FBT: Field Base Training

Field Base Training (FBT) was one week in the Andes Mountains in northern Peru in a department called Cajamarca. We travelled 23 hours to get there! Above, the red arrow is where I have been training for the past 2 months, and the yellow arrow is where we went for FBT. Basically, FBT gives us trainees an idea of what life is like serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer. It was a challenging week, but by far the most exciting week yet! We stayed in a beautiful town of about 17,000 ppl, where a current Peace Corps Volunteer resides. Here is a pic of San Miguel, Cajamarca:

I LOVE THIS TOWN! Believe it or not, me and two of my other classmates taught business to 24 college students! Each day of the 3 class days, we taught for 6 hours in Spanish the themes of:
-Entrepreneurship/ What is an Entrepreneur?
-Feasibility
-Market Analysis
-Finance
-Accounting
-Marketing
My amazing co-professors and I in being silly in San Miguel, and here I am teaching class:

The fourth day, we had the students actually apply what they learned and start a small business. We split our class into four groups of 6 students each, and gave them each a loan of up to $30 in which they had a day to pursue their business and repay the loan to us with 2% interest. I remember doubting one group who wanted to do a free movie showing in which they would sell their products. I thought it was a great idea, but their break-even point of sales was over 300 popcorn/tomales/and juices! I was sure they were absurd to think this could be reached on a Wednesday night, but sure enough:

300 ppl showed up to watch Titanic and our business group easily surpassed their break-even point, and ended the night with huge profits! It blew my mind, watching the movie was the biggest high I have felt since I have joined the Peace Corps. It was so rewarding! I hope that these kids can continue to apply their abilities and make this a sustainable business. 17,000 ppl in a town with no movie theatre and 6 months of rainy season = great market! I am so proud of them! We also had 2 teams make typical Peruvian dishes (of course including Ginnea Pig!) and 1 team make Popsicles, which we were lucky enough to spend a couple hours with them actually making the popsicles from scratch!

In San Miguel, there were 3 teams of 3 peace corps trainees/professors teaching 25 students. In total there were 13 small businesses who were all able to pay back their loan, and on top of that, made earnings totalling 750 Soles (about $250, which is so much money here!) At the end each student received a certificate which stated that they were trained in business by American Gov’t –or of some sorts J Here is my fellow professors, Salvador, James and I with our class:

Yay we survived FBT and it was a success!

The last night in San Miguel, our students threw us a dancing party! We had a campfire and danced all night! Sure am gonna miss those kids…

Unfortnaltly my biggest high was shortly followed by my biggest low—I finally got sick. Friday morning I woke up vomiting and #2-ing like crazy…the worst part was we had 6 hours of mountain bus travelling! At one point I even told a taxi driver to pull over and got out of the car to vomit in front of everyone! In a different bus I was used as a baby diaper changing table for the Peruvian mother next to me. I soon explained to the woman that if she didn’t get her child off my lap I would probably vomit on it. When this lady finally got off the bus, another woman walked one with a baby pig in a plastic bag! I just wanted the day to end.

Fortunatly, sickness is only temporary. By the end of the day in hell, I was starting to feel better. We met up with the other 9 business volunteers in Trujillo (refer to map above) and got to spend a day and a half relaxing at the beach! The boys went surfing, while the 4 of us girls watched and chilled out. It was a great way to finish the trip.

Peruvian kayaks:
(This will probably be the closest I get to white-water playboating!)