On the Farm

On Friday David and I found our way to the first farm that we will be WWOOFing on. On the way here, overly helpful staff on the bus convinced us to get off a little too early and we ended up walking three or four kilometers with all our stuff to the spot where we needed to catch a sangteuw. We tried to use the handy phrasebook that Calvin & Michelle lent us to explain where we wanted to get off the bus, but no one understood us. Oh well, I guess walking is good for us. Carrying all that stuff should help us to figure out which things are important enough to keep and which we should get rid of.

David and I and another girl who we met in the sangteuw arrived at the farm in the middle of a very messy hectic day. They had rented a machine for one day only to get dried corn off the cobs. We were told that we could relax for the afternoon, but with all the other volunteers working so hard we did not feel that it would be very nice to do that. We pitched in for the last couple hours of the day, and by the time we finished we were filthy and exhausted.

Our meals on the farm are provided. It is very yummy food. It is strange to us that we eat the same kind of foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Every meal is rice and several different vegetable dishes (many of them are quite spicy). We eat with the other volunteers, the owner of the farm, and some of the staff. It is interesting that we never really seem to know what we are eating. The food is very good, but I don't know what it is.

Yesterday after we finished working for the day, we walked into the nearest town Ban Lo Pahan with some of the other volunteers to buy some treats. It is a very small town with only a few shops and restaurants. We cause quite a stir with the locals. They all stop to watch all the foreigners go by. Many of them wave and smile.

Today is our day off. Even though we only worked one and a half days, we both felt quite ready for the break. Working on the farm is very tiring. We sleep very well each night. It is interesting to work with so many different people. Everyone has very different ways of approaching the work. So far we are enjoying our time here, but it is a lot of work. This afternoon we might walk over to a nearby national park where there is a waterfall and hot springs.