the mountainous community called Pacayas.  We were told to pack colder weather cloths and lots of rain gear as we were beginning to get into the rainy season.  The town is absolutely beautiful.  Situated in the mountains in the region of Cartago near two volcanoes and just hills and mountains every direction you look.  I really wish my camera could capture the location but nothing compares to actually being here and seeing it in person.  By Peace Corps standards, Pacayas is huge; over 3000 people and very well developed which means while it has lots of amenities that other smaller sites lack, a lot of the town is developed has access to opportunities more rural sites do not making it harder to implement projects in the community.  However, Chris has been successful by finding the things community members really do need and working with businesses that are struggling to compete with more national brands.  He works heavily in the colegio which is an absolutely huge technical high school with specialties in agriculture, farming, tourism, hotel management and ecological studies.  Through his work here, he was successfully able to integrate himself into the lives of community members and slowly build a raport among businesses and youth within Pacayas.

The seven trainees that visit Pacayas were able to see firsthand how a well integrated volunteer is more visible and accepted in a community and why integration is so important.  Among the activities we had the opportunity of completing was a SWOT(FODA in Spanish) analysis of different businesses, DiCE analysis of businesses, teaching a computer class to older adults, and teaching an English class in the colegio (probably the toughest activity for me).  Obviously, all the activities were hard to facilitate because it was our first time doing so, it was an amazing experience and opportunity to put into practice all the words we learned in class.

The majority of my pictures are of the landscape as I wasn't able to take pictures while facilitating lessons but the landscape is more impressive regardless.  Enjoy.