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But Volker was not alone in feeling this. Pritchard echoes Volker’s thoughts on the training.
“They try and teach you what to expect, but it’s kind of impossible because everyone is going to experience different things,” Pritchard said.
Although most of the Amigos participants found the training somewhat useless, McFall, who went to Honduras, said she doesn’t know what she would have done with out them.
“The meetings were really structured, but if something wasn’t working, then we would try something else. I think that is a good example of the Amigos program over all. Plan out before hand, but be flexible,” Mcfall said.
Each of the seven Amigos knew which project they would be working on. For Volker, Berliner and Sohl, who both went to Honduras, their project was called Healthy Households, a project designed to implement home improvements. It included the construction of latrines, fuel efficient stoves, and grain and water storages.Thorn, who went to Mexico, Pritchard who went to Costa Rica, Vogel who went to Panama,and Mcfall participated in a project called Youth to Youth. They worked on building life and leadership skills for young people through education.
In the spring of last year they learned which country they would be going to. Although not all seven ended up with their first choice, they hold no regrets.
After finding out what country they would be living in for six weeks, the reality of their summer began to unfold before them.
Nervous and ready to go, Volker began to slack in other aspects of his life as he mentally prepared for his trip.
“I stopped caring about school because I had this bigger scope of things. I was like ‘Oh, what’s a math assignment? Not important.’ I felt like it didn’t matter what I did before I left because when I came back I would start a new episode of my life,” Volker said.
On returning Volker realized he is still living the same life as when he left, but with new experiences and a new way of looking at life.
“It’s all just one big life. I realize that now. There is no distinction, just that I want to keep doing things like this. This is my life,” he said.
For Sohl, the weeks before his departure to Honduras became hectic and frenzied.
“My life felt like something was missing. I wasn’t organized about anything. I wasn’t doing anything efficiently, everything felt scrambled,” Sohl said.
From riding on top of buses to listening to music hooked up through an old car battery, or singing karaoke in Spanish, the Amigos lived a life quite different from the American life.
Sohl lived in a small house made of concrete with two rooms. One room served as the living room, the other was the only bedroom of the house with two beds. One of the two interior walls was made of cardboard.
“It was really simplistic. Nothing complex. It was easy to live in after you get over first getting adjusted,” said Sohl
Not only was there a physical difference, Sohl described a completely different vibe.
“The way the people acted, their general presence, you could walk around and feel a much more inviting environment,” Sohl said.
But not everyone who went to Latin America experienced the same level of poverty.
Berliner lived in one of the wealthiest houses in her community. It served not only as her house but also as the town’s store. She had basic appliances like a microwave and refrigerator.
Vogel’s house in Panama was comfortable and described as one of the wealthier houses there. It had a TV and DVD player, something that was a peculiar sight for Volker in Nicaragua who lived in the poorest area of all the amigos from Vashon.
“There were no walls in my community. The houses were usually six wooden pillars with thatched roofs and dirt floors. There was no distinction between inside and outside. We slept in hammocks,” Volker said.
Thorn’s six weeks were spent in Mexico. Although her community was poor, the house that hosted her was one of the nicer ones.
“My partners and I lived in a pretty poor community of about 800 people. My house was pretty nice. There was an upstairs and downstairs. We had beds and running water, but no hot water. The other houses were not quite so nice,” Thorn said.
One thing that they did teach the Amigos in training was to expect reverse culture shock. Which some describe as even harder then adjusting to life in country. While McFall was still in country during debriefing, she was re-introduced to the tourist aspect of the country, witnessing something that was only the beginning of reverse culture shock for her.
“I remember watching this woman buy something from this one lady. She was trying to speak Spanish; it was the stuff that they teach you in little tourist books. She was wearing shorter shorts and a tank top in one of the more conservative parts of Honduras. It was just cultural insensitivity. It made me cry,” McFall said.
Pritchard had a similar experience in the Miami airport on her way home.
“One of the first things I saw was an obese woman screaming at someone on her cell phone. ‘I was like, why am I here?’ Everyone was so calm in Costa Rica; it was hard to come back into the vibe of being stressed out. All these teeny things matter all of a sudden,” said Pritchard.
As Pritchard said, the Amigos had drastically different experiences from each other in their respective countries and communities, but in the end they came out of it with similar accomplishments and one thing in common, a new outlook on the world.

Roller has been doing relay for the past ten years.
“I’ve lost too many friends and family to cancer, ” said Roller, so he decided to take action and help fight the disease.
Now he is taking it a step further. On Saturday, September 20, 2006, Roller participated in yet another Relay for Life, but instead of walking around a track in Bremerton, he joined 10,000 others in a walk around the reflecting pool in Washington D.C. This fund raiser, called Celebration on the Hill, was put on by the ACS’s partnering agency, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), to remind our national leaders of their commitment to fight cancer by supporting the NCI Challenge Goal of “eliminating the suffering and death due to cancer” by the year 2015.Since last spring, Roller has been working as one of the Celebration Ambassadors for the ASC. His job is to make conference calls and send e-mails to congress “letting them know we’re still here,” said Roller.
Two years ago, Roller participated in a smaller version of Celebration on the Hill in Olympia, Washington.
“We got their attention real fast,” said Roller, which brought him high hopes for the fund raiser in D.C.
In addition, Roller cut his ponytail and gave it to Locks of Love, a nonprofit charity devoted to making wigs for people who have lost hair due to a medical condition.
Roller will continue with his job as celebration manager until next spring of 2008. He also plans to keep participating in Relay in the years to come. As for now, Roller is focusing on bringing attention to the NCI National Goal 2015.
“We’re gonna make it unquiet,” said Roller.