Progress

Ah another week has begun and what a glorious week so far.  Sundays are honestly my favorite.  During my WWOOFing experiences I was able to read a prodigious amount of text and being worked from 630 to 4 does not allow such frivolous use of time but Sunday is free and with little to do out in the rainforest, as the bus does not run on Sunday, I curl up with some literature for the whole day and just learn…well and go to the library to use the internet and talk to my dad for the first time.  Breakfast was delicious, this time we had chocolate cake made from bean flour with intermittent coconut flakes.

This week was quiet fun, we got the greenhouse under construction finally.  We are making a timber frame with no nails only wood beams and wood pegs to tie them together.  This is an old style of building much like the original settlers of the united states.  It feels amazing to put my hands to such a delicate yet robust task.  The structure must be nearly perfectly square or the integrity will be severely and direly compromised, the stakes are high indeed.

Friday we made coconut milk which is so easy, simply crack open a coconut-my preferred method is with a machete-chop up the meat before dicing with a food processor with a bit of water then strain the pulp.  The oil is extracted by letting the cream ferment for a few days, this does make the milk sour and a bit unpalatable but the oil is delicious. 

Yesterday was likely my final day lifting stones for the dam at the waterfall, apparently I have piled up too many to continue but that is not my opinion-always bigger, fast and hard.  Its funny that as a kid I would pile stones up to dam up a drainage ditch as a kid and now only the scale has changed.  My habits stay the same before the internet and without access to it.  It is a great time to think and just get lost in the sound and rush of the water.  Nature is so relaxing I understand why I dislike civilization so much; we substitute the natural order for our own ‘better’ interpretation simply because its easy and cheap.  Nothing worth having is easy and cheap, life in the wilderness is harder perhaps but if you enjoy life then how can you not enjoy what it takes to sustain life? 

This week I read a couple books.  Bananas and The Alexander Technique were my reads of choice.  Noam and Anna have a diverse library that I am doing my best to power through before I leave.  The banana is really a symbol of capitalism, I am not sure of the exact toll but honestly I think as many people have suffered in the name of cheap bananas as in the name of God.  The acts United Fruit committed were abominable and it makes me think there can be no moral capitalism.  The alexander technique was developed at the turn of last century as a way to fix chronic physical and mental disorders by simply teaching proper use of our body.  It is at the heart of naturopathic medicine which I think I will pursue.  But allopathic medicine does not take into account habit, seeing every problem as a nail and the only hammer we have are drugs and surgery.  This philosophy cannot possibly cure the diseases of our age, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer-not that obesity is a disease so much as state of being unhealthy.  So whatever you think about the cook medicine the fact is things need to change and focusing on use and habit seems the most proper course.

Soo stoned

Another incredible week at Raices del Sol has transpired and another is in its adolescence.  Last week got a bit heavier on the labor and instruction as the orientation was waning.  Monday honestly cannot remember except the wonderful dinner at the local soda.  First time I have had pork in a while and it was heavenly.  Tuesday was an early riser to catch the bus to Puriscale, the local biggest city, at 530.  Two and a half hours later we arrived had some breakfast and got our errands done early, mainly to buy rubber boots, socks and a notebook.  The rest of the day was spent drinking some very very cheap local rum in the park enjoying the sunshine and the day off.  

Wednesday we cleared a lot of room for the greenhouse that is about to constructed.  Thursday we finally got to go to the river as the truck had been out of commission the day before.  That was something, searching for perfectly round stones or flat ‘tortillas’ to use as path borders.  I lifted as many as I could but the mere two hours we were there beat me into submission. All us internes were sunburned and pooped but after lunch we got to moving all the stones we had collected.  

Friday is always a fun day.  Work in the morning on more path construction but the afternoon we made our first ferment.  First we made some mead, I decided to add a bit of lemon grass and ginger to spice mine up a bit then we made some homemade ginger beer.  The brews should be done sometime this week and I cannot wait.  We used wild yeast aka yeast naturally occurring in the air or on the skin of the ginger.  Ginger beer is started with a bug, simply chop up fine non irradiated ginger, put it in some water and add a few spoonfuls of sugar and check to make sure it bubbles (usually within a day) and add sugar daily for 4 days.  The brew is prepared by simmering chopped ginger in water for half an hour with some added sugar-we used a local unprocessed sugar called tappa dulce-which is cooled to room temperature then the bug is added and stirred in to make ginger beer.  You can wait a week or usually up to a month depending on how much alcohol is desired.  Saturday we started our personal projects: Frankie is painting signs, Caitlin is inoculating an oak log with shitake spores, Katie is making a top bar hive and I am building a dam at the big waterfall to make a deep pool for swimming and hopefully deep enough to jump off the two story cliff.  After deciding our projects I got started with Vince moving stones.  After lunch I came back with Frankie and moved more stones.  The dam is now standing about 2 feet high and about 50 feet wide-I am all stoned out this week.  Sunday we went into town for a soccer game that we didn’t stay for but ate some food, then just went to the bar and drank and played pool all day; a very restful day indeed.  

Monday was pretty sweet as the new saddle arrived and we got to ride Thunder a bit and have some fun with him.  The afternoon we did a bit of designing for the greenhouse and finalized out plans.  We had a talk about consciousness that was fun and provocative but philosophy almost bores me now.  Not that I know all but I have already thought about most of these things and have achieved  a certain understanding, coupled with the knowledge that the universe is ultimately unknowable the deep thought that troubled me in my youth does not phase me.  I suppose I am just bitter from today, I had a talk about being politically correct and sensitive to peoples feelings.  For the other interns consiousness is being aware of all the variables in a situation and our place in these things.  But for me it is the ascention to a higher plane, the filter between reality and the mind that brings true consciousness.  I subscribe to the buddhist philosophy, removal of desire and embrace the void which makes all the feelings that get hurt nothing major, eh but karma and all that but i degress.

The rain is brutal, it rains and rains.  My sleep cycle is in tune with the daylight, bedtime is rarely past 9.  The work is taking its toll on my body but I am sure I will be built back up even stronger.  I am reading alot of cool books and my mind is racing.  This internship is just what i needed to reboot after college, I even found a new direction that may be my true calling, naturopathic medecine.  Till next time dont do anything i wouldnt do