Friday, November 28, 2008


The room you see is half of our room we've stayed in for the past month and Allie gazing out the window. The wind coming through that window was especially necessary after all the vegetables we ate. You can only imagine how terrible Allie's stinkers were!

Hi everyone from Allie and I. Happy belated Thanksgiving! Here we are at the farm in Catemu, Chile saying we're done here and moving on, we'll see what's next! If you want more details, I have written a book below.......


Here are Allison, Andrea and myself eating our last organic lunch together. Yes, plans have changed. Our schedule for the past month has been good and full of structure. We got up at around 7:30 am every morning, would normally eat organic oatmeal and tea. On Mondays and Thursdays we picked straweberries. Of course we would eat the strawberries if part of it was eaten by ants b/c that wouldn't be a good strawberry to sell to the customers. :) We worked until noon, made a big organic lunch, washed dishes and then rested after. The regular wokers only got an hour for lunch, but Andrea was especially generous in allowing us to rest. Our bodies weren't used to the work, so it was good to rest before going back to work between 2:00 and 3:00. We worked in the greenhouse a lot with cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes, and eggplant. We also labeled jars of jelly, tomato sauce and bags of oregano, dried fruits, etc.


Working with Andrea and at her farm was something I would definitely recommend to people who like this type of work. Andrea is humble, smart, and fun to work for. Her farm is amazing. She has so many different types of crops to work with and the bedroom Allie and I stayed in was down to earth and cozy. However, the plans have changed.


There is a song that describes very much what I am going through right now by KT Tunstall called "Through the Dark". She says, "As I walk away, I look over my shoulder to see what I'm leaving behind, pieces of the puzzle and wishes on eyelashes failed, I used to talk with honest conviction of how I predicted my world, I'm going to leave it and stargaze and see what the telescope says, what's in store for me now, it's coming apart." Parts of the song don't describe my experience to the T. For example, I don't feel that I am going through the dark, rather there's a light that's gone off and I have finally reazlized that farming as a career ins't for me. I have learned so much through this experience that I will take with me, but I feel as if a burden has been taken off of my shoulders in regards to thinking I should be a farmer.


So, Allie has decided to come along and we are going apartment and job shopping this weekend in Santiago. I have missed teaching Spanish or rather focusing on learning Spanish. My new goal for the trip is to learn as much Spanish as I can in the time that's left. I am excited to learn the everyday tasks in Spanish, like going to the grocery store, reading the newspaper, going to church services in Spanish, and hopefully finding a job while working with Chileans. We'll see what happens, but as far as the WWOOF program, it has ended until February. In February Allie and I will visit one more farm for a month. Fishing will be invloved and they are completely self sustainable. We are excited for southern Chile in Feb., but until then we will reside in Santiago.





1 comment:

Clara said...

Did you get to eat any organic food down there?

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