A couple of days ago, we found out that due to miscommunication or poor organisation we needed to redo two days worth of hard work. We had moved several tonnes of compost materials by hand in a combination that would not result in compost and it all needed to be moved into proper compost piles with an appropriate mix of ingredients. All of the volunteers took this information very hard. Everyone was very down and grumbly on Thursday. Many people made plans to leave. On Thursday there were eleven volunteers on the farm; today (Saturday) there are only three. We are nearly done reorganizing the compost. It will probably be one more day of work. It will be nice to move on to something different.
Yesterday the owner of the farm took us all to a nearby village's Friday market (possibly as a way of apologising for the mix-up). The market was a short walk from the Burmese border. Many different ethnic groups come together at this market. It was a lot of fun. We ate some very yummy noodles and bought some goodies. We got a kilogram of mandarins for the equivalent of 50 cents Canadian. We would have liked to see more traditional crafts for sale. Many of the people at the market were dressed in traditional costumes, so that was neat to see.
We are both well. We are looking forward to relaxing tomorrow on our day off. We bought ingredients to make a nice breakfast. The owner of the farm is currently making bread so we can have toast with our breakfast. The kitchen is smelling great. Good bread is pretty hard to find in Asia (at least in the parts of it that we have seen so far).
HI you Two,
ReplyDeleteTony here. These posts are just great to read; it sounds like a real adventure, and a lot of hard work too.
We miss you both and will be thinking about you this Christmas. This will be our first holidays without you - not to make you homesick or anything! Julie has been feeling nostalgic about Christmases with David through the years, and I know she will be thinking of him.
Its good to hear you two sound happy or at least satisfied with what you've taken on, even if a few days are spent on a make work project. Ah, manual labour... Dr. Handy at the U of S History department told us in our class about British Colonialism in India that Gandhi's answer to the 'evils' of modernity was for people to perform at least four hours of physical work a day, especially if it was in the service of someone else. Gandhi preferred spinning cotton in prison. You two, it seems, prefer shovelling other people's shite on a farm in south east Asia. Different strokes, I suppose.
All our best and love too!
Tony + Julie = Liam