Jinete- Rider (as in of horses, not like my last name)

Buenos Tardes!

Well, I just got back from field-based training and it was pretty awesome! The marketing group (which has 8 members and we just happen to be the coolest, funniest group on the planet) got to go to a couple coffee cooperatives, an organic farm in the side of a volcano, a couple women's groups that grow and sell mushrooms as well as a couple other places to learn about small business here or training opportunities. The organic farm grows strawberries and they let us go into the field and pick all we could eat (actually what he said was more along the lines of "sure, you can have some" but of course the crazy gringos went nuts and probably ate 30 each... how American of us) We also had to give our first solo Spanish presentations (called charlas) which went better than I was expecting. Mine was about record keeping, which seems like the most boring topic of life (and probably is) but was kind of perfect for me cause I love organization. The women in the group also really liked me for some unknown reason considering all I did during my presentation was ask them questions to take the focus off of the fact that I don't speak their language and spell things wrong when they responded but at the end they told our technical trainer that they wanted me to be the next volunteer at their site so I guess not speaking spanish won't hold me back after all! We also went to a training facility called Utz Samaj, which basically helps farmers learn better ways to grow and harvest and is also available for peace corps volunteers. I would really love to be a part of this program but the only problem is that it's only offered in once place so if my site is too far away I won't be able to. Our technical trainer talked with us this week about what are "preferences" are for our permanent sites (we are currently in our training sites and will be leaving them in about a month to go to where we will be for the next two years). We also learned about some of the sites that we could potentially go to, which was super exciting but also quite a tease since we have to wait two more weeks to find out for sure. I am really excited though and can't even believe there's only a month or so left before we swear in! We also went to a small business called Tikonel, which makes wood products as well as some textiles and used to sell to Walmart so that was really cool to see. I bought my madre a wooden napkin holder and a little wooden candle holder, which she loved (although I'm pretty sure she though I was crazy for spending money on a piece of wood to hold napkins) but when I woke up this morning it was on the dining room table full of them so mission accomplished :)

Everything else here is pretty much the same... lots of rain today and supposedly tomorrow as well, which means we are not allowed to go anywhere outside of our towns (which we aren't allowed anyways so its really nothing new for us) but I get to watch "Ben 10" on cartoon network with my brothers (who called me twice while I was away last week to say hi and see how I was doing) so I'm happy with that! I hope everyone at home is doing well and not missing me too much... wishful thinking? Okay, until next time, adios muchachos! (I tried to say "peace out" there but so many American slangs simply do not translate well into Spanish... no dice)