Routine

Sometimes it seems that time moves more quickly when I settle into a
routine. The days melt into one another, and time passes while I don't
notice it. We wanted to spend a longer time in one place so we made
plans to stay at Enca Farm for six weeks. Suddenly over two weeks have
passed and we are more than a third through our time here. I wonder if
the rest of our stay will pass just as rapidly.

Each morning we get up at around seven o'clock and get ready for the
day. We only spend around six hours a day working on the farm, but we
work hard during that time. We dig, weed, haul, make compost, plant,
find dead fall for fire wood, or do other tasks. I think that David
finds the work easier than I do, but sometimes that just means that he
does more of it. By the end of the day we are both pretty tired, and
we sleep well at night. We prepare most of our own meals. We walk over
to Olive's house to get ingredients for our meal, then we come back
and cook in our cabin. We have a one-burner propane stove and a clay
stove. The clay stove is a clay stand that holds a pot above a bowl
where you build a small fire. We have been trying to get the hang of
it because it is neat and because firewood is free here (we just have
to collect it from the forest), but propane is expensive. There is a
steep twenty to thirty minute walk from the closest place that it is
possible to drive to, so I also feel bad for the person who has to
haul in a full propane tank, so I don't want to make them do that more
often than necessary. We both enjoy cooking and we have not often been
able to cook on our trip, so we like having the chance to cook. It
lets us eat the foods we prefer (i.e. less meat than locals eat) and
sometimes, when we can find all the ingredients, we can make comfort
foods from home. Cooking three meals a day does, however, take a lot
of energy when we are also working hard on the farm. Sometimes Olive
makes a big pot of something yummy and we share a meal with her. When
she does this we appreciate the break and enjoy the Filipino food. So
far it seems that the favourite foods here are rice, meat, and sweets.
We bought a jar of peanut butter (homemade locally) so sweet that we
think it would be a very sugary icing. By the time that we finish
cooking dinner it is usually dark and we eat by candle light. After
dinner we read for a while using candles for light, then we go to bed
early so we will be ready for the next day's work. Life here quickly
falls in to a quiet, comfortable routine that we are enjoying. Most
Filipinos are Christian, so we get Sundays off each week. This weekend
we will be in Baguio, the nearest city to the farm. We will stay until
Tuesday because we need to extend our visas. On Tuesday we will head
back to the farm and back to our routine.