Tech Overnight Trip

Well even though I haven’t had the chance to post my last blog entry until now, I’m going to write another one to describe the trip we just went on.

Split into our project group of Ag Extension/Ag business (Natural Resources and Environmental Ed went somewhere else…it’s sad to be split up from them), we took a 2.5 hour bus ride southeast, through gorgeous scenery, up and down and around mountain cliffs (Don Roque, our bus driver, is THE MAN). We went to a sweet little colonial-style town called Totora, to see a current volunteer (pair actually) and their sauce-making project. Local girls from the town learn about how to transform tomatoes and veggies into a sauce (it’s DELICIOUS), and sell it. So they also learn about hygienic processing of foods and business management. We also did our first session with beekeeping…another chance for me to thank my Cornell education (and my generous padres) that I felt I had a step up with the subject. Not that I by any means know everything or couldn’t use the refresher, but it’s fun to be able to know something already to help me move forward quickly with the topic. It was also a bit more intense working with Africanized bees. That means that they have more aggressive genes, so they respond more to hive disturbance. Forget what you’ve heard about “killer bees” because it’s not like that. You just have to be careful since if one stings you, there is a good chance that more will sting you if you don’t use your smoker device to quell the attack pheremone they release. If you’re dumb, and do something to really make them mad, they will become aggressive and follow you for hundreds of feet, which is a big difference from the gentler European bees in the North.

In that short trip, many of use found we were able to contract some new bacteria in our intestines! Bus ride home was uncomfortable for me, I had a very slight fever last night, but I’ve bounced back today.

Overall my favorite part of the trip was just being able to see more of Bolivia (though on a map it looks like we barely left the city of Cochabamba), see some real life roadblocks on the highway (Don Roque had no trouble getting around them though), and see what life is like in a real volunteer site. Tech week is coming up in a few weeks, I’m going to be really busy until then with my small group, getting our presentation to the community group together, also coming up with and implementing a business idea…So if you don’t get an update, that would be why. Tech week will be like this overnight trip, except we’ll go farther away and do a lot more, since it’s really 10 days!

Funny thing is happening to me...typing well in english is getting HARDER (though speaking is usually ok, though we tend to do a spanglish amongst ourselves if we can´t think of an english word!)