It has seriously been one exciting week living the farm life. before i get into the life changing experiences, ill describe the place and outline an average day. its huge. theres the main house, two guest huts, a perfect swimming hole, paths through the surrounding jungle, the food garden right out front, a couple orchards, and acres and acres of bamboo that they use for building. (some of us (not me)) wake up at 7ish to feed the chickens and horses. breakfast at 8 30 (when i get up). hang around and/or work until lunch around 1 30, hang around and/or work until dinner at 7. hang out till bedtime. Usually after dinner we're just sitting around talking since there isn't light for much else. all we have are just little oil lamps, which kinda makes you realize how altered life is in the city with lights on everywhere 24/7. no need to get up with the sun to make the most of the daylight. the food has been exceptional. All veggies and herbs and much of the fruit is fresh from the gardens. examples of past meals: pizza w/ fresh toppings, falafel and pita bread, fresh baked fish, quiches w/ fresh veggies, stir fry. and desserts: cinnamon rolls, rice pudding, meringues, papaya smoothie. the wife in the couple that runs the farm went to culinary school and a dutch volunteer is an amazing cook so we're in good hands haha. thus far i have contributed a coffeecake that everyone proclaimed the best ever (it was bomb), and a set of rolls that im gonna assume everyone liked due to the non-stop manner in which they were inhaled. so yeah all said we're eating ok. the work ive been doing has mostly been on a new palapa (thatch-roofed hut) that is being built, although i did some weeding one day. the main posts and roof were already in place when i got here, but we've put in an entire wood floor since and it looks great. in other news i haven't had a shower in 7 days. haha it isn't actually that bad, we wash up in the swimming hole (pictured below) every day, arguably much better than a shower. That sounds a little weird, its not like we're all going to bathe together. whatever.
I've also had to deal with a new devil of the insect family since arriving, the fire ant. they performed a full on infestation of my bag and clothing and anything edible forgotten about in the mix. normal ants would have been a nuisance to deal with, but these guys bite like nobody's business, boosting the rating up to royal pain in the ass. i have a new found respect for the name of my old soccer team that at the time we all saw as a good joke. who in their right mind would be scared of a fire ant right? WRONG.
and now for the stories for the ages:
#1. Gus Becomes a Man
I can proudly report that i have killed, plucked, gutted, and prepared a chicken. when i first got here, one of the volunteers, an irish guy (there are 4 volunteers - the dutch girl, irish guy, a californian guy, and me, and then the couple from florida that owns and runs it.), was talking about killing a chicken for dinner and how i should do it, that it was a great experience. i agreed with him on the experience front. although i hadn't ever killed anything outside of the insect family as far as i can remember, killing animals has been a huge source of food for as long as humans have existed, and it seems a little sheltered to have lived this long and never killed something for its meat, or even seen anything killed for its meat for that matter. so i did really want to do it, but it was thrust upon me so suddenly that i froze up and didn't commit for sure. so he ended up doing that one and i watched to see how. and then i got my chance a few days later. it wasn't quite as bad as i thought it'd be. you kinda just get into the mind set and let loose haha. their stupidity also eases the guilt of it. i won't go into any of the details since there may be some unsteady stomachs out there in reader-land, but if you want to know more you can ask in person and ill be happy to share. i will say that the one thing that really caught me off guard was how chickeny it smelled right after i killed it. that and the poop that came out when we cut it open. i never remembered any uncooked chicken ive been around smelling of much of anything though. i didn't really have any eye-opening revelations after it was all said and done, but i am glad i did it. its good to know what your food goes through before it ends up in the grocery store.
#2. Gus Fulfills One of Every Cool Kid's Childhood Dreams
Location: Belize Zoo. Time: 2:o0. Dominant Emotion: elation
I have been in the zoo for 2 hours and i've seen almost all of the exhibits. its a very good zoo, nothing like the horror images that come to mind with the mention of third world zoos. big cages, lots of natural habitat-its basically in the forest- and most of the animals that can be found in the region. the stand outs were the kinkajous, nocturnal otter-shaped mammals that live in the trees, a river otter that came right up the the fence, the crocs and watching them get fed, a huge beautiful jaguar, an ocelot, a giant stork with a huge three foot long beak that almost pecked me through the fence, and two ENORMOUS harpy's eagles. we're talkin like 5 ft tall w/ an 8 foot wingspan and 3 inch talons. this thing was intimidating. and it would just stare at me and squawk a lot. crazy. But thats just what was at the zoo, its not even the story! the real story is this: as i was wandering around, i all of a sudden hear a group of people, most distinctly a woman, shouting very loudly and excitedly. My first thought was its some dumb tourist who just saw something new and got really pumped about it. but then i figured maybe its actually something interesting, so i followed my ears back to the jaguar cage. as it turned out it was a few zoo trainers making all of this noise. when i realized who it was, i made the logical jump that i might get to see them go into the cage, which i was more than happy to get to see. so i start talking to them, and just as they're heading off to do exactly as i hoped, the woman in charge suddenly turns around and says to me, "ya know, you have short enough hair, and he doesn't know your smell...would you want to come in with us?" i responded, playing it cool as usual, "yeah, sure, of course! Will it eat me?" one trainer went and got the jaguar, named junior buddy, into a separate cage, and the 4 of us entered the main cage and then got into another very small one in the center of the main one and locked ourselves in. it was just 4 walls and a roof of very sturdy grating, with just enough space for us four and a small tub of jaguar treats. Once we're all inside, the woman shouts out, "okay Mr. B, we're ready!" And mr B pulls away the door of the third cage, and out comes Junior Buddy, 6 feet of pure jaguar. As it turns out, he was born in the zoo and therefore will never be released, so they are trying to train him. The woman calls him over, and over he comes, right up to the cage. He promptly starts nudging it with his face just like a cat would, and rubbing his body against the wire. the woman tells us, "Go on and pet him, he loves it!" and so there i am, petting this huge, unbelievably beautiful jaguar head, and then its back, and its fur is so soft, and I'm practically floating. And then all of a sudden it jumps up onto the roof of the cage we're in. Looking up at him makes him seem even more formidable, with the teeth and muscles on full display. But the woman, shouting her praise at him for doing an "alley-up," tells me to put my forehead up to the ceiling. I might have paused to consider what she was saying for a second, i don't really remember, but next thing i know my forehead is up to the wire and Junior Buddy is licking me for all he's worth with a tongue like the roughest sandpaper in existence. i just couldn't stop laughing at the absurdity of the whole situation, getting licked by a jaguar! It was during this that she explained the importance of short hair, that if its long enough to bite he could rip your scalp off. and looking up at his fangs as hes licking away, i could believe it. That was the climax of the experience, but we went on to get him to do somersaults (which we had to clap and praise him enthusiastically for) and i got to feed him one of his treats-a chicken foot. And thus ends story number two, of how i got a face-full of jaguar kisses. How damn cool is that?
live update: i just tried a fruit called nomi that smells and tastes exactly like very smelly cheese.
as of today i have ten days left and have been gone exactly half a year, 182.5 days. pretty incredible, its all gone by so fast. thinking back, it seems like ive done so much i just kinda get lost in the jumble of memories. My thoughts lately have been pretty dominated by the aspect of returning home. earlier in my trip my homecoming was like this big shining beacon, something i was super excited for and fantasized about a bit(huge party waiting for me, etc etc). Now that its actually about to happen its lost a bit of its glamour. You know how things you can't have always seem so much more exciting and you want them just because you cant have them. But I think im ready to go home. Its been a long trip and im ready to see all my friends again and get to immerse myself in the comforts of the house. my own room and bathroom and home cooked meals, although the latter isn't such an issue currently. But yeah, the timing is good. I've done a ton of amazing things, learned a lot, met crazy people, and i think im really ready to get back home.
And now its dinner time. But I'll see you all sooner than anyone can imagine.
gus
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