Farming Week 2

A Quick Summary

This week, I continued volunteering on the same farm I was on last week, alternating days working and days off. On Thursday, I said a sad goodbye to Mónica and her family before leaving the farm to go to Tena, which is right on the edge of the Amazon Rainforest. I'll be doing a few days of solo travelling in Tena before Cam and David come to meet up with me.

Only Ecuador 

Highs and Lows

Canyoning

On one of my days off, I took a tour to go canyoning! This was a super fun day of rappelling, cliff jumping, swimming, and hiking down the waterfalls of a deep canyon. If you look closely in some of the photos, you can see the Ecudaorian army in the background. One of their units was in the same canyon doing training, so it was super fun having the energy of 40 guys all loudly cheering us on as we jumped and rappelled down with them.

At one point, I slipped off the wall when I was rapelling. Since my hands were on the rope, I swung straight into the rock groin-first! At the time, I barely felt it since I had a lot of adrenaline, but that happened last Saturday and it still kind of hurts as I'm writing this today (Friday). Hopefully it gets better soon. 

Time at the house

This week, I've really enjoyed some of the down time I've had around the house. I've been able to spend a lot of time reflecting and relaxing in the garden in the hammock.

I also got the chance to teach their 9 year old daughter Emily a bunch of card games and magic tricks, and just generally hang out with her when her parents were busy. It was a lot of fun spending time with her and practicing my spanish as well. 

Poor Emily about to get destroyed

Broken water

Since the farm is up on a mountain, all of the water gets pumped up the hill from the main town. This week, the pump broke which meant that we had zero water to use. We drove to town to fill a barrel of water, but it ended up being not good water; two of the volunteers were throwing up the next day and the rest of us felt pretty off. Thankfully it passed quickly and the pump got fixed after a few days but it definitely made me thankful for the clean running water we have in Canada!

Food Review

Babaco Pie: 9.5/10

One evening, all the other volunteers went out to a fiesta (party) and the parents also left to go into town, so I was just home by myself with Emily. We decided to have our own fiesta at home, and bake a pie together! Emily had learned how to make pie from another volunteer, so she taught me how to make the crust and the filling and we put it in the oven. 

Unfortunately for Emily (and the pie), her mom came home early and got mad at her for not cleaning her room before our pie party. Emily had to go clean her room and we forgot about the pie in the oven so it got a little burnt, but it still tasted really good! 

Reflections

This week, I've spent a lot of time on the hammock reflecting on things, so this one is a little longer. Buckle up!

On solo travelling:

To be honest, I wasn't expecting to enjoy solo travelling that much, and the first few days in Quito went exactly how I expected. Going to the equator was cool, but after taking my photos I was left feeling like "is this it?" However, once I got more used to it, I really started to enjoy travelling alone. In particular, I loved having the freedom to just listen to my body and do the things I had energy for. One day, I spent almost the entire day lying in the hammock. On a different day, I woke up with so much energy that I decided to go into town and join the canyoning tour 10 minutes before it was leaving! I definitely enjoyed solo travelling more than I thought I would, but I'm also really excited to be back with Cam and David soon!

On alone time:

I've always really enjoyed alone time, but I've never really known why. When I'm working or in school, I'd often go on walks to pray and just be alone in my thoughts for a bit. When I was on the farm this week, I found myself still really wanting to spend time alone, even though my normal reasons of wanting to "clear my head", "get some fresh air", or "take a break from all the people" didn't really apply. It's hard to describe, but I'm currently reading Tyler Staton's book on prayer, and he put it better than I could have.

"In spite of everything, I still prefer God's presence to anything else. It's not the gritting your teeth, ‘come on God, you owe me this’ kind of prayer. It's being present to the One who chose me first and chooses me again today. It's the joy of my life.”

 - Tyler Staton, Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools

On community:

I've felt lonely during lots of moments on the trip, but being by myself the last couple weeks were definitely the toughest. It can be a bit of a downward spiral; when I'm feeling down, I don't have the energy to go out and meet people. However, since I'm by myself, that is my only option for being with others. Community is very important to me, and travelling definitely takes part of it away temporarily. This is okay for a bit, but I don't think this lifestyle would be sustainable for me long term! It has also made me really grateful to have a supportive community back home who is following along with my trip (that's you!). I'm lucky to have a place and people that I'm looking forward to going back to after, and knowing that this feeling of being disconnected is only temporary. 

On volunteering:

It is hard to compare the volunteering experience to the rest of the trip since they are SO different. In one sense, it feels a bit weird to come all this way just to work for free and see less sights. Yet at the same time, it was a rich and full experience getting to know a local family and their way of life. After a month and a half of packing in tons of different sights, slowing down a little was exactly what I needed. It was also a reminder that this trip doesn't have to be about fitting in as many experiences as possible, and instead taking time to enjoy the sights we see and the people we meet. I read this book last year which I think sums it up perfectly and is something I'm constantly reminding myself of on this trip. 

"Once you truly understand that you're guaranteed to miss out on almost every experience the world has to offer, the fact that there are so many you still haven't experienced stops feeling like a problem. Instead, you get to focus on fully enjoying the tiny slice of experiences you actually do have time for - and the freer you are to choose, in each moment, what counts the most."

 - Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks

Phew! That's all for this week. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. 

Extra Photos

Rainbow at the farm

Fancy snow cone treat with concentrated milk 

Fun little story: when I showed this picture to Emily, she tried to tell me this joke while laughing uncontrollably at how funny she was.

¿Cómo se llama una vaca con los ojos cerrados?

¡leche concentrada!

What do you call a cow with closed eyes?

Concentrated milk!

Not the best photo, but there are monkeys in the trees in Tena!

A frightening welcome to my hostel

The hostel also has banana trees!